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 wagon body style within the same 'Large family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Mercedes Benz and front in the case of the SAAB). The first one has a Mercedes Benz-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 18-valves 218hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 250hp engine designed by Opel.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the SAAB being a slightly better choice apparently. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. 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, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the German car offers a considerable difference of 11% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that SAAB does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Mercedes Benz with an average rating of 4.3, and models under the SAAB badge with 4.2 out of 5. The same official information place C as average reliability-wise, and 9-3 is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the German car rank it on average as 4.6, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 5.0 out of 5.

SAAB is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 245 kilometers per hour, 10km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, averaging around 10.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (27 mpg), in combined cycle.

SAAB 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 this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with SAAB 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 SAAB. 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™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.