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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
2001. - 2010.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2006. - 2008.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4515 mm
1825 mm
1370 mm
135 liters
321 liters
75 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4535 mm
1815 mm
1298 mm
235 liters
339 liters
80 liters
2001 Lexus SC
2006 Mercedes Benz SL

Engine

Petrol
8 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
4293 cc
285 hp
417 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Mercedes Benz
3.5 M272 E35
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
3498 cc
272 hp
350 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 5 gears
1740 kg
6.4 s
250 km/h
17.2 l/100km
9.0 l/100km
12.0 l/100km
287 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 7 gears
1725 kg
6.6 s
250 km/h
14.8 l/100km
7.7 l/100km
10.3 l/100km
246 g/km

Expenses

11000 EUR
Price from
20000 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

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 sports car segment and utilize the same 2-door cabriolet body style and the rear wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Toyota-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 8-cylinder, 32-valves 285hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 272hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

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 sports 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, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Japanese car offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Lexus as a brand displays somewhat better results, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Lexus with an average rating of 5.0, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.4 out of 5. Unfortunatelly, I don't have enough insight that would allow me to comment in more details on the specific models level. Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the Japanese car rank it on average as 5.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

Lexus is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.2 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 250 kilometers per hour, exactly the same as the other car does. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the German car, averaging around 10.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (27 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 17% difference compared to the Japanese car.


Verdict

Lexus 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 Japanese car offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. It all continues in the same direction, with Lexus offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. 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 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. 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.

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