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

compare selected cars
2007. - 2010.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
4 x 4
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2006. - 2010.
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
4836 mm
1792 mm
1448 mm
500 liters
500 liters
75 liters
2007 BMW 5 Series
2006 SAAB 9-5

Engine

Petrol
6 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
2996 cc
272 hp
315 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Turbo
2290 cc
260 hp
370 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1610 kg
6.5 s
250 km/h
11.5 l/100km
6.2 l/100km
8.2 l/100km
194 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1495 kg
6.9 s
250 km/h
12.8 l/100km
6.4 l/100km
8.8 l/100km
209 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 6 gears
1630 kg
6.8 s
250 km/h
11.6 l/100km
6.0 l/100km
8.1 l/100km
193 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 5 gears
1530 kg
8.2 s
250 km/h
14.8 l/100km
6.8 l/100km
9.8 l/100km
232 g/km

Expenses

5500 EUR
Price from
3000 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 (4 x 4 for the BMW and front in the case of the SAAB). The first one has a BMW-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 272hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 260hp engine designed by SAAB.

Safety

The first thing to look into here would be the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests performed on the two cars. Good thing is that both vehicles got tested, with the SAAB being a slightly better choice apparently. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the luxury car segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a marginal difference of 8% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that SAAB does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the SAAB badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place 5 Series as average reliability-wise, and 9-5 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 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.4 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 250 kilometers per hour, exactly the same as the other car does. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the German car, averaging around 8.2 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (34 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 7% difference compared to the Swedish car.


Verdict

SAAB 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 Swedish car 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! I believe that, when we take all into account, we have only one winner here - the 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. 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, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.

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