At the moment, the big German car companies are belting out some pretty good cars. They always do, but now seems an especially exciting time. BMW is making headlines with its M3/M4 and X5/X6 M, Audi with its new R8 and TT, Mercedes with its AMG GT and C63 AMG, Porsche has the Cayman GT4 and 911 GT3 and Volkswagen with its GTI and Golf R.

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So which German is the biggest threat to BMW?

It’s a close call. All the German automakers are coming out with some excellent cars these days. The surprising thing is the diversity of all the recent announcements. There are fantastic cars coming from all companies from the inexpensive GTI to the ultra expensive AMG GT. Those aforementioned cars from each company are just a few. Each company has a great car in every segment. Being a BMWBLOG, we must take a look at which of these Germans is the toughest competitor to our favorite Bavarian.

I’m going to say Mercedes.

The reason I lean towards the three-pointed star is the depth of its quality vehicles. In each and every segment, Mercedes-Benz has a quality rival to BMW. The new C-Class is an excellent alternative to a 3 Series while being very different. The new, refreshed E Class looks excellent and has that old Benz, granite-feeling quality. Mercedes’ S-Class is quite possibly the best luxury car in the world. Or at least until the new 7 Series arrives. And the new AMG GT is a dynamite sports car.

Audi’s cars are great but starting to get a bit too familiar. It seems as if every Audi is just a cookie-cutter design and they all seem to drive the same. The R8 and TT may save Audi from disappearing but just two interesting cars isn’t that imposing.

Porsches are all fantastic, but Porsches aren’t going to pull too many customers from BMW as the two clientele bases are very different. Some cars from both companies match up, but generally Porsche people don’t cross shop any other brand.

Volkswagen’s GTI can be a massive thorn in many companies’ sides, but that’s about all it has to challenge BMW. Sure, the Toureg can match up against the X5, but the same as with Porsche, not many BMW customers will cross shop with Volkswagen.

So that leaves Mercedes-Benz as the toughest, most challenging competitor to BMW. This isn’t new, obviously. These two German giants have been at each others throats for decades. But it’s interesting to see, that after all these years and even in these modern times, that no other German company threatens these two like each other.

Now of course there are other threats from other countries. Cadillac and Lexus seem to be taken aim at the big Bavarian. But I’d say that even with those two newcomers, Mercedes-Benz is still the toughest. No other company gives the luxury, performance or build quality that BMW does, except for Mercedes.