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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
6 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
2497 cc
174 hp
230 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Mercedes Benz
3.0 M272 KE30
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
2996 cc
231 hp
300 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1245 kg
7.1 s
229 km/h
11.8 l/100km
6.1 l/100km
8.2 l/100km
197 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 6 gears
1605 kg
7.7 s
250 km/h
13.8 l/100km
7.0 l/100km
9.5 l/100km
227 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 6 gears
1275 kg
7.7 s
225 km/h
12.0 l/100km
6.3 l/100km
8.4 l/100km
202 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 7 gears
1625 kg
7.8 s
245 km/h
13.3 l/100km
7.0 l/100km
9.3 l/100km
222 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 6-cylinder, 24-valves 174hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 231hp 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, 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, CLK offers a considerable difference of 29% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, 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. The same official information place Z4 as average reliability-wise, and CLK is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as BMW Z4 rank it on average as 3.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.0 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.6 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 229 kilometers per hour, 21km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be BMW Z4, averaging around 8.2 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (34 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 16% 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 significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. 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. 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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