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Dimensons & Outlines
Engine
3.0 M272 KE30
Performance (manual gearbox)
Performance (automatic gearbox)
Expenses
Virtual Adviser's™ opinion
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 5-door MPV body style within the same 'MPV' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Seat and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 8-valves 102hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 231hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.
SafetyThe fact that the Seat got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, puts it sky-high safety-wise, in my eyes at least. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the mpv segment, which is generally a good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a self-explainatory difference of 57% more metal.
ReliabilityI don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Seat does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Seat, as well as Mercedes Benz, with the same average rating of 4.4 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Altea as average reliability-wise, and R is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Spanish car rank it on average as 3.7, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.0 out of 5.
Performance & Fuel economyMercedes Benz is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 222 kilometers per hour, 41km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Spanish car, averaging around 7.6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (37 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 43% difference compared to the German car!
Verdict
Seat 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 Spanish car offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. From there things take a different direction, with Mercedes Benz 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... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Seat. 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 more than 12.000 different ones in our database.