In many car classes, but not all, BMW and Audi face off against one another. Although it’s not always fair to compare prices between BMW and Audi because the latter provides a much greater variety of models, in general, Audis are less expensive than their BMW rivals. We’ve listed each Audi and BMW model together with its base price, except the mandatory destination fee, which is typically roughly $1,000 on most models, to make it easier for you to determine which models are more reasonable. You’ll see that BMW offers a wider selection of automobiles than Audi. Comparable models typically come with comparable features and choices.
- BMW 2 Series is $37,300 while the Audi A3 is $33,300.
- BMW 3 Series $40,250 vs Audi A4 $39,200
- BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe $44,750 vs. Audi A5 Sportback $44,200
- BMW 5 Series is $53,400 while the Audi A6 is $58,900.
- BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo costs $70,300 versus $68,000 for the Audi A7.
- Audi A8 ($83,000) vs. BMW 7 Series ($86,450)
- BMW X1 costs $34,950 against Audi Q3 $34,700.
- BMW X3 costs $41,000 against Audi Q5 $42,950.
- BMW X5 costs $60,700 against Audi Q7 $53,550.
- Audi Q8 ($67,400) against BMW X7 ($73,900)
- BMW 4 Series Coupe $44,950 vs. Audi A5 Coupe $44,200
- BMW 4 Series Convertible costs $53,100 compared to the Audi A5 Cabriolet’s $51,200.
- Audi TT $44,900 vs BMW Z4 $49,700
- Compared to the BMW i8, the Audi R8 costs $169,900.
- BMW X2 $36,400
- BMW i3 $44,450
- $111,900 BMW 8 Series Coupe
- BMW X4 $50,450
- BMW X6 $63,550
Additionally, it should be mentioned that both Audi and BMW have a wide range of high-performance vehicles that have been upgraded for more strength and agility. Typically, these models are more expensive than the less expensive variations. The iconic M3 and M5 vehicles are BMW’s high-performance M division’s most well-known creations, but it has also produced high performance versions of the BMW X3, X4, X6, and other models. With S and RS versions of many cars, Audi offers two levels of performance options. The performance of the RS models is significantly better than the S ones. Customers interested in high-performance Audi vehicles should look at the RS3, RS5, and RS7.
In This Article...
Is BMW nicer than Audi?
It’s difficult to predict who will win the Audi vs. BMW competition. The same target market is being courted by both producers, but they focus on distinct specifications and features.
When it comes to technology and style, Audi is the winner, but BMW offers a smoother, sportier driving experience. When it comes to safety features, both brands score highly, however Audi has far lower reliability ratings. Although there isn’t much of a difference in price between the two, Audi’s reliability difficulties are evident in the price of repairs.
In the end, they are both fairly similar automobile makers with comparable models that appeal to slightly different demographics. Choose a BMW if you want a sporty, controlled ride. Choose an Audi if you want something with understated style and cutting-edge technology.
We can help if you’re interested in a certain Audi or BMW model. We’ve written a number of thorough comparative pages on particular models, including:
Is an Audi a luxury vehicle?
From Germany, where its history began, to South Korea and Brazil, Audi has emerged as one of the top premium automobile manufacturers worldwide. The variety of models, technologies, and designs is valued by customers. Continue reading to learn how Audi’s sales and popularity have increased on a global scale.
Horch & Cie, a German automobile firm, was founded by August Horch in Cologne in 1899. After constructing his first automobile there, he quit the company due to differences with the management team and founded Audiwerke. The following achievements came after and contributed to their current success:
- Recognition is given to the automobile models’ accomplishments at the International Austrian Alpine Runs from 1911 to 1914.
- NSU, Wanderer, and DKW joined forces with Audi in this venture (this is what each of the four rings in the Audi logo stands for)
- The majority of the shares are acquired by J.S. Rasmussen in 1928, and he goes on to produce the most popular car of the 1930s, the DKW compact car with front-wheel drive.
- In the 1980s, Audi began producing sports coupe variants, and the world was fascinated.
Audi’s popularity has grown as it has introduced its many models to more international markets. In China, it has dominated the market and outsold rival German automakers Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Below is a list of several tactics Audi use to surpass its competitors:
1. Parts exchange with the owner’s Volkswagen
Audi is owned by Volkswagen, and the two businesses share some components. This gives the two businesses these benefits:
- simpler fixes, instruction
- reduced expenses and parts
- It is easier and less expensive to diagnose a component problem and issue a recall.
- enables them to address issues swiftly enough to avoid harm to the reputation of the brand
2. A Better Design
- Interiors with higher-quality materials
- For the exteriors, a subtle, minimalist style is preferred.
- Automotive LED and Xenon lighting innovator
3. Promotion
In recent years, Audi has pioneered the way for efficient and straightforward marketing strategies that draw in both new and recurring customers.
- TV ads, minisites, and slick websites
- Considering the interests of their customers
- developing a reputation as a pioneer in SUVs and sports cars
4. Input
From some of their early models, Audi and VW have risen in the quality and reputation rankings.
- formerly renowned for jammed gas pedals and blown coil packs
- Currently viewed as a rival to long-term luxury leader BMW
- Audi and VW have worked hard to stay on schedule and maintain their pride in innovation.
Audi has employed a variety of strategies to increase its client base and to advertise its reputation as a trustworthy and superior brand. They put a lot of work into their marketing initiatives, vehicle design, and part sharing to simplify maintenance.
Audi or BMW costs less to maintain?
Analyzing the data reveals that, when it comes to maintenance expenditures over the first 10 years of a car’s life, both BMWs and Audis are among the most expensive vehicles to keep on the road. The questionable honor of being at the very top of the list belongs to BMWs, nevertheless. This is unexpected considering that every new BMW includes free planned maintenance, including free oil and filter changes, for the first three years or 36,000 miles. The cost of an Audi vehicle does not include free maintenance. Nevertheless, the average BMW costs its owner $17,800 in maintenance in the first 10 years of ownership, more than any other brand. This is especially important for customers who are looking at used and certified pre-owned cars. Although better, Audi’s numbers are still quite dismal. The average Audi owner spends $12,400 on maintenance during the first ten years of ownership. Only Volvo, Cadillac, Mercedes, and BMW vehicles have higher maintenance costs. Not only do these costs cover the cost of the parts, but also the labor involved in providing the service. A substantial but constrained warranty is likewise standard equipment on every new BMW and Audi. A car warranty is provided for four years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first, on every BMW and Audi. Some of the world’s best and most captivating automobiles and SUVs are produced by Audi and BMW. Cross-brand shopping between the two companies is advised. But avoid only online shopping. Take a test drive at the showroom. Take control of these incredible vehicles. Experience the engine’s pull. Play with the infotainment system, the leather, and other features. In the end, you’re buying a luxury car because you want one rather than because you have to. Forget the animosity between BMW and Audi. Purchase the vehicle that captures your attention and thrills your spirit. The greatest one for you and your family will be this one.
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Should I buy a Mercedes or a BMW?
BMW remains the overall champion when it comes to luxury performance, even if the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class is one of the best-performing large luxury sedans on the road right now. Anyone looking for performance and style in one convenient package should select a BMW automobile.
BMW or Audi, which is faster?
Let’s review the quickest luxury production vehicles made in Germany: The BMW M5 Competition Model is the most potent production vehicle (0-60 mph3.1 seconds) Audi R8 V10 Plus is the fastest production vehicle (top speed205 mph) And if you’re looking for spruced-up limited editions that move quickly: Audi Decennium, the fastest German vehicle ever (0-60 mph3.1 seconds) BMW Hurricane RR has the fastest acceleration (top speed235 mph) Now you can enjoy uncompromised comfort at race speeds, giving you the best of both worlds.
Which luxury vehicle is the best?
Increased degrees of comfort, gear, amenities, quality, performance, and status are offered by luxury automobiles. They serve as both a status symbol for their owners and a brand ambassador for the company that made them. Premium brands have never surpassed luxury brands in popularity. The majority of luxury cars have always been huge automobiles, however smaller, more sporty types have always been made. Sport utility vehicles with off-road capability and “compact” luxury cars like hatchbacks are relatively recent trends.
Rolls-Royce Phantom
Rolls-Royce replaced the largest and most opulent luxury vehicle in motoring in 2017, and our road testers welcomed it with a sparkling five-star road test shortly after.
Owners will adore it just as much for the ostentatious declaration of riches and status it bestows as for the unrivaled feeling of occasion you get when riding in one. Many people won’t realize it, but the most recent Phantom is also a complete joy and a rare pleasure to drive.
Although Rolls-Royce has fitted the newest run-flat tyre technology, the ride comfort is still wonderfully quiet and smooth, making it unlike anything else you’ll experience in a car. Its superlative comfort and singularly isolating ride comfort can be appreciated from the back seats, of course.
However, the car’s large-rimmed steering wheel’s precision feel and ideal weight, ease of parking such a large vehicle on the road, tolerance for whatever speed suits your trip, supreme flexibility and refinement of its V12 engine, and progressiveness of its throttle pedal on step-off are all remarkable.
Bentley Flying Spur
Initially introduced as the Continental Flying Spur in 2006, Bentley’s four-door ‘Continental’-series limousine (luxury automobiles) only dropped the nomenclative prefix that links it to Crewe’s current two-door GT with its most significant model update in 2014.
But it’s not hard to tell that the Flying Spur is now in its third generation by looking at the prouder, more muscular appearance, which heavily imitates the most recent, handsome Continental GT coupe. A new platform that was co-developed with Porsche and incorporates four-wheel steering and dynamic anti-roll bars greatly enhances the performance of Crewe’s “junior” saloon as well. Additionally, it improves the cabin’s separation from the road and lays the groundwork for genuinely superb driving dynamics. Steering, balance, and grip have all visibly improved.
Of course, the 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 is still there, producing the same 626 horsepower and limitless torque that propels the vehicle to 62 mph in just under four seconds and on to a top speed of more than 200 mph. Versions of the Spur with a six-cylinder hybrid engine and Bentley’s lighter, more freely revving V8 are also on the way.
Mercedes-Maybach S650
The S650 is the new standard-bearer for Daimler’s Maybach super-luxury brand. It is the most expensive and unique vehicle in what may be the most widely regarded and admired limousine lineup in the world.
According to outward appearances, you might mistake it for an S-Class as opposed to a Maybach. This is the outcome of Daimler’s strategy decision, made a few years ago, to expand the brand’s appeal by adding “halo” Maybach models to some of its more mainstream Mercedes passenger car lineups. The extremely rare, Simon Cowell-designed, Maybach 57 and 62 limousines were simultaneously condemned to oblivion.
The fact that this automobile is “just” an S-Class may therefore be both its greatest asset and its biggest weakness. An S-Class might not have as much curb appeal as a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley, but the same S-Class status also grants this vehicle access to all the latest active suspension and driver aid technology, which contribute to its superbly refined, luxurious, and cozy feel.
The S650’s twin-turbocharged petrol V12, which produces 621 bhp and 737 lb-ft of torque, is hardly audible, and it is outstandingly committed to comfort and good manners.
Bentley Mulsanne
In principle, it may sound alluring to ride in a limousine that is distinctively aristocratic, whose presence can be felt from far away, and whose mission is to put the interests of the passenger before those of the driver. But if you think that the reality of owning such luxurious vehicles might not appeal to you as much, rest assured that the Bentley Mulsanne belongs to the super-luxury category as well.
The Mulsanne is a top-tier luxury four-door that is purposefully more understated and understated in look than a particular important British limousine competition. It has a less formal atmosphere than the Rolls-Royce Phantom, and the inside has a paneled smoking area that is more reminiscent of an old gentleman’s club than the ballroom with chandeliers in the Phantom. There is nothing like it in terms of material quality, the brilliance and natural appeal of its wood veneers, or the tactile attraction of so many of its fixtures.
This large Bentley’s motive character has always included a healthy portion of driver attraction. Due in part to its torquey turbocharged petrol V8, the Mulsanne handles and reacts with more vigor and verve, even though it doesn’t ride nearly as serenely as some of its closest competitors.
Rolls-Royce Cullinan
In response to a substantial amount of Rolls-Royce customers’ input that a more daily-usable, all-surface competent, family-practical model would be a very welcome way to enhance the company’s showroom range, Goodwood’s Marmite addition to the super-luxury car market debuted in 2018.
The Cullinan has received enough negative feedback about its design, from all angles, to cement the idea that its creator took a big chance by releasing a vehicle that some have criticized as ungainly and unattractive and others have criticized in much less forgiving terms. The collective disgust of those who wouldn’t have purchased a Cullinan will, however, have little impact on whether it becomes a financial success if Rolls-market Royce’s research is accurate, which a year’s worth of confirmed orders is a solid indication will be.
This car’s interior has just as much to like about it as it has to not like about the concept or how it looks. This is a genuine Rolls-Royce, and its dynamic characteristics include exceptional mechanical refinement, unmatched ride comfort, and superb maneuverability.
Bentley Bentayga
The evaluation process for the Autocar road test for the Bentayga was dramatic. Being the first of more than 100,000 super-SUVs to hit the market in 2016, we initially gave it a high rating, with a few caveats, in W12 engine form. We then gave it an even higher rating in 2017 when Bentley introduced a 4.0-liter, 429bhp turbocharged diesel V8 from Audi, which produced the same amount of torque as the twelve-cylinder petrol motor but at more convenient crank-speeds.
Then, in 2018, Bentley stopped selling the Bentayga Diesel in Europe amid growing toxicity around diesel engines, obscuring what we thought to be the final iteration of the vehicle. A plug-in hybrid vehicle debuted in 2019, while a V8 petrol variant expanded the model lineup the following year. The Speeda 626bhp, 182,000 paean to excess is also available now.
The Bentayga stands out even in this class thanks to its wonderfully plush interior, swell of torque-laden performance, and sense of imperious, singularly enveloping luxury. These qualities might even be strong enough to convince a skeptic who initially opposed the idea of living in a blue-blooded SUV to change their mind.
Rolls-Royce Ghost
When the Rolls-Royce Ghost luxury automobiles debuted in 2009, it was the beginning of a shift that increased the company’s annual production volume from a few hundred to several thousand cars.
The Ghost increased access to Rolls-Royce ownership only marginally but dramatically by using mechanical underpinnings that were modified from those of the BMW 7 Series. Since the next Ghost will employ the same all-aluminum Rolls-Royce-only platform as the Phanton and Cullinan, it is reasonable to assume that the management’s opinion on the decision to use those BMW Group mechanicals now will be considerably different from what it originally was.
The Ghost was designed as a car for the wealthy driver, and its dynamic character reflects that, whereas the Phantom is very much a car to be driven. It lends itself more readily to the cut-and-thrust of daily driving on congested UK roads than its larger sibling because it rides somewhat more tautly and is more nimble (partly due to its more compact proportions).
Range Rover SVAutobiographyLuxury Cars
the long-wheelbase, top tier Since the early days of the renowned SUV upon which it is based, Range Rover has advanced significantly as a luxury vehicle. The current SVAutobiography is a car that is fully 5.2 meters long and weighs 2.6 tonnes at its heaviest. It is hand-finished by Land Rover at its Special Operations base in Coventry. It was designed to fully capitalize on the nascent market for extremely costly SUVs and the great admiration some people have for the Range Rover brand, and it succeeds in doing so admirably.
The SVAutobiography is a strict four-seater with “lounge” rear chairs, around each of which you can arrange a fold-out aluminum tray table. A sliding panoramic sunroof adds to the remarkable senses of light and space onboard. You have a choice of a petrol V8, a diesel V8, or a four-cylinder petrol plug-in hybrid powertrain. Compared to the materials inside the basic Range Rover, the inside materials are also more luxurious and pricey.
Rolls-Royce DawnLuxury Cars
Super-luxury four-seat convertibles are an extremely uncommon class of vehicle. While Bentley has its Continental GTC and Mercedes has an open-top four-seat S-Class, Bentley formerly had the Azure drop-top. However, throughout the past ten years, Rolls-Royce has occasionally provided its model lineup with more than one four-seater super-cabriolet. Although the convertible version of the current-generation Phantom is still in the works, Goodwood’s model lineup still includes the Dawn, the convertible equivalent from the smaller Ghost/Wraith model tier.
When this vehicle was introduced in 2016, the firm used unusually racial language to describe it, calling it “the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever created.” Whether you agree or disagree, you cannot deny the car’s blue-blood credentials. It shares the same platform and 6.6-liter twin-turbocharged petrol V12 with the Wraith coup, and its 563bhp and 575lb-ft of torquedown from 624bhp in Wraith tune but still more than enough to outperform the earlier Phantom Drophead Coup’s performanceare both shared with that vehicle.
Mercedes-AMG S65 LLuxury Cars
The top-of-the-line performance version of the Mercedes S-Class limousine luxury sedan hasn’t seen much mechanical change in more than a decade. You could argue that this car hasn’t needed to because of its monstrous twin-turbocharged petrol V12, which generates 621 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque.
An engine like this can accelerate a two and a quarter-ton, 5.3-meter-long, rear-driven limousine from 0 to 62 miles per hour in just 4.2 seconds, and that’s before it actually settles down, finds its legs, and starts moving.
The S65 receives a mention at the bottom of our super-luxury class rankings since it is still an unwaveringly comfortable and refined luxury vehicle. It provides a degree of onboard comfort that is unmatched by anything else with comparable performance, and its enormous torque reserves make it so effortlessly powerful to drive that it is difficult to believe how little effort is required to propel something so vast through space so swiftly.
However, the S65 is not a super-saloon, and its chassis much prefers traveling on smooth, wide roads to testing narrower ones, the latter of which causes its air suspension and stability control to give some thought. But in its element, this car is one of the very few in existence to appear both wickedly wicked and incredibly nice.