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Engine
2.0 Z20LER
Performance (manual gearbox)
Performance (automatic gearbox)
Expenses
Virtual Adviser's™ opinion
Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 2-door cabriolet body style within the same 'Small family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (rear for the BMW and front in the case of the Opel). The first one has a BMW-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 170hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 200hp engine designed by Opel.
SafetyA starting point here would be to take a look at the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests which were performed on both of the cars, with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, Astra offers a marginal difference of 7% more metal.
ReliabilityI don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Opel does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW, as well as Opel, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed 1 Series as average reliability-wise, and Astra is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as 1 Series rank it on average as 4.3 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.
Performance & Fuel economyBMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.5 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 220 kilometers per hour, 17km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be 1 Series, averaging around 6.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (42 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 40% difference compared to Astra!
Verdict
Opel 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, Astra offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. From there things take a different direction, with BMW offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but BMW. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.