Am i imagining this ?

M

Mad Professor

Active member
When i'm driving on narrow country B roads -i get the impression that my Zed is rather wide in terms of how much space there is when another car passes by especially a truck or tractor -i'd say it feels as wide as my previous XKR on the same roads -am i imagining this because when looking at the Zed its seems quite petite .Maybe its because my previous reference point was my Caterham which is tiny by comparison .does anyone else get this feeling or is it just me getting used to driving it .
Having said that it feels quicker than my Caterham maybe because its so much torque so it pulls like a train even in 4th or 5th .
 
I seem to get that feeling too. I think some of it is down to the lines of the car more than anything though, especially seeing the gorgeous bulging rear wheel arches in the mirrors.

Having said that, at the weekend I parked mine right alongside my brother's Porsche Boxster S (986) and the Z4 was noticeably wider than that.
 
Yep me too!! Never admitted to anyone before :oops: Dont get it in my transit van so i'm guessing its something to do with the low ride
 
ok thanks for that - very reassuring that i'm not having another senior moment
Im kind of suprised its wider than a Boxster but there you go
 
Hmmmmmm, just looked up the width of a 986 Boxster and the width of an E85 Z4 and they are exactly the same!! :o 70.1 inches, so I was definitely imagining that then....but visually my Z4 did appear a good bit wider.

Mine is an Alpina so the front bumper is different and maybe adds to the illusion of extra width.
 
I'm the same although I sit very low and far back, you can never see where the bonnet ends either out in front or to the side and as such I always give her a wide berth, wide enough that I've had oncoming cars flash me :x
 
Yes - I too am taking the opportunity to come out on this. A very small part of my daily drive has a very high stone wall on the left hand side where the road is not very wide. Have had a few bum clenching moments yet I do think I have actually had plenty of space. I don't notice that wall at all when I am in the Discovery.

There, I've said it, and feel better for sharing. :D
 
I think its all to do with the driving position. Being sat lower makes the car 'feel' wider than it is. I checked the dimensions and its barely any wider than my previous Megane R26, yet on narrow roads it definitely feels much wider. Only difference is that in the Megane the driving position was much more upright. Can't explain why it would feel as wide as an XKR though, did that have a more upright driving position?
 
Where did you get the width of the Z4 from?

My brochure says it's 70.1 to the outside of the front tyres, but that's not the widest point. The widest points are the mirrors (74.8).

The XKR is only 4.5 inches wider (2015mm or 79.3") than the Z4 in that case.

The other reason the Z4 might feel wider is that you're sitting much further towards the rear of the car than you would be with the XKR.
 
i hate it when i pull up alongside a certain path curb outside a bank in town in front of lots of people/cars, think to myself, yea thats close enough..... get out and walk around car and im miles away from the curb :rofl: :oops:
 
ye i think its just the way they look, and the mirrors

old car was fractionally smaller in width and 10cm shorter in length.

but you could easily tell in tight spaces how close you where, in this the mirrors look like yer close when yer a few inchs off.

once you get used to it you can judge and the bonnet doesnt seem as long as it really is lol
 
Very interesting thread, I thought the Z4 felt wider than it looked. It turns out it is wide! My previous car was an Audi A4 and now when I drive up my friends drive I can't believe how similar the clearance feels to when I had the Audi. Turns out the Audi was only 1.5 inches wider.
 
Not sure why it feels as wide as my XKR -maybe that's just a senior thing going on here -or more likely as has been already suggested the driving position in the Zed
Or maybe its just that the narrow country lanes are in fact rather narrow -I often feel like i'm about to forced off the road by oncoming vehicles which i have always put down to some sort of bizarre old man driving neurosis -aka as ACD syndrome [Alloy contact dysfunction syndrome ]
I wonder maybe if its the part of my brain for spatial awareness that's not functioning properly - apparently my son who's a med student tells me its all in the temporal lobe area -so now you know another useless piece of trivial information .
 
Me too. I thought that I was turning into an old granny (I'm old enough). I've only had he car for three weeks or so. Parking goes something like this " Ohh too close , too close . Don't kerb , dont kerb !" I get out and I'm about a foot away ! :oops:
 
I have to say my zed feels wider than the 14 year old Polo we have... but it's tiny in comparison to the other half's 987 Boxster S (when the Boxster is in the garage it's difficult to move around, but when the zed is in there you could have a party....)
Maybe the thing about the Polo though is that I don't really mind about getting the odd ding in it, so am more inclined to squeeze it through small gaps.... :lol:
 
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