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

compare selected cars
2003. - 2008.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2001. - 2006.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4915 mm
1821 mm
1481 mm
439 liters
439 liters
70 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4827 mm
1792 mm
1475 mm
500 liters
500 liters
75 liters
2003 Nissan Maxima
2001 SAAB 9-5

Engine

Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
3498 cc
265 hp
346 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Opel / General Motors
3.0 X30XE Turbo
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Turbo
2962 cc
200 hp
310 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)

cvt - gears
1610 kg
s
km/h
11.8 l/100km
8.4 l/100km
9.9 l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 5 gears
1590 kg
8.9 s
235 km/h
16.5 l/100km
7.9 l/100km
11.1 l/100km
263 g/km

Expenses

4000 EUR
Price from
1700 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 luxury car segment and utilize the same 4-door sedan body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Nissan-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 265hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 200hp engine designed by Opel.

Safety

The fact that the SAAB 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? 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 Nissan does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Nissan with an average rating of 4.3, and models under the SAAB badge with 4.1 out of 5. Unfortunatelly, I don't have enough insight that would allow me to comment in more details on the specific models level. That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Japanese car rank it on average as 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

There's not enough data for me to elaborate on the subject, I'm affraid.


Verdict

Nissan 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 Swedish car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. When it comes to performance, both vehicles provide similar experience, so I wouldn't point any of them out. Fuel consumption is more or less the same. It's not difficult to say then that if I'd need to make a choice, it would definitely be the SAAB. 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. 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.

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