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Marketing
Dimensons & Outlines
Engine
5.0 M113 E50
Performance (manual gearbox)
Performance (automatic gearbox)
Expenses
Virtual Adviser's™ opinion
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 mpv segment and utilize the same 5-door MPV body style and the 4 x 4 wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Mercedes Benz-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 8-cylinder, 24-valves 306hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 200hp engine designed by Volkswagen.
SafetyThe fact that the Seat 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 mpv segment, which is generally a good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a potentially life-saving difference of 42% more metal.
ReliabilityI don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Seat does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Mercedes Benz, as well as Seat, with the same average rating of 4.4 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed R as average reliability-wise, and Altea is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the German car rank it on average as 4.3, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.4 out of 5.
Performance & Fuel economyMercedes Benz is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.6 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 245 kilometers per hour, 31km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Spanish car, averaging around 9.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (30 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 41% difference compared to the German car!
Verdict
Seat 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 Spanish car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. From there things take a different direction, with Mercedes Benz 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 Seat. 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.