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 coupe body style within the same 'Sports car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Porsche and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a Porsche-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 350hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 8-cylinder, 32-valves 571hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, SLS offers a considerable difference of 10% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Mercedes Benz does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Porsche with an average rating of 3.9, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.3 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed 911 as average reliability-wise, and SLS is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as 911 rank it on average as 3.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 5.0 out of 5.

Mercedes Benz is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 317 kilometers per hour, 32km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be 911, averaging around 9.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (30 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 42% difference compared to SLS!

Mercedes Benz is apparently more reliable, not too much, but just enough. 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, SLS offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Mercedes Benz outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Mercedes Benz. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. 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™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.