M Visions of Grandeur

N

ncrossy1980

Active member
 Newcastle Upon Tyne
This is a nonsense post really, with no real point or purpose, and people being people might take offence to it, I'll admit that right off the bat and carry on regardless :roll:

So I've had the M for almost 3 months now, I've ploughed a canny bit of money into it already, now looking at £200-300 for Eibachs (inc fitting as I'm a spaz with anything mechanical), £525 for the Eventuri, £120ish for the F10 gear knob, possibly new alloys, the list goes on and on... pretty much everyone else here has been through that and I think most have spent what they want to spend. But as I see the potential spendage rise, a little voice in the back of my mind always says:

"Oi, it's probably worth it all because the car is iconic, but you want it to be too perfect and look newer and better than it currently is, why don't you just trade it in or sell it and get a new gen M car... all this money you're thinking about spending, take the plunge and put it towards a brand new or nearly new M"

I don't mean to sound controversial, judgmental etc but I get the impression a lot of the guys on here with M's aren't exactly living on the edge of poverty! Arguably one could say if someone has £500+ to drop on an airbox or £1k on an exhaust, they're doing pretty well for themselves :thumbsup: So assuming money isn't the main hurdle, what's stopped you guys from moving on to a newer M car and remaining loyal to the Z? ...I appreciate dropping £60k on a new car isn't the same as maintaining/improving an older car, but hopefully you know what I mean!

I suspect a lot of folk have done already, just interested in hearing some other opinions on that. Is the Z4M simply held in such high regard that a newer M just wouldn't feel like a worthwhile 'upgrade'?
 
Budget was the main reason I went for the Z4M.

If I had £40k+ to spend then it wouldn't be going on a newer M?
 
Simple for me:

1. Couldn't afford a new ///M Car. Mine was only 5K increase at the time.
2. Last of the proper NA ///M engines.
3. Not a huge amount of electronics to go wrong.
4. Pretty simple engine also.
 
I have had newer,faster,better handling cars..

I adore the Z4MC though..... :thumbsup: I sold this one,and got it back 13 months later..

Its just a really "special" car......
 
when i purchased my z4 back all them years ago me and my business was in a different position..... i modified the car so heavily i simply can't afford to better it in most departments for a reasonable cost, add kids , a new fiance i just now don't have the disposable income i once did..... However.... if my situation changes back which I'm working hard towards then id move up but it would have to be something really special and keep the z4m too.
 
Beedub said:
when i purchased my z4 back all them years ago me and my business was in a different position..... i modified the car so heavily i simply can't afford to better it in most departments for a reasonable cost, add kids , a new fiance i just now don't have the disposable income i once did..... However.... if my situation changes back which I'm working hard towards then id move up but it would have to be something really special and keep the z4m too.
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Ahhh good luck with that m8! :thumbsup: What business/line of work are you in?
 
Special and rarity factor for me even for the roadster!!
Sure I could probably get a newer M on lease maybe not outright but it wouldn't be mine really....
It's an 8 year old car that stills draws attention and you don't get called a banker because it's got the Porsche badge. Now that's controversial!!

I love my porkers and would probably get one in future. For what I want, would need to spend at least 80k on a newer one and when your talk to people that you drive a Porsche even at the 15-20k bracket the conversation just stops...it's like yeah cool end of story. With our cars you can say stuff like, oh they only made a few, oh they were competing against Porsche but made something quite different instead and that engine sound alone is heaven for a car nut!

Best of all is when you drive by school kids...they know it's something different!! In a positive way :thumbsup:

I would even consider spending more for a garage queen example just for the different factor alone. :evil: crap I already have....

At a recent meet there were many modified and unmodified m4s they looked lovely. One of them sounded like a bloody moped though and to my ears the newer Ms don't have that zing factor it's ll automated and over tuned sound!!! There you go my 2p worth.
 
Fast3000 said:
Special and rarity factor for me even for the roadster!!
Sure I could probably get a newer M on lease maybe not outright but it wouldn't be mine really....
It's an 8 year old car that stills draws attention and don't get called a banker because it's got the Porsche badge on it now that's controversial!!

I love my porkers and would probably get one on future but would need to spend at least 80k on a newer one and when your talk to people that you drive a Porsche even at the 15-20k bracket the conversation just stops...it's like yeah cool end of story. With our cars you can say, oh they only made a few, oh they were competing against Porsche but made something quite different instead and that engine sound alone is heaven for a car nut!

Best of all is when you drive by school kids...they know it's something different!! In a positive way :thumbsup: so in answer to your question. I would even consider spending more for a garage queen example just for the different factor alone. :evil:

At a recent meet there were many modified and unmodified m4s they looked lovely. One of them sounded like a bloody moped though and to my ears the newer Ms don't have that zing factor it's ll automated and over tuned sound!!! There you go my 2p worth.
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Good answer! :thumbsup:
 
I don't have an MC....just a coupe that's tarted up. I do have a manual E92 M3 with loads of stuff on it.

There's something I just enjoy about driving the Z4....its just fun.

The m3 has offered more performance in certain areas, but that's all it does for me.
 
ncrossy1980 said:
Beedub said:
when i purchased my z4 back all them years ago me and my business was in a different position..... i modified the car so heavily i simply can't afford to better it in most departments for a reasonable cost, add kids , a new fiance i just now don't have the disposable income i once did..... However.... if my situation changes back which I'm working hard towards then id move up but it would have to be something really special and keep the z4m too.
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Ahhh good luck with that m8! :thumbsup: What business/line of work are you in?
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private care homes :-) we doing ok... but really need some growth over the coming years the last few years have been rocky tbh

... i could stretch to a (low spec) sypder boxster if i could get one but its a step back in numerous key departments, i couldnt quite make the 75k+ needed for a nicely spec'd GT4 i wanted which did tbh upset me alittle... however i couldnt have got one anyway. However i feel very lucky to have what i have and I'm more than content with my wonder z4m roadster!
 
The things I like about my M:

1. The looks
2. No turbo and a high revving NA engine unique to the M cars. Don't under-estimate that - I really love that engine!
3. Simple, old school philosophy (no I-Drive, M dynamic mode and all that guff)
4. The rarity

Anything I replace it with has to have most of that (not necessarily all) and also has to be appreciably quicker too. I'd also like it to be track-ready without spending thousands modifying it because having done one or two track days now I really enjoy it.

So none of the current M-cars do all of that. They do some but nowhere near all. Hence why I'm not really interested in any of them seriously enough to consider buying them.

I think my next car will be the Exige S3 because the GT3 and GT4 that I'd love to own will be out of reach and there's very little else with at least a modicum of practicality that interests me as a direct replacement for the M.

My daily driver will probably get replaced sooner and the criteria for that are much more flexible.
 
Had a 2.5 Z as a company car in 2007 for a year, always wanted another and ended up in a 3.0 in 2011. I've always wanted an M car of some kind, and my love of the Z meant a Z4 M made 'sense'. The plan was originally to buy Styart Truman's imola roadie from him when he got bored / had a shiny moment. His was the first M I drove. However PVR's came up almost a year earlier than my Plan, so I bought it. Just as well as Stuart's not gotten bored :D

I had to get a loan to buy the M, and to pay the 'SWMBO holiday to Malaysia' tax - so I couldn't afford to buy a newer M car anyway, I'm not minted, but I can afford to run this one so I'm golden. Tbh once I'd fallen for the Z4 it never (and still hasn't) occurred to me to even consider another different M car. A lot of that is because of the friends I have made on here, makes all the difference to me. Any other M car - apart from maybe a 1M - would just feel too mainstream, if an M car can be classified that way... Or in the case of and M5/M6 just a bit grown up, and way too much money for something not really that special. I'd rather have a V8 F Type.

Bit of a ramble, but hopefully some of that makes sense. I'm on leave right now, can't be assed making too much sense :D
 
Spent the last few years looking at cars and what I could possibly replace my Toyota Supra TT with. After a lot of thinking, I wanted something smaller, more nimble, NA manual car. This did not leave a lot of options in todays "Auto - flappy paddle" madness.

I just can't get used to driving at pace this way. Manual gearbox ftw. I had two choices really. Z4M Coupe or Roadster at a push or Porsche 997 C2S. Considering we have just spanked a £100K deposit on our new house, I couldn't really afford the Porsche and then a bargain of a Z4M came up in February and took the plunge.

Ownership hasn't been good so far as the power steering pump has just given in but otherwise I love the car and the way it drives. That engine at full keg is amazing..!! :D

H.
 
The main reason I've not changed is I don't see the newer Ms as different enough to other marques.

In the past, if you wanted a high-revving, hand-built, naturally-aspirated, manual car you had no other choice other than a BMW :thumbsup:

Now that BMW are producing turbo-charged, semi-auto, mass-produced, production line Ms you've got competition from Jag, Merc, Audi, etc. and there doesn't seem to be anything to differentiate the Ms from others :thumbsdown:

I don't tend to pick common models, but pick out of the ordinary cars (Polo G40, Corrado VR6, e34 M5, Z4MC) 8)
 
original guvnor said:
The things I like about my M:

1. The looks
2. No turbo and a high revving NA engine unique to the M cars. Don't under-estimate that - I really love that engine!
3. Simple, old school philosophy (no I-Drive, M dynamic mode and all that guff)
4. The rarity
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Pretty much exactly the same for me. I wanted to get back into an M car for a while (there is something old school special about the S54) and the Z4MC ticks so many boxes for what I was looking for. I have a couple of other cars which are also good fun, but I do find myself enjoying thrashing the M around. By comparison, I didn't even bother taking up the offer of an extended test drive in the new M4.
 
I think the main reason I'd not be looking to change is that for me is that there isn't really a newer M car that replaces it :)

I originally started out wanting a 2 seater soft top for nice days, so considered the S2000, Boxster and other Z4s before deciding I wanted a Z4M. I didn't want any sort of finance on something that was going to be a toy, so decided on a budget I was happy spending with the view that I'd never see it again, but would obviously spend less if it got me a car I'd be happy with :wink: My main car at the time was a Jag XF 3.0d S, and after driving a few 3.0i Z4s realised that they just weren't going to feel special because they felt significantly slower due to the torque difference, and stats like 0-60 being around the same. So then tried a 3.0si which was better, but then I looked at the M cars and couldn't see that the price difference was big enough not to go for one.

So now I have the Z4M, it's a 2 seater roadster which BMW haven't replaced in a newer car. If I was looking to change then getting anything special enough would probably mean something like a Jag F-Type, and seeing as my main car is now an XFR, it'd have to be one of the higher end ones with the same engine, which are just crazy money for a car to do 4-5k miles a year in IMO.
 
@MickAdams How do you find your XFR? Is it a good car reliability wise? I was considering one before the Z4 and the Kia sportage!
 
Fast3000 said:
@MickAdams How do you find your XFR? Is it a good car reliability wise? I was considering one before the Z4 and the Kia sportage!
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Certainly sounds nice Ravi
 
For sure, its a real sedate car from the outset, test drove one in edinburgh when I was working up there. I didn't get to use it in any particular setting (Sport Sport Pls blah blah) but it went like stink without any dramas....
 
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