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Audi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs AMG GT Vs Panamera Hybrid - the Best Out of Germany?

I think we can all agree that Germany has a lot to offer to the automotive industry, something made plenty obvious by the models that have come out of that country so far, but also by the ones you can still buy right now.
Audi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport Turismo 12 photos
Photo: carwow / YouTube thumbnail
Audi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport TurismoAudi RS 6 Vs BMW M5 CS Vs Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door Vs Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport Turismo
Granted, the lines between manufacturers' nationalities have become a bit blurry over the past years, but it doesn't really matter with Germany because their know-how tended to expand over the borders, rather than absorb from outside philosophies.

The offer coming from there is so rich, it's almost impossible to identify only a handful of vehicles as being the best, but very few people would argue against any of these four models if they made the list. We're talking about the Audi RS 6, the BMW M5 CS, the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door, and the Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport Turismo - four cars that are pretty different, and yet all fight for more or less the same niche.

There's no better way to begin a comparison between them than to look at what makes them tick. In short, they all use twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engines, with two appendixes: the BMW has a 4.4-liter unit, and the Porsche has a hybrid setup with an electric motor boosting up its performance.

And it does boost it significantly - enough, actually, to make it the most potent of the group by a large margin with 700 hp. The Mercedes-AMG GT comes second with 639 hp, followed by the BMW M5 with 635, and ending with the 600 hp of the Audi RS 6. The torque chart looks a little bit different (AMG, Porsche, Audi, BMW).

Like any carwow video, there needs to be a sound battle, and this time, it's pretty easy to decide on a winner. It's the AMG, though the BMW does sound like a proper race car as well. And since we're on the subject of unquantifiable differentiators, let's talk a little about exterior design too. Here, we think it's a toss-up between the AMG and the RS 6, and the carwow crew seems to agree. In the end, the Audi takes it, which is probably the direction we were leaning toward too.

Right, moving on to more serious stuff. Drifting. Well, we were going to say, "driving and handling," but the joke was there so we went for it. Besides, Matt, the carwow host, does evaluate them based on their ability to hoon around, so there is an actual answer to that question if you care to know it. It's the BMW, and it's not even close.

The driving and handling category has the same winner, with the Bavarians working absolute magic on the already pretty great M5 Competition to give it godly road manners, even when the said road is more of a track. The AMG is a strong second thanks mainly to its surprisingly good steering. The Audi and the Porsche both have pluses and minuses, so separating them becomes a matter of personal preferences.

When it comes to interior quality, there are no surprises regarding which one out of the German quartette sits on top. It's the Porsche with its minimalist(ish) approach and supreme quality. The BMW is a surprising second, featuring excellent craftsmanship despite its obvious sporty theme. The Audi lets itself down in terms of overall quality, but it's actually the AMG that feels the cheapest. Not only does it have a few bits of questionable plastic, but the overall design is a bit too flashy for a car that should be more on the luxury side.

Finally, let's talk about performance, and here we'll be looking at braking distance, 0-60 mph time (real Vs advertised), and quarter mile time. Unsurprisingly, the BMW is by far the quickest. It's the only one that manages to break under the three-second mark (2.95, despite an advertised time of 3.3 seconds) for the 0-60 acceleration and under the 11-second mark for the quarter mile time (10.93).

Behind it comes the Porsche Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid Sport Turismo, it too managing to undercut its official 0-60 time by 0.07 seconds by registering 3.13 seconds and crossing the virtual quarter mile line after 11.24 seconds. The third was the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Four-Door with a 3.26 seconds 0-60 time (0.06 worse than its official figure) and a quarter mile result of 11.37 seconds.

Finally, the Audi RS 6 also improved on its official acceleration rating of 3.6 seconds with a time of 3.48 seconds, but that still makes it the slowest overall. It also registered the worst quarter mile time with 11.72 seconds, leaving no doubt over which of the four has the poorest performance. It didn't do too well in the brake test either, needing 41 meters (134.5 feet) to come to a halt from 70 mph (112 kph). That's only better than the AMG's 43 meters (141 feet) and behind both the BMW and the Porsche that needed 40 just meters (131 feet).

Time for a verdict and, given everything that's happened so far, you might probably suspect which way this is going. And you're not wrong: there's not even a question whether the BMW is the best car out of these four. The Mercedes-AMG GT takes second due to being a beast of a machine, and the Audi just manages to squeeze in front of the Porsche mainly because of the latter's weight and price.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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