This is the one test in this series where nobody’s arguing about feel, character, or drama. It’s a purely rational question: which car gives back the most horsepower for every euro spent renting it.
Ordinary roads, on purpose
No named mountain pass this time, no dramatic corniche — just the everyday roads between Nice and the Italian border, the kind of driving most guests actually do most of the time between the scenic stops. A value question deserves a value-relevant road, not a cherry-picked showcase.
Three drivers, three cars competing on a single number rather than personality. Whoever’s narrating takes the Audi RS6, the practical, family-capable wagon nobody expects to win a supercar-adjacent metric. Ron claims the BMW X5M Competition, arguing genuine SUV character shouldn’t be penalized just because it’s not the cheapest way to get there. Juliana takes the Porsche 992 Carrera 4 GTS, making the precision case even on a metric that isn’t really about precision.
The numbers, for anyone who wants them before the story
| Audi RS6 | Porsche 992 Carrera 4 GTS | BMW X5M Competition | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Horsepower | 630 hp | 480 hp | 625 hp |
| 0–100 km/h | 3.4 sec | 3.3 sec | 3.8 sec |
| Top speed | 305 km/h | 312 km/h | 290 km/h |
| Rental (per day) | ~€800 | ~€1,800 | ~€750 |
| hp per €100/day | ~79 | ~27 | ~83 |
All three figures come straight from this fleet’s own listing. The X5M Competition actually edges the RS6 on pure hp-per-euro by this math — but the RS6 wins the test for a reason that shows up in the driving, not just the spreadsheet.
First stint: the X5M’s real case
Ron’s X5M Competition made a genuine argument through the everyday stretches: 625 hp in a five-seat SUV body, real usability alongside real performance, and a price that technically beats the RS6 on paper. “The math says this wins,” Ron said. “I’m not going to pretend that’s nothing.”
Juliana’s 992 Carrera 4 GTS made the precision case it always makes — genuinely the most rewarding car to actually drive of the three — but at more than double the RS6’s daily rate for less horsepower, even she conceded it wasn’t going to win this specific argument. “This isn’t the test where precision gets rewarded,” she said. “That’s fine. It’s not supposed to be.”
Second stint: why the RS6 still won
The RS6 closed it on something the raw hp-per-euro math doesn’t fully capture: five real seats, genuine wagon practicality, 630 hp that’s actually usable on ordinary roads without needing a closed circuit to access it, and a price that undercuts a genuine performance SUV. “The X5M wins by a couple points on paper,” the narrator said. “But this is the one you’d actually recommend to someone who just wants the most car for the least money, no qualifications attached. That’s what this test was actually asking.”
A bit of context on each car
The Audi RS6 already appeared in the Munich to the Alps road test, where it won on being the most usable of three flagship performance cars.
The Porsche 992 Carrera 4 GTS already appeared in the Timmelsjoch road test and the first-supercar test.
The BMW X5M Competition remains a genuinely capable performance SUV — a real rival on the numbers, just not quite the practical answer this specific test was looking for.
Practical considerations
All three are confirmed available out of Monaco, the French Riviera, and Munich — no fleet issues, and this is one of the more straightforward comparisons in the series to actually book from.
Our call: the Audi RS6. Best real-world value of the three — 630 hp, genuine five-seat practicality, and a price that undercuts a genuine performance SUV. Choose the BMW X5M Competition if the numbers alone are the deciding factor, or the Porsche 992 Carrera 4 GTS if precision matters more than value.
All three are standalone rentals out of Monaco, the French Riviera, and Munich. Get in touch and we’ll set one up.