2 years to go...?

[Nezzy33]

Anything based on the new MINI chassis and engines will be terrible IMO. I had one of the new shape MINI Cooper S's and had nothing but trouble with it, largely due to the fact that Peugeot build the engines in them.

Mine needed (under warranty luckily) a fully rebuilt engine at only 19,000 miles. Absolute garbage.

 

[ronk]

A sales flop. If you scroll down to page 25 of the attached 2012 Annual Report you'll see what I mean. Only 15k Zeds sold worldwide (-18.9% vs LYR) set against 11.6% growth across BMW cars overall. 18k sales in the previous year was dire enough! They got their market positioning wrong with this car. It alienated more existing Z4 owners than it attracted lapsed/new owners

The world is not awash with money - and as a two seat sports car can not really be seen as a sensible option then perhaps its not the car that's a flop but the reduction of cash to throw at a toy that's lets face facts, is not the most practical car in the world.
I loved my E85 but have to say that I wouldn't go back to one from my E89. I don't think many other owners of the flops would either!

 

[jaz4]

reason why the new 4 and my post in this as so near the mark and may be my 6th bmw 4 or z4. Some one pointed that the new 4 looks like hyundi coupe well I had mk1 and a celica and tt all were the best coupes at the time so nothing wrong in that, and ill have a celica and hyundi at a drop of a hat (audi I had to give keys back owwww bad story never touch one again)

 

[ZermattV]

Why do you say that? ie poor and flop.

A sales flop. If you scroll down to page 25 of the attached 2012 Annual Report you'll see what I mean. Only 15k Zeds sold worldwide (-18.9% vs LYR) set against 11.6% growth across BMW cars overall. 18k sales in the previous year was dire enough! They got their market positioning wrong with this car. It alienated more existing Z4 owners than it attracted lapsed/new owners.

http://annual-report2012.bmwgroup.com/bmwgroup/annual/2012/gb/English/pdf/report2012.pdf

Tend to agree that for a lot of E85 owners the E89 is not the replacement - for me it's a well resolved compact GT but has neither the looks of the E85 or the drama of the M. the E85 really took the fight to the Boxter and came out of it pretty well. The raw feel of the E85M works perfectly for me as a weekend toy - the E89 for me is something you would use every day and I'm sure it's a better day to day prospect than an E85 it should be it was designed a good 8 years later but I can't see me keeping one as a Garage Queen.

The current E89 for me is not even trying to seriously compete with the Boxter and is pitched a segment below .

However, On sales figures boxters are hardly flying out either...and sales numbers are similar to the Zed

http://www.porsche.com/usa/aboutporsche/overview/dataandfacts/

But ... Each of these Boxters is less discounted and at least 8k more so probably more profitable . But you can see why porsche want an Evoque rival - first year of sales 108,000 for the Evoque ( now that is a lot of white paint) .

 

[buzyg]

More agreement with much of the above here.

The MR is my first and possibly my last BMW. I bought it because I wanted an open top weekend toy, not a car to go to work in. Test drove a Z3MR and a BoxterS and a Slk55AMG a Masarti Spider and a Tuscan. Never even considered taking a 3.0i or any TT out for a test. I saw them, rightly or wrongly, as similar to my old £1500 Fiat Coupe 20vt in terms of what they could do and wanted some thing harder hitting. I got that for sure with the Z4MR.

Alas unless they bring out a puka M E89 then my next car will most likely not be a Z4 . Some years before I'll be considering shifting the MR though, so V happy for now.

 

[original guvnor]

Debates like these can get emotive really easily. I'm not criticising the E89 as a car. It's a good car, and as Zermatt says, a very good 'GT' style car or a 'boulevard cruiser'.

I'm criticising BMW for their marketing. It was the wrong car for the wrong time. There may be a few ex-E85 owners that love the E89 but there are also lots of E85/E86 owners who would've swapped for a new model Z4 but now won't.

2-seater Roadster sales aren't easy to come by in a recession because for many they are a toy or luxury not a practical daily driver but Porsche sold 10,000 new Boxsters in the period between March-Dec 2012 and 3,000 Caymans in a car that was out of production part way through that year. For a car with considerably higher average selling price than the Zed, that was a much better performance. Especially as the Boxster is unlikely to feature on many company car lists, as the E89 now does for example. Porsche also managed to shift 21,000 991's in 2012 - a model range, that even when it was just Carrera and Carrera S's, would've had an average selling price more than double and approaching triple, of that of the Zed.