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

compare selected cars
2006. - 2009.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2005. - 2009.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4091 mm
1781 mm
1299 mm
240 liters
260 liters
55 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4652 mm
1740 mm
1415 mm
276 liters
390 liters
62 liters
2006 BMW Z4 Roadster
2005 Mercedes Benz CLK Cabriolet

Engine

Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1995 cc
150 hp
200 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Mercedes Benz
1.8 M271 E18 ML R4
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Compress.
1796 cc
163 hp
240 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1195 kg
8.2 s
220 km/h
10.8 l/100km
5.6 l/100km
7.5 l/100km
181 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 6 gears
1565 kg
9.8 s
225 km/h
12.2 l/100km
6.5 l/100km
8.6 l/100km
205 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 5 gears
1585 kg
10.5 s
223 km/h
12.6 l/100km
6.5 l/100km
8.7 l/100km
207 g/km

Expenses

8800 EUR
Price from
4500 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the sports car segment and utilize the same 2-door cabriolet body style and the rear wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a BMW-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 150hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 163hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

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. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the sports 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, CLK offers a potentially life-saving difference of 31% more metal.

Reliability

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, at least on all of the models level. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.4 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Z4 as average reliability-wise, and CLK is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as BMW Z4 rank it on average as 4.3, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.7 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.6 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 220 kilometers per hour, 5km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be BMW Z4, averaging around 7.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (38 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 15% difference compared to CLK.


Verdict

Mercedes Benz 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, BMW Z4 offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. It all continues in the same direction, with BMW being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. 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.

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