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 2-door coupe body style within the same 'Large family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Peugeot and rear in the case of the BMW). The first one has a Peugeot-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 158hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 170hp engine designed by BMW.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the BMW being a slightly better choice apparently. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the large family car segment, which is generally a 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 French car offers a marginal difference of 4% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Peugeot as a brand displays somewhat better results, when all the models are taken into account. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Peugeot with an average rating of 4.3, and models under the BMW badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place 406 as average reliability-wise, and 3 Series is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the French car rank it on average as 4.3, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.4 out of 5.

BMW is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.3 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 226 kilometers per hour, 8km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 8.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (32 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 28% difference compared to the French car!

Peugeot 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 slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. It all continues in the same direction, with BMW outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. 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. 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™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.