Greetings, all! Early yesterday morning my generous neighbor drove me three hours away to pick up my new 2003 Z4 3.0i. Then I rushed 3 hours back and worked for 8 hours to make up for the late start. And THAT was a VERY LONG wait to get back in it and drive home, let me tell you what!
Here's my story.
This all started about a month ago when I got a wild hair that I wanted a fun car, probably from driving my friend's 80's Alfa soft top a month prior. I'm married with two little ones, in my late 30's and I have a couple sedans that I alternate between as my DDs. I've always been a car guy but I've never had the disposable income to have anything other than reasonable cars with a focus on reliability. We have a good budget going so I figured I could sell one or both and find something fun without interfering with the budget.
I talked to my wife about this and she was totally on-board with it. One thing to note is that she was named after a car, her siblings were given car names, my kids were named after cars as are all their cousins on her side. So this isn't foreign territory at all.
If you were to look at my Craigslist search history you would have found a month of looking for sub-$5000 cars from 1964-1974 or sometimes for notchback Fox bodies, C3 Corvettes or an unmolested Miata. After the first week I came back to my wife and said, "Ya know, it's probably not that great of an idea. If I find a good car it's not going to get good gas mileage and it probably won't be very reliable." She replied, "Our minivan gets terrible gas mileage and it's not very reliable either. Why don't we sell it, you buy your fun car, and I'll drive the Accord?"
She sure is something special.
Well she talked me back into it. I found a few cars I liked, a couple Polaras, a 69 Torino, a Galaxie 500, Darts, stuff like that. I'm a dyed in the wool family man so I won't bump family time for car repair time, which most classics under $5k are in need of. So a couple nights ago before going to bed I took off the year filters, expanded the search to include nearby states, put "roadster" in the search box and clicked "Search." Out popped a 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i with 127k miles.
The next morning I texted my cousin's husband to see if he could go test drive it for me since it was near his house -- and three hours from mine. He's apparently very generous: "Sure thing! Probably not until after late afternoon however. Forgive me for asking though, who is this?"
I got the right test driver. He had it out for 45 minutes, inspecting every nook and cranny. "It's rough on side streets and I would have said don't bother until I took it out on the highway. It's like a rocket there. It got up to 100 no problem. It might need tie rod ends but it's in pretty good shape otherwise. I got it sideways a couple times and it handled pretty well."
They shook on it and that night I withdrew the cash and then went to bed, trying to sleep.
In the morning at about 6:30 my neighbor and I piled into his car with his two big dogs and we headed out. The three hour drive turned into four with a pit stop for the dogs and construction but I sent the occasional text to reassure her we were on the way.
When I got there there wasn't much to do besides buy it. I took it for an obligatory spin around the block and my neighbor suggested we at least pop the hood. Yup, there's an engine in there. Incidentally, that's the longest engine compartment I've ever seen. I'll have to look up specs on a 2nd gen Camaro, but it felt longer. We traded cash for title and keys, I took a selfie with her (the owner, not the car) and I was off!
I got it for a very good price but with that territory comes repairs. The steering column was worked on but somehow left in a state that the horn CONSTANTLY wants to sound. The fuse has been pulled but you can hear the relay incessantly clicking. I wedged a piece of Costco hot dog wrapper to pry it off the contacts for the drive, which was a RELIEF. The power top doesn't want to go down with the button and the allen wrench got it to release but it didn't willingly go much further and I didn't want to force it from there. Happily, it powered back closed without a problem. There's a dent on the driver's door that broke the handle, and that same collision put a 4" tear in the fabric top, about which I am annoyed to no end to think that I might have to put out $500 because of a little tear. I've found used doors for about $500, so I'll probably swap one of those in over lunch someday soon.
All in all, I think I got a really good deal and a car that I'm very excited about. Before buying it I was encouraged to see this thriving Z4 community online and I'm sure I'll spend a good deal of time on here as I work out these first kinks.
One other thing I'll say is that in profile, the Z4 reminds me of a ME109 or a P51 Mustang.
And the idea has already struck me to see about a vinyl shark's mouth for the front. But that's for another time.
(Classy, I ain't.)
-Stephen
P.S. We're keeping the minivan but the sedans are both finding new homes.
Here's my story.
This all started about a month ago when I got a wild hair that I wanted a fun car, probably from driving my friend's 80's Alfa soft top a month prior. I'm married with two little ones, in my late 30's and I have a couple sedans that I alternate between as my DDs. I've always been a car guy but I've never had the disposable income to have anything other than reasonable cars with a focus on reliability. We have a good budget going so I figured I could sell one or both and find something fun without interfering with the budget.
I talked to my wife about this and she was totally on-board with it. One thing to note is that she was named after a car, her siblings were given car names, my kids were named after cars as are all their cousins on her side. So this isn't foreign territory at all.
If you were to look at my Craigslist search history you would have found a month of looking for sub-$5000 cars from 1964-1974 or sometimes for notchback Fox bodies, C3 Corvettes or an unmolested Miata. After the first week I came back to my wife and said, "Ya know, it's probably not that great of an idea. If I find a good car it's not going to get good gas mileage and it probably won't be very reliable." She replied, "Our minivan gets terrible gas mileage and it's not very reliable either. Why don't we sell it, you buy your fun car, and I'll drive the Accord?"
She sure is something special.
Well she talked me back into it. I found a few cars I liked, a couple Polaras, a 69 Torino, a Galaxie 500, Darts, stuff like that. I'm a dyed in the wool family man so I won't bump family time for car repair time, which most classics under $5k are in need of. So a couple nights ago before going to bed I took off the year filters, expanded the search to include nearby states, put "roadster" in the search box and clicked "Search." Out popped a 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i with 127k miles.
The next morning I texted my cousin's husband to see if he could go test drive it for me since it was near his house -- and three hours from mine. He's apparently very generous: "Sure thing! Probably not until after late afternoon however. Forgive me for asking though, who is this?"
I got the right test driver. He had it out for 45 minutes, inspecting every nook and cranny. "It's rough on side streets and I would have said don't bother until I took it out on the highway. It's like a rocket there. It got up to 100 no problem. It might need tie rod ends but it's in pretty good shape otherwise. I got it sideways a couple times and it handled pretty well."
They shook on it and that night I withdrew the cash and then went to bed, trying to sleep.
In the morning at about 6:30 my neighbor and I piled into his car with his two big dogs and we headed out. The three hour drive turned into four with a pit stop for the dogs and construction but I sent the occasional text to reassure her we were on the way.
When I got there there wasn't much to do besides buy it. I took it for an obligatory spin around the block and my neighbor suggested we at least pop the hood. Yup, there's an engine in there. Incidentally, that's the longest engine compartment I've ever seen. I'll have to look up specs on a 2nd gen Camaro, but it felt longer. We traded cash for title and keys, I took a selfie with her (the owner, not the car) and I was off!
I got it for a very good price but with that territory comes repairs. The steering column was worked on but somehow left in a state that the horn CONSTANTLY wants to sound. The fuse has been pulled but you can hear the relay incessantly clicking. I wedged a piece of Costco hot dog wrapper to pry it off the contacts for the drive, which was a RELIEF. The power top doesn't want to go down with the button and the allen wrench got it to release but it didn't willingly go much further and I didn't want to force it from there. Happily, it powered back closed without a problem. There's a dent on the driver's door that broke the handle, and that same collision put a 4" tear in the fabric top, about which I am annoyed to no end to think that I might have to put out $500 because of a little tear. I've found used doors for about $500, so I'll probably swap one of those in over lunch someday soon.
All in all, I think I got a really good deal and a car that I'm very excited about. Before buying it I was encouraged to see this thriving Z4 community online and I'm sure I'll spend a good deal of time on here as I work out these first kinks.
One other thing I'll say is that in profile, the Z4 reminds me of a ME109 or a P51 Mustang.
And the idea has already struck me to see about a vinyl shark's mouth for the front. But that's for another time.
(Classy, I ain't.)
-Stephen
P.S. We're keeping the minivan but the sedans are both finding new homes.
North Yorkshire
North West Surrey
.
