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 hatchback body style within the same 'Small family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Lancia and rear in the case of the BMW). The first one has a Alfa Romeo-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 200hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 170hp engine designed by Peugeot.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the small family 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. Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the Italian car offers a considerable difference of 11% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Lancia does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Lancia with an average rating of 4.3, and models under the BMW badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place Delta as average reliability-wise, and 1 Series 14% below the first one. That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Italian car rank it on average as 3.4, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.0 out of 5.

Both of the cars accelerate exactly the same, so we couldn't put one above the other. Car No. 1 reaches top speed of 225 kilometers per hour, 5km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 5.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (50 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 37% difference compared to the Italian car!

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 significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Lancia offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the 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.