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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
2011. - 2014.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2010. - 2013.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4851 mm
1860 mm
1493 mm
480 liters
480 liters
70 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4899 mm
1860 mm
1464 mm
520 liters
520 liters
70 liters
2011 Volvo S80
2010 BMW 5 Series

Engine

Diesel
5 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Turbo
2400 cc
215 hp
420 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Diesel
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Bi-Turbo
1995 cc
218 hp
450 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1529 kg
7.6 s
230 km/h
5.6 l/100km
4.0 l/100km
4.6 l/100km
120 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 6 gears
1620 kg
7.0 s
243 km/h
6.2 l/100km
4.3 l/100km
5.0 l/100km
132 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 6 gears
1548 kg
8.4 s
225 km/h
8.4 l/100km
4.7 l/100km
6.1 l/100km
159 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 8 gears
1625 kg
7.0 s
239 km/h
5.6 l/100km
4.3 l/100km
4.8 l/100km
126 g/km

Expenses

11300 EUR
Price from
5700 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by diesel engines and utilizing the 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Luxury car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Volvo and rear in the case of the BMW). The first one has a Volvo-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 5-cylinder, 20-valves 215hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 218hp engine designed by BMW.

Safety

The fact that the BMW got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, puts it sky-high safety-wise, in my eyes at least. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the luxury car segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the German car offers a marginal difference of 6% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Volvo does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Volvo with an average rating of 4.6, and models under the BMW badge with 4.2 out of 5. Independent research findings rank S80 as average reliability-wise, and 5 Series is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the Swedish car rank it on average as 3.4, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.2 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.6 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 243 kilometers per hour, 13km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, averaging around 4.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (59 mpg), in combined cycle.


Verdict

Volvo appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the German car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. It all continues in the same direction, with BMW offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but BMW. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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