Saab vs Audi vs BMW
Here’s a chart. An interesting chart.
Buy the Audi for badge value only. No other reason stacks up, if you ask me (with the possible exception where the car’s interior is the only thing in the world that matters to you - and even that’s subjective)
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Nice comparison, Swade. Even the standard XWD Aero ranks very well. I think if there was a value-to-the-dollar chart, the Saab will win hands-down.
The only notable feature missing in a U.S. comparo would be Bluetooth.
The interior together with safety was the main reasons I didn’t consider Audi four years ago when looking for a car to buy. IMHO, t’s even worse than the exterior. As they put it in Top Gear: if you are a German betong salesman, then…
Yeah,I nver understood all the hype about Audi interiors either. Before I bought my current 9-3 sedan a few years ago, I also test-drove a few other cars, among them a B6 Audi A4. I thought its interior was very average, and was really put off by the bright red speedo et al.
The 335xi I test-drove two months ago had an equally unimpressive interior, should I even say cheapish, althought it did impress with an excellet engine and handling.
wow, the turbo-x looks almost as good on paper as i think it does in motion. cheers!
Top Gear said last week Audi’s were for “German cement salesmen”. I guess they switched because so few people knew what a “betong” was?
I agree about German interiors. Nice materials, but as Jeremy Clarkson would say “it’s like Belgium in there”.
What you have is a salesperson’s chart. It contains nothing that appeals to me on an emotional level. It’s like choosing a spouse based exclusively on height (you should marry the tallest you can find, because that’s better, right?).
Pick the one you will still love in a few years, even if it doesn’t have the most gears, or is a wink slower to 60.
if the Aero XWD and Turbo X have the exact same amount of power in the exact same car, why is the Turbo X a half-second quicker to sixty?
I’m just guessing. I don’t fully understand these things, but the Aero has a torque limiter in place in 1st and 2nd that the Turbo X doesn’t have (or the threshold is raised quite a but). Sounds like it should be a factor.
James,
If I’ve got it right, it’s due to the Turbo-X having a torque-delimiter for the first and second gears.
Also, (and I may be wrong about this) the T-X might have a higher boost pressure and/or tweaked ECU versus the Aero version.
Ah Swade, beat me to it, I see.
It’s nice to see Saab’s stacking up so nicely against the competition, even if the info shown seems like it was selected to make the Saabs look better
I would like to see their skidpad numbers, braking distances, crash-test ratings and emergency lane-change speeds. That would be a great opportunity for XWD to truly shine.
I’d also like to see the TL Type S, G35/G35x, IS350, and 335i thrown into the fray just because any smart buyer will be looking at those cars as well. (I’m actually quite partial to the TL type S because it reminds me of a Japanese 9-5 Aero)
Excellent job swade - I went thru the same exercise last year. I had a VW and when I went car searching the Audi was simply a bunch of glam on a VW and a lot of the interior is shared between the two. In the end an Audi is hard to swallow unless you are stepping up to a Quattro or an “R” line car or unless you are fixated on the glam factor only.
All glam aside I think the A5/S5 will go down as being one of the most beautiful cars of this decade, it’s just a stunning car out on the road. Too bad they forgot the whole “form follows function” thing on the interior though.
As far as OnStar is concerned, that’s the only negative item on the Saab’s list. I just think proprietary items like that are silly… and bluetooth. What about a price comparison? All told, the 9-3 stacks up nicely to the Germans. i’d love to drive an XWD version someday.
Now, on to other news…
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/21/bmw-5-series-hatch-cometh/
Hmmm… If only the 9-5 and 9-3 always had that option.
~Peter
Regarding PGAero’s comment on the new BMW 5 series, Saab will make an incredidbly stupid mistake if the new 9-5 doesn’t come with a hatch option. There are now no excuses.
What would have made this even more effective is if pricing was also mentioned as well as the cost of the options.
Also gotta give credit where it’s due… BMW has 20 hp more and 20 more in torque and still gets better gas mileage plus look at the the torque… 300 @ 1400 rpm.
None of these cars can take my mind off of the next 9-5 however. Saab I’m dying here! Just give us a peek….PLEASE!!!
I think Bernard hit the nail right on the head up there. There’s only about 20% of what you need to know about these cars on here to really compare them. For example, the S4 looks like crap on the chart, but if offered the choice it would be very, VERY hard for me to walk away from that and buy the Saab. There’s just something really special about that car, sort of an invisible aura of awesomeness that the Saab doesn’t have. Maybe it’s the S badge and reputation, but still, it’s an awesome car.
I too agree Bernard is correct. Let’s face it, BMW and Audi could make an equally impressive chart indicating how much better their car is over the Saab. It all depends on what’s on the list.
Three things stick out: Onstar, Bose audio, and Aux-in. Onstar is nice but it’s no replacement for what the competition has: Bluetooth. Sure the BMW doesn’t have Bose, but they do have an upgraded audio system that is just as nice, if not better than the Bose. And the chart fails to acknowledge that the BMW (and I think the Audi) not only has Aux-in, but it also has a fully integrated iPod adapter.
It’s a cute chart but for obvious reasons only shows part of the picture. Then again, who cares? You don’t buy a car because it looks better on paper, you buy a car because you like the way it looks, the way it drives, the way it performs, it’s safety, etc. Cars are typically an emotional purchase and no chart can quantify that. No chart from Saab, BMW,or Audi will convince me that I should like one car over the other. I’ll take the car that excites me the most when I look at it and drive it, and as of now, that would be an Aero X!
Yup, lots of intangible details that charts can’t represent. The S4 is a big gas guzzler, but the sound of the Audi V8 is simply awesome - my main reason for getting one. Not sure why the obsession with AWD - no snow here, so AWD for me is only about performance, and for that the BMW 335i RWD is a much better proposition. Nothing beats the purity of RWD in my mind to driver control and satisfaction. Main reason for the Saab is that it just ages better than the others. I see way too many Audis and BMWs every day.
So the eLSD accounts for .5s of the acceleration time?
Aw come on Swade, when you go to an Audi dealer they treat you like something you accidentally stepped in that was left on the sidewalk by some naughty dog. Never had that experience in a Saab dealer!
The local Audi dealership around here let me test-drive a CPO RS6 when I simply walked in. It’s all about making yourself LOOK like an Audi buyer, of course they’ll treat you like dog poo if you can’t look or act the part.