I haven't owned a BMW or a convertible car before, and my most powerful cars have been some used Turbo Saabs a decade ago. I however ordered a BMW i4 electric car almost a year ago. But in August I lost my patience waiting for it and cancelled the order, as there was still no info on the timetable of getting the car, the lease deal wasn't that good anymore with the current electric car market, and we needed a second car for our the family right now. A two seater roadster isn't the most obvious choice for a family of three with a 1.5 year old daughter. But when we need to go somewhere with the whole family, we'll use our other car, that will now be replaced by a Polestar 2 I ordered to replace the i4 order, and it should arrive in six months. So I decided that it was fine to threat me with a hard top roadster, as it does function for the things it has to. It allows me to drive our daughter to daycare and gets me to the office 1-2 times a week even in winter. And it's is a car that can bring back joy to the driving experience I was eagerly waiting with the i4, but now lost a bit by replacing the order with a cheaper front wheel drive Polestar 2.
I can't imagine using a soft top convertible during the Finnish winter, and this car would not sit half the year in the garage, as I need it for the things mentioned earlier. Just a couple weeks ago I was first thinking about getting me an older Mercedes SLK, but then found out that the passenger airbag can't be disabled without an Mercedes branded safety seat, and one can't even get those anymore. I then had no choice but to more than double my budget and look for an E89 Z4 that comes with hard top as we all know. E89 Z4 might also in my humble opinion still be the best looking convertible from this century when you consider the looks both roof up and down, and don't count some wayyy more expensive options.
E89 Z4's are not that common in Finland, but there were about 15-20 of them for sale now after the summer season. Our prices are much higher than in the UK or US because of our taxation, and e89 prices currently fall between about 20k to 35k euros here. This one I ended up buying caught my attention as the most sensible choice from them, if I could somehow make a Z4 for our family sensible.
Others were mostly driven a hundred thousand more and mainly 35i(s)'s with potentially more expensive repairs. It's a manual 2012 sDrive20i with only 60000 km, a couple previous owners and good history originating from Sweden.
- M-Sport exterior and interior,
- beautiful Mineral White exterior in great shape,
- Cohiba brown Merino sports seats and upper dash,
- two sets of 19 inch wheels with almost new winter tires.
The previous owner had also upgraded it with
- Supersprint Cat-back exhaust,
- SmartTop and
- an Android multimedia screen.
All I'd have to do quickly was getting a set of new summer tires as the old ones are a badly worn mixed set of some Chinese rubber in the back and Bridgestone Runflats in the front with the factory 19 inch sizes. I browsed the forum earlier this week to find out the best tire size and ended up ordering Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6's in 235/35 and 255/35. I should get them on next week and can comment on the improvement on ride quality then. My expectations are high. I'm also considering on remapping the engine mildly next spring, but no reason to get it done now before winter.
It's too long a wall of text already, so I'll just finish with a couple photos of my new baby. Better ones should be coming later as photography is one of my hobbies. Looking forward to spending my time here learning new stuff about the Z4. Already know about the potential timing chain issues etc.
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