Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by diesel engines and utilizing the 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Luxury car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Lancia and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a FIAT-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 5-cylinder, 10-valves 150hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 224hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

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. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. 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. Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the Italian car offers a marginal difference of 3% 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. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Lancia with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.4 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Thesis as average reliability-wise, and CLS is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Italian car rank it on average as 3.3, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.5 out of 5.

Mercedes Benz is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 246 kilometers per hour, 40km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, averaging around 7.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (36 mpg), in combined cycle.

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, the Italian car offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. From there things take a different direction, with Mercedes Benz 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 Mercedes Benz. 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. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.