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 2-door cabriolet body style within the same 'Sports car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Opel and rear in the case of the Smart). The first one has a Opel-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 125hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 3-cylinder, 6-valves 100hp engine designed by Smart.

The fact that the Opel got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, offers a slight advantage, as the 4-star rating is better than none. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle 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, Tigra offers a potentially life-saving difference of 40% more metal.

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Smart does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Opel with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Smart badge with 4.3 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Tigra 31% above average, and Roadster 62% below the first one. That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as Tigra rank it on average as 4.7, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.0 out of 5.

Opel is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 204 kilometers per hour, 14km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be Roadster, averaging around 5.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (53 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 45% difference compared to Tigra!

Opel is apparently more reliable, not too much, but just enough. 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, Tigra beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. It all continues in the same direction, with Opel 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... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Opel. 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. 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.