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Compare any two cars and get our Virtual Adviser™ opinion

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

compare selected cars
2003. - 2007.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
rear
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2004. - 2007.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4841 mm
1846 mm
1468 mm
520 liters
520 liters
70 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4720 mm
1800 mm
1416 mm
490 liters
490 liters
72 liters
2003 BMW 5 Series
2004 Alfa Romeo 166

Engine

Petrol
6 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
2497 cc
218 hp
250 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Alfa Romeo
2.5 Busso V6
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
2492 cc
188 hp
221 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1450 kg
7.5 s
245 km/h
12.4 l/100km
6.5 l/100km
8.7 l/100km
210 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 6 gears
1465 kg
8.4 s
225 km/h
17.2 l/100km
8.8 l/100km
11.9 l/100km
284 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 6 gears
1470 kg
7.9 s
242 km/h
13.5 l/100km
7.0 l/100km
9.4 l/100km
227 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km

Expenses

3000 EUR
Price from
2500 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 petrol 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 (rear for the BMW and front in the case of the Alfa Romeo). The first one has a BMW-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 218hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 188hp engine designed by Alfa Romeo.

Safety

The fact that the BMW got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, offers a slight advantage, as the 4-star rating is better than none. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. 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, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Italian car offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that BMW does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW, as well as Alfa Romeo, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. Independent research findings rank 5 Series as average reliability-wise, and 166 is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the German car rank it on average as 3.8, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.0 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.9 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 245 kilometers per hour, 20km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 8.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (32 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 37% difference compared to the Italian car!


Verdict

BMW 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 offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same 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. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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