# BMW 5 vs. Audi A6 vs. MB E- Class



## nahugry (May 7, 2007)

The comparison on BMW 5, Audi A6, MB E-Class.
BMW 5 opinion is the combination of 2004 525i w/ everything except navigation and 2009 550i fully loaded.
MB E-Class is the combination of 2009 E550 and 2007 E350 4matic, both fully loaded.
Audi A6 is 2010 A6 Prestige 3.0 Supercharged fully loaded.
I've owned and/or still own some of the cars on the list and its from personal experience of those cars. it's still just a personal opinion, so if some people don't agree, I understand...
Besides, tires on the cars and other things matter a lot when it comes to pinpoint comparison but I was given what I had...

Handling
BMW: 10- So far the best handling car out there hands down, no questions asked. Not only does BMW outperform MB and Audi in this category, but any car I've driven in the past that were supposedly known for handling. Porsche included.

Audi: 7- Simply because their Quattro outperforms BMW X drive as well as MB 4 matic in bad weather conditions. In snow, Quattro - X drive - 4 matic.
Audi feels very weak in handling in general. Lots of roll that can be felt and simply feels dangerous when making high speed turns. Excellent however, coming out of the turns.

MB: 5- Lots of roll, and very bad coming out of the turn. Will take you from point A to point B in bad weather, but not the trailblazer in snow that I found Quattro and x-drive to be.

Acceleration and braking
BMW: 9- Very responsive acceleration and the best braking power with stability. Other than the 550 and/or other high powered motors, BMW is the least powered of the group though.
Acceleration with given amount of power, however, BMW tops its class. You really feel the car utilizes every drop of juice the engine produces.

Audi: 7- Plenty of power and thump, however, not very responsive. One of those cars you put the pedal to the metal hoping to burn pass someone and you miss that timing by half a second. Braking is quite soft, requiring more distance to stop in comparison to the BMW, but very good neverthless.

MB: 5- Plenty of power under the hood that can't be felt. you just feel like most of that power is being lost somewhere in the middle from the engine to the whees.
Acceleration is horrible given its power and when it does deliver, the car's suspension just can't seem to handle that much power; feels way too soft.
Braking is just decent... smoothness in braking simply isn't there... feels like Acura...

Interior design and convenience

BMW: 6- BMW has really redefined its interior with the "simple look", limiting the buttons and knobs and incorporating most of its functions to the i-drive.
However, the materials used in the interior are not what you call "high quality" other than the leather seats, and I'm really getting "used to" that simple look where its starting to get really boring... i-drive is excellent when it comes to its functions and usability.
The seats are amazing... looks good, feels good, and the leather is excellent.

Audi: 8- Interior is their strength IMHO. the pieces that are silver in the car, ARE made out of real metal and the buttons and other pieces don't seem to be covered in rubber like material as in BMW which start to peel after a year or two of use. 
Their MMI (Audi Multi Media Interface) is VERY CONFUSING however. Where I-drive simply uses up-down, lefe-right navigation, MMI has 4~8 different buttons one has an option to manipulate to get to the proper menu. 
MMI can play DVDs since the navigation is built in with HDD, CD changer with MP3 capability, Integrated Ipod adapters and dual SD card readers really give you "options" when it comes to multimedia. Will you get to use all of it? its the real question... feels good to have options neverthless.
Overall feels very good, and really feels luxurious.

MB: 3- Too many buttons, too many buttons and too many buttons. I think MB still feels "more buttons = better car" or maybe thats how they differentiate themselves from BMW or they simply don't want to use "knobs" to control electronics since others are using them already.... perhaps thats why they decided to incorporate their knock off electronics controls next to the blinkers and on the steering wheel. Very confusing to use any of their electronics and the materials feel like the ones found on Honda Accord. 
Interior is ugly, cheap and uncomfortable... reminds me of the Corvettes... good looking car, lots of power under the hood with interior found on the Cavaliers.. earlier ones anyway...

Exterior
This is extremely hard as I like the exterior of BMW, Audi and MB all alike.
They have their own distinguished look, character and philosophy.
Its a 10 for all 3 brands.
If I had to choose however, would be 
Audi 10
BMW 9
MB 8

Overall
BMW: 9- If BMW can really work on the material used in its interior and do a slight "face lift", it would be a homerun. 
Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of where they're going with the next design, but they are truly the "Ultimate Driving Machine"
The car really gives pleasure to its drivers.

Audi: 8- Aesthetically pleasing interior and exterior with high quality matrials and features. Really feels Audi decided not to cheap out on their cars, but provide the best. Which may explain the off the chart successful year that they had in 2009 despite the market conditions.
Only improvements that should be made is the handling but most people feel the Audi has excellent handling so the improvement really can't be anticipated. 
Audi is making great cars and incorporating lots of technology, but can't help to feel that their methods are not as "mature" as some of the other makers yet.

MB: 6- the MB name has de-valued in recent years and I can see why. There isn't a single area MB exceeds in carmaking in comparison to BMW and Audi.
MB makes cars that are mediocre at the price range that isn't. 
I understand that they wanted to make the C-Class rather "friendlier" to the mass by making them cheap, but don't take the same workmanship and materials to other models that really aren't targeted for the Camry and Accord customers.
I'm ashamed to admit I have 2 of these cars... MB really needs to step it up or they'll be found at the bottom of the chart when it comes to sales and customer satisfaction in ownership.


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## phoenixreborn (Mar 30, 2008)

Wrong forum.


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## Fast Bob (Jun 4, 2004)

Tow this thread over to the General BMW Forum....


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## hts (Dec 19, 2001)

i think audi should score higher for its interior (i get that you don't like their mmi).


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## Calliope (Feb 3, 2007)

IBDT interesting read tho that I would have missed if it was in GA LOL


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## mybluesky (Feb 19, 2008)

in be4 teh toe


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## dtkw (Sep 1, 2003)

I agree with your common on MB, they just don't build cars like they used to in the 80s. Back then, it was the engineers who come up with the designs. But after that, it's the marketing group who know nothing about engineering. Therefore, they started putting a lot of electronic stuffs into their cars. The problem is one thing goes wrong, could lead to many others. My 86 560SEL still run without any problem except the normal wear and tear like many others. I will never buy another MB again. But might someday get a Audi or BMW X drive vehicle.


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## MMMM_ERT (Mar 13, 2004)

in befo da toe


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## -=Hot|Ice=- (Jan 9, 2008)

I'd choose the Audi over the old 5er. Not the new one.


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## Chagahan (Jul 18, 2004)

i will never buy an audi as long as they go on putting that ugly auto shift knob. That thing is plain ugly


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## kennywiz (Oct 21, 2009)

One thing I have noticed about Audi interiors is they do NOT age well. I was looking around at CPO for the past few months and found 36k miles show a TON of wear on the leather and other interior parts. Knobs and headliners especially.


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