03/04 Z4 opinions

T

thelazyone

Member
I'm close to buying a Z4 after a few weeks looking. This was a toss up between a 2.0 and a 2.5, and after looking at prices I'm considering a late 03/04 model 2.5 for around £8k with 60k miles. Basically I want to know if this sort of age car is a good buy? I know Zeds are pretty reliable and about the cylinder head problem on the 2.5 engine and the electric hood motor getting flooded, but I'll be taking out a third party warranty which should cover this. I just have doubts about getting a 7/8 year old car.
 
eagletower said:
Hi sorry i can't help, but i am in the market for a 2.5 myself- what's the cylinder head problem?
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x2, not a problem I have heard about on pre facelift 2.5 engines
 
Go for the 2.5 with the 6 cylinder engine (2.0 has the 4 cyclinder). As others have said never heard about a cylinder head problem. Check it our properly before purchase - follow the link in my signature to a buyers check list which may help.
 
thelazyone said:
I was talking about the problem in the link below, which leads to a replacement of the cylinder head to resolve from what I've read. Does this not apply to the engine in a pre-facelift 2.5i? I just had a look at the dates and I'm not sure if the N52 was used in an 03/04 2.5i

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10937
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N52 is the newer engine design used in post-facelift Z4s, i.e. 06-plate or so onwards. Pre-facelift 2.5s and 3.0 are the M54 engine which is generally thought of as a fairly robust design - it's been around for ages in various guises, same as you'll find in E46 3-series, etc.

The earlier Z4s are good buys as they've done most of their depreciating compared to newer ones. Obvious trade off is more wear and tear (generally) as mileages will generally be higher, but that's not always the case. Alan's buyers guide really is the bible of Z4 buying...
 
I bought a 53 plate 3.0 a few months ago with only 24,000 and full service history and it is in near mint condition. You would think it was only 12 months old and it runs really well. So there are decent examples out there its just a matter of finding them, I searched for about 6 months before finding mine so sometimes a bit of patience is required but I would say the main thing is to test drive as many as you can to get a feel for which ones have been cherished and which are lemons.
 
I bought a 3.0l SE 53 plate with 52k with full service history for 8k. Its in mint condition and I have had a lot of comments about it and people think I spent an abolsute fortune on it. (Im just clever really ;) ).

It drives fantastic and I am not worried at all. Then again I did drive an 10 year old Audi S3 with 120k on the clock and had absolutely no problems with that either!
 
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