E89 Z4 - Not the 35i
- Thread starter craigdm
- Start date
craigdm said:
No need for the 28i, the 20i or even the 18i can be chipped to give as much if not more power and widen your choice of cars by 100 and save quite a lump of cash
Good luck with the search
I've often thought about chipping, but have always been put off by the insurance complications. I use Quidco compare every year and it's nice and easy.
I'd like to spend less than £16k, and I'm not really bothered about manual or auto.
I did have a 3.0si a few years ago, but went on a diversion of RCZ-Merc-Jag-Merc. Sold my Mercedes a few weeks ago as the dealer basically offered my the same as I paid for it 18 months ago. Are the used prices for the E89 doing the same thing?
I'm currently running around in my 2009 MX5 that I have used as a summer car while running the sensible Merc. If I get a E89 I'll probably sell the mx5 as they do the same job. My wife has an EV which we use as a main car, and working from home means I can have a more exciting car while they're still around.
I'd like to spend less than £16k, and I'm not really bothered about manual or auto.
I did have a 3.0si a few years ago, but went on a diversion of RCZ-Merc-Jag-Merc. Sold my Mercedes a few weeks ago as the dealer basically offered my the same as I paid for it 18 months ago. Are the used prices for the E89 doing the same thing?
I'm currently running around in my 2009 MX5 that I have used as a summer car while running the sensible Merc. If I get a E89 I'll probably sell the mx5 as they do the same job. My wife has an EV which we use as a main car, and working from home means I can have a more exciting car while they're still around.
craigdm said:
On my quotes this year it put about £70 on, not bad for 12 months of extra fun
At the summit of the picturesque fens
I have an 18i remapped (don't like the word chipped personally) to around 260bhp and it cost us the extortionate figure of £0 increase to declare the remap.craigdm said:
I'm 53, she's late 40s, we pay around £180 p/a with a 5,000 mileage cap.
As stated, the N20 (2L 4 pot Toybo) engine is exactly the same in the 18i, 20i and 28i, just (for BMW marketing reasons) have different maps from the factory. The 28i does have bigger brakes as standard; god knows why (marketing again probably).
A well specced 18i represents very good VFM over the other derivatives. I-drive is very rare on the 18 and 20 though.
An 18i or 20i with a remap (and they are pretty safe as long as you don't go silly and cost circa £300) is a very fun car. If you are bothered, a 28i badge can be stuck on for about £5.
And, yes, Z4 prices have risen a lot in the last 4-5 months across the board.
Pondrew said:
You did well there with the insurance. Come my renewal i did the usual shop around using the big 3 comparison sites and ran the old spec first out of interest and it was pretty much a universal rise of £70 across every company on every site
LV. Same with my other car, no increase for a 50bhp map.
They don't even charge the famous "admin fee" for any changes. I had a new reg number recently, one phone call (and they answer the phones quickly) no charge.
They may be terrible when it comes to a claim, who knows. oh, and their excesses are quite high. Again not a problem until claim time.
They don't even charge the famous "admin fee" for any changes. I had a new reg number recently, one phone call (and they answer the phones quickly) no charge.
They may be terrible when it comes to a claim, who knows. oh, and their excesses are quite high. Again not a problem until claim time.
Funnily enough I almost went with LV as they were cheapest but the next one was was only a few pounds more and 300 excess cheaper plus some other better complimentary cover.. the still went from 170 to 240 though with the map added.. perhaps I shluld have said nowt and added it after :x
Probably not the post to discuss this, but what are the thoughts about declaring an engine upgrade? Do the insurance companies really go to the bother of investigating this, and how could it be proved that the upgrade was added while you owned the car, maybe the previous owner upgraded and didn't bother telling you...
craigdm said:
For the sake of a few quid per annum not worth the risk, tbh when i got my map i didn't declare it immediately as i discovered my company didn't cover it and I'd have been stung by a cancellation fee but always intended to do so at next renewal.
Pretty sure insurance companies can plug into the ecu and see for any changes in mapping which may well have the date done buried somewhere in the data so if your date of purchase does not match up they have you by the short and curlies.. whether they dig into this is anyones guess but if speed is involved in the cause of accident they may well do
I was actually thinking the same thing about this.craigdm said:
When I was a kid no-one declared mods on cars; exhausts, K&N filters, upgraded stereos, alloy wheels, etc.
Now it seems the norm to declare everything. Maybe we have all got more honest, or more distrusting of insurers?!
I have a friend who works in the claims dept for a major car insurer. I will ask her what the protocol is from their side.
I presume 90% of vehicles haven't had engine mods (it's not like you get a permanent sticker on the engine cover when it's been remapped saying "engine upgrade"), so do they plug in every car when it's in the repairers to see? I very much doubt that.
I suspect insurers will very rarely know or care if your car has been mapped, however I'd rather pay the £70 than run the 1% risk of an insurer refusing to pay out after I've had a £15k car written off, or worse still written off someone else's much more expensive car.
That's the thing, though. This is a product of age and experience me thinks. When you were 18 would you really have thought "I'd rather pay £70 than take the risk"? I would have taken that 1% risk every day of the week; not so much now.tiglon said:
mr.tourette said:
They can indeed check - my neighbours had a bump and he claimed his Hybrid Toyota just stopped, the garage that recovered the car plugged it into the ECU to see what had happened.
North West Surrey
I used to work in the general insurance industry and back in the 80s/90s our engineers would look for mods when they inspected cars to agree repair costs with bodyshops.
While that doesn't seem to happen much these days and a remap isn't visible, I still wouldn't want to take that chance!
My car has coil-overs, strut brace and after-market back boxes which are all pretty obvious but even declaring them I got a decent quote, plus peace of mind.
Even £70 a year isn't exactly a high price. I imagine a 28i would cost more to insure than an 18i anyway!
While that doesn't seem to happen much these days and a remap isn't visible, I still wouldn't want to take that chance!
My car has coil-overs, strut brace and after-market back boxes which are all pretty obvious but even declaring them I got a decent quote, plus peace of mind.
Even £70 a year isn't exactly a high price. I imagine a 28i would cost more to insure than an 18i anyway!
From my experience with the whole modifications thing - got my Zed in May last year. Paid £245 with Direct Line, £220 same company for our £3k Yeti. Got the Z4 remapped within 3 days as I was a bit unimpressed with the grunt of the 20i as standard, but never told DL as I was informed it was not noticeable. Anyways, come renewal time this year, and following various previous threads on here about the subject, I decided to declare it, along with the custom exhaust I've had made. Contacted Chris Knott insurance, who are Z4 specialists, and they made a 25% loading on the Beemer due to the remap. Contacted Direct Line and they dropped their previous year's quote by a fiver!
Weirdly, Chris Knott were cheaper for the Yeti, so we're with the Z4 specialist for a Skoda but DL for a modified Z4.
Go figure......
Weirdly, Chris Knott were cheaper for the Yeti, so we're with the Z4 specialist for a Skoda but DL for a modified Z4.
Go figure......
This one should meet your target - great colour combo with Alcantara pure design interior, has iDrive and heated seats is £16,500 and will take the MX5 off you.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107114897545?include-delivery-option=on&make=BMW&model=Z4&sort=relevance&postcode=np45xf&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1500&colour=Orange&colour=Yellow&page=1
Or you could go straight for a 35iS -
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107145035843?aggregatedTrim=35is&model=Z4&include-delivery-option=on&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=relevance&radius=1500&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&make=BMW&postcode=np45xf&page=1
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107114897545?include-delivery-option=on&make=BMW&model=Z4&sort=relevance&postcode=np45xf&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1500&colour=Orange&colour=Yellow&page=1
Or you could go straight for a 35iS -
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107145035843?aggregatedTrim=35is&model=Z4&include-delivery-option=on&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=relevance&radius=1500&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&make=BMW&postcode=np45xf&page=1