Thanks for the replies.
To answer the request for a comparison, be warned - it goes on a bit! Sorry.
Where to begin? Probably by stating that this is a little unfair in that I went from a 8 year old Z4MR to a car just over double the price I got for it and five years newer (I bought second hand).
An upcoming change in job meant that I would realistically have to go down to one car and having no kids, it didn't need to be hugely practical. An all-rounder with a focused drive and not "big".
The popular wisdom would be that I should have jumped in to a 911. So I test drove some at the price point I was at and, whilst they were undoubtedly accomplished/ refined etc, they left me severely underwhelmed. As people had previously stated they weren't, honestly, a huge step up from the Z4MR - and actually not as much fun. If I'd had another wedge of cash, then it might have been a different story and, for the sake of disclosure, I think I just couldn't bring myself to join "that" club.
I test drove the TTRS, a V8 M3, an S5, Cayman, Boxster an Exige S and an Evora S on my way to arriving at my decision.
The F-Type and AM's suggested above were out of my price bracket.
Why didn't I test drive another Z4? I'm not sure I can honestly answer that other than to say, hand on heart, moving the Z4M on was hard. I'd really bonded with it. Another Z4 would never measure up IMHO.
The Audi's were good, accomplished cars. But a bit "so what" and I just couldn't get to grips with the handling/ feel of the cars. Electric steering, it seems, is definitely not my thing. The V8 engined M3 was a hoot, but realistically just not that involving. The porkers were great, but not that much of a change - although subjectively I can confirm that the Cayman was more fun than the 911.
(Disclaimer: I've wanted a Lotus since I was 5 and could tell the difference between one car and another. I freely admit to this. I also realise that it's hard for me to be objective).
So, to the Lotuses:
My OH was deeply sceptical. She loved my Z4MR. A lot. Also, she trotted out the tired old L.O.T.U.S. and wasn't sure that I should be giving up BMW reliability for a car glued together by "Turnip Farmers in Norfolk".
Turns out many of you were right, the Exige S is awesome - but would take a level of commitment as a daily drive that was going to be beyond me. I do a lot of overseas travel too, and it really didn't have the space I would need. In all honesty though, it is a truly astonishing car. If it was to be a second car as the Z4MR was, then it would have been a no brainer. Seriously. It would have been a stretch financially, but I would have found a way to do the "man maths". If you've never driven one and you get the chance, I strongly urge you to give it a go. Yes, getting in is a palaver. Yes, it's pretty sparse inside there. Yes, rear visibility is like looking through the slit of a tank. OMG, to drive it is immense. They are no compromise cars.
I test drove another Evora and was smitten.
In February of 2015 SWMBO finally cracked to my strategic plan of bombarding her with pictures of various Evora's on my tablet last thing at night and first thing in the morning. No sooner were the words "just go and bloody buy one then" were out of her mouth than I'd shot down to purchase the Carbon Grey S that I'd had my eye on for six months.
I arrived to find that it had sold that morning. Typical. A week later the previous sale had fallen through and I was back on.
At the time I was driving from Dibden on the edge of the New Forest to Barking. And back. This is a 260 mile round trip on B and A roads, M27, M3, M25 and the A13. As luck would have it this coincided with the M3 being turned in to a 3 lane 50mph slog...
It has to be said that for a car with such fluidity and pace, the Evora copes with the stop start nature of this journey pretty much faultlessly. I can promise you that the manual gearbox is not as awful as many people would have you believe, and the clutch is certainly less fierce than Z4M. I have been genuinely blown away by just how benign the Evora is in heavy, stop start traffic.
Interestingly, I've actually found that many of the criticisms levelled at the Evora (the rear view is not great) for this kind of driving have made me go back to some old school roadcraft and cured a lot of the bad habits I had picked up. I'm back to using my wing mirrors much more, double and triple checking blind spots etc etc. The Z4's rear view, even with the roof up, is infinitely better.
I drove the Evora through pretty much all kinds of weather on this journey and, again, it has hardly batted an eyelid. OK, when the roads are greasy there's a strong chance that if you're in Sport Mode the lift-off oversteer will bite you (you only do this once, and that one time will cure you of it, for life) if you're not paying attention, but other than just that once the car has communicated sublimely how it is behaving. The ride is nowhere near as firm as the Z4M.
I average about 24 mpg on the commute, a bit worse than I would have got from the Z4M, which considering the stop start nature of the journey is pretty good for a car with that level of perfomance. Admittedly long stretches at circa 50 mph help, but considering that the weight of traffic at the times I'm travelling it's still a pretty reasonable figure. Oil consumption is frugal - like non-existent. I actually ended up taking it to the dealer to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong.
Road noise is on about a par with a Z4MR with the roof up. A Z4MC is assuredly a quieter place to be.
The journey can take anything from two and a half to four hours, depending on the vagaries of other traffic, accidents and weather. The Evora is a thoroughly pleasant place to spend this amount of time driving. I've yet to get out at the end of a journey feeling unnecessarily broken - or at least no more or less than I would in any other car. I did plenty of commuting in the Z4M, because it was fun - but there were definitely times when I wouldn't have taken it and would have arrived a bit frazzled. Caveat: I drove the Z4MR roof down, 99% of the time.
As the summer arrived and the weather improved I was able to take the car out for the sheer pleasure of it. Indeed, one such journey elicited a phone call from the OH after I had "just popped out for an hour" some 3 and a half hours after I'd left home with the question "where are you"? My answer of "Exeter" caused a string of expletives, but I was just enjoying the thrill of driving the car for the very sake of it. I miss open top motoring. Fact.
On a back road, the Evora is a truly amazing feat of engineering. The confidence the Evora gives you is nothing short of astonishing. You may be sat there thinking "bloody Lotus fanboy, trotting out the ride and handling mantra". Seriously, it's true. Don't get me wrong, the Z4M was awesome and a much better drivers car than it's given credit for IMHO, but it's much more skittish and less assured and doesn't have the feel of the Lotus. I guess the best way to describe the driving difference is the confidence it gives you. I find myself able to judge and feel my way down my road and carry more speed and confidence in to corners than I could with the Z4.
People are just nicer to you too, it seems. I get let out at junctions a lot more, that's for sure.
I've had a brief chat with the Hampshire constabulary. To be fair, I'm not some speed freak but, I was doing over the national limit on the M3 and after they complimented me on my lane discipline, traffic awareness etc, and politely and firmly informed me that the speed limit was there for a reason, they asked a bunch of questions about the Evora and had a properly good nose around the car. And then shot off after an X5 who hammered past in the outside lane. I'm pretty sure that I might have had a sterner chat in any BMW.
The supercharged engine is great and being a Toyota lump, it's pretty much bombproof. It's not actually from a Toyota Camry as the press would have you believe but, yes, it's from the same family. I do miss the straight six. There. I said it.
Servicing is cheaper in the LOTUS, because of the above. The big services are about the same, but the regular ones are definitely cheaper.
It's not all roses mind. Any car that is more focused in one area will be compromised elsewhere.
The Z4M has a much better gearbox. The Evora's isn't bad per se, just not as good. You cannot rush gear-changes.
Ingress an egress is not easy - I've had to sell all my mini-skirts. Joking aside, you get used to it - but involves pushing the seat back to get in and out.
Tyre wear is significantly higher. 6-8K miles for a set of rear boots
You can eek out more, but that kind of makes owningg one a bit pointless.
The interior is pretty well put together and it's a lot nicer place to be than an Exige or Elise. It's got it's foibles mind - like you can't read the dials when the sun hits them...
I do miss the Z4, and as I stated at the beginning it's a bit unfair to compare a £15K car with a £32K car. Both cars are great.
One thing has really annoyed me though since buying the Evora. And I can't write any of the above without it winding me up.
Why aren't there more of these cars on the road...?
