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 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Luxury car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Mercedes Benz and rear in the case of the Lexus). The first one has a Mercedes Benz-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 18-valves 177hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 220hp engine designed by Toyota.

The fact that the Mercedes Benz 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. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the luxury car segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Japanese car offers a marginal difference of 3% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Lexus as a brand displays somewhat better results, 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 Lexus badge with 4.9 out of 5. The same official information place E as average reliability-wise, and GS 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 5.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Lexus is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.4 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 230 kilometers per hour, 3km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the German car, averaging around 10.6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (27 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 9% difference compared to the Japanese car.

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 German car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. From there things take a different 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... 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. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.