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 Audi and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 30-valves 230hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 18-valves 170hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the Mercedes Benz 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 luxury car segment, which is generally a very 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, Audi A6 offers a marginal difference of 8% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Audi with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.3 out of 5. Independent research findings rank A6 as average reliability-wise, and E is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as Audi A6 rank it on average as 3.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.7 out of 5.

Audi is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.6 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 245 kilometers per hour, 21km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Mercedes Benz E, averaging around 10.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (26 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 7% difference compared to Audi A6.

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, Mercedes Benz E offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. From there things take a different direction, with Audi outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. 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 Mercedes Benz. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. 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.