This forum is a great source of information so felt my first impressions might be of interest.
Picked up "new to me" one year old 3.0i sDrive yesterday morning - 3000 miles on clock good colour combination (black & black) and well specified. Bought to replace a Z4 3.0i Sport Coupe so brand is a known quantity. Overall my first impressions are positive - the looks, the ride, the fuel economy, the equipment levels and the overall sense of occasion are all a step up on the old Coupe. Car feels bigger and more grown up although, in my view, the latest Z4 leans more towards GT / sports tourer rather than out and out sports car.
Negatives are lack of storage space, particularly in the boot (which seems to be dominated by "no-go" areas - like I now need to remember not to put anything in the most obvious places) but also in the cabin where until I replaced load-through facility with standard 3 shelf arrangement (which was supplied) there was a distinct lack of useable oddment space. My car has 6 speed sport automatic which I'm hoping will offer best of all worlds, although so far jury is out as I've found driving it in manual mode not entirely intuitive - perhaps in part because I was in habit if short shifting in the manual Coupe both up and down which is not an option with the auto box.
By far biggest negative, however, is the roof mechanism which has been plagued by warning messages every time I've tried to use it. I'm hoping I've just been unlucky but, although selling dealer says it was fully checked for faults in their workshop, less than 6 hours and 200 miles after collecting car its now in the local dealers with a roof that refuses to close. BMW Emergency Assist were very good and immediately identified that I needed to get car under cover at a dealers asap because they acknowledged problem was almost certainly beyond them and rain was threatening. So far I've had red window warning on main console, "Faulty roof latch" message, orange window warning on main console and finally when clam refused to separate "Hydraulic oil too hot" message - and all because I opened the roof to put windbreak in place!
Over last 10 years I've been fortunate to own two Z3s (2.8 and 3.0), a Honda S2000, a Lotus Exige and the Z4 Coupe - and in my opinion Z4 coupe was best all round every-day sports car until now. The Z3s had their limitations, the Honda needed to be driven in v-tech range to be special, the Lotus was very single purpose (namely track based) and last Z4 was pretty good at everything. Before buying latest Z4 I tried a Jaguar XKR (massive performance but also massive), a Nissan 370Z (very exciting but let down by questionable styling, savage fuel economy and totally unacceptable tyre noise), and a Porsche Boxster which had sublime handling and feedback but is just so expensive. Point I'm trying to make is that I'd like to think I'm pretty objective and, provided there are not any ongoing reliability issues, I already feel latest Z4 is up there with best sports cars I've owned or driven although, for obvious reasons, a little concerned that roof mechanism may prove to be the Achilles heel that distracts from an otherwise excellent sports car ownership experience.
Picked up "new to me" one year old 3.0i sDrive yesterday morning - 3000 miles on clock good colour combination (black & black) and well specified. Bought to replace a Z4 3.0i Sport Coupe so brand is a known quantity. Overall my first impressions are positive - the looks, the ride, the fuel economy, the equipment levels and the overall sense of occasion are all a step up on the old Coupe. Car feels bigger and more grown up although, in my view, the latest Z4 leans more towards GT / sports tourer rather than out and out sports car.
Negatives are lack of storage space, particularly in the boot (which seems to be dominated by "no-go" areas - like I now need to remember not to put anything in the most obvious places) but also in the cabin where until I replaced load-through facility with standard 3 shelf arrangement (which was supplied) there was a distinct lack of useable oddment space. My car has 6 speed sport automatic which I'm hoping will offer best of all worlds, although so far jury is out as I've found driving it in manual mode not entirely intuitive - perhaps in part because I was in habit if short shifting in the manual Coupe both up and down which is not an option with the auto box.
By far biggest negative, however, is the roof mechanism which has been plagued by warning messages every time I've tried to use it. I'm hoping I've just been unlucky but, although selling dealer says it was fully checked for faults in their workshop, less than 6 hours and 200 miles after collecting car its now in the local dealers with a roof that refuses to close. BMW Emergency Assist were very good and immediately identified that I needed to get car under cover at a dealers asap because they acknowledged problem was almost certainly beyond them and rain was threatening. So far I've had red window warning on main console, "Faulty roof latch" message, orange window warning on main console and finally when clam refused to separate "Hydraulic oil too hot" message - and all because I opened the roof to put windbreak in place!
Over last 10 years I've been fortunate to own two Z3s (2.8 and 3.0), a Honda S2000, a Lotus Exige and the Z4 Coupe - and in my opinion Z4 coupe was best all round every-day sports car until now. The Z3s had their limitations, the Honda needed to be driven in v-tech range to be special, the Lotus was very single purpose (namely track based) and last Z4 was pretty good at everything. Before buying latest Z4 I tried a Jaguar XKR (massive performance but also massive), a Nissan 370Z (very exciting but let down by questionable styling, savage fuel economy and totally unacceptable tyre noise), and a Porsche Boxster which had sublime handling and feedback but is just so expensive. Point I'm trying to make is that I'd like to think I'm pretty objective and, provided there are not any ongoing reliability issues, I already feel latest Z4 is up there with best sports cars I've owned or driven although, for obvious reasons, a little concerned that roof mechanism may prove to be the Achilles heel that distracts from an otherwise excellent sports car ownership experience.
