It has long been the considered opinion now among most analysts within the automobile industry and certainly among journalists who closely monitor the automobile industry. That of all of the car companies that go to make up the automobile manufacturing industry in Europe, the two German companies BMW and Mercedes Benz represent a large chunk of the quality end of the market.

With the latest offerings released by both BMW and Mercedes-Benz is quite easy to understand why they represent the quality end of the industry. Mercedes-Benz has their new CL Coupé which is rightly getting rave reviews and plaudits across the border whilst BMW of matching them neck and neck with their new three series convertible, the 335i convertible.

In many areas the performance of these two cars is quite similar but one area where they are vastly different is the own the road price. The BMW comes in at around the $78,000 mark whilst the Mercedes can be had for a mere $163,000 for one of the lower end specification models.

Yet if you look at the cars themselves the performance isn't actually represented accurately by the vastly different price tag. To sum up briefly with the Mercedes you get a 5.5 L engine that develops 383bhp, will get you from naught to 62 miles an hour in 5.4 seconds and has a top speed of 155 miles per hour.

Surprisingly, the BMW though having a prize tag that is roughly half that the Mercedes does not supply specifications that are vastly different. For the time being, with the BMW you get a 3 Litre engine that develops 302bhp, gets you from naught to 62 miles an hour in 5.8 seconds (only .4 of a second slower than the Mercedes) and has a top speed too of 155 miles per hour.

So as you can see what the Mercedes you get top-end specifications matched with a top-end specification price and certainly if you have the cash you won't be disappointed with the Mercedes CL. It won't let you down on the design stakes; it'll look good in front of both the home and the office. It will certainly impress the neighbours as well as your colleagues in the squash club. Your bank manager might not be quite so happy however but then if you can afford to drive this Mercedes, problems with your bank manager should be the last thing on your mind.

That having said, the BMW won't let you down in any of the above areas either and with a very similar performance to that of the Mercedes at a fraction of the price you could almost afford to buy one for both the home and the office and still have cash to spare to take the family for a very nice holiday.

There are certainly no prizes for guessing which of the above would make your bank manager very happy but at the end of the day if you can afford to drive either of the cars above, to be brutally blunt who gives a damn about the bank!