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 luxury car segment and utilize the same 4-door sedan body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Chrysler-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 193hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 215hp engine designed by Alfa Romeo.

Safety

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 luxury car segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the Italian car offers a marginal difference of 5% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Lancia as a brand displays somewhat better results, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Chrysler with an average rating of 4.4, and models under the Lancia badge with 4.3 out of 5. Independent research findings rank 300C as average reliability-wise, and Thesis is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the American car rank it on average as 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

Lancia is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.9 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 234 kilometers per hour, 25km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the American car, averaging around 10.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (26 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 26% difference compared to the Italian car!

Verdict

Lancia 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 Italian car offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. It all continues in the same direction, with Lancia 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... It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Chrysler. 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. 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.