I've yet to drive one, but the looks are growing on me after spending a day in a BMW garage waiting around for them to do a few jobs on my F30.
I know it'll never be an E85. But if it can capture the spirit in a new way, then great.
The looks on the outside at least are interesting enough to be challenging, and that means it'll age well and never look too dated. I thought the E85 looked crap in 2003, but by 2009 I loved it haha.
My main issues were:
A generic dash/gauges.
The entire BMW range shares the same dash design now.
The E85 Z4 was very unique inside and so much better for it. So much is the same in the BMW range, it just doesn't feel special vs how the E85 felt at the time it was new and even now 15+ years later.
And on the dash, how bad is it to have a dash in a driving sports car so cluttered? Speedo with multiple linearity steps... that could easily catch you out at 60-80mph range... right in the region where clarity is the difference between points or a ban.
BMW should have done a unique and more focussed dash for sport mode at least. Nice clear dials, linear, easy to read, no wasted space for nav info or whatever.
Options stratification.
I don't mind paying for a good car. But I do mind a lot, being limited to what I can have... especially as the car becomes limited the more you're spending.
Why does the M40i get less colour options? You pay more, you get a car more likely to look like everyone elses, or the batmobile. Not good.
Why do you have to get gold trim, or black trim? Gold goes with none of the colours on offer alongside any other colour, so you're limitedd to a black interior without it looking a bit 'over-coloured'. Black on black is maybe ok, but not with forced black wheels too.
But with black interior its dowdy. With gold trim outside, choosing a colour inside, leaves you with a mess of colours. It's too much in my opinion. The lower models are actually much more sophisticated and classy looking because of the colour combos, and avoidance of black wheels.
And the basic model exhausts look better.
No manual. On a sports car. Honestly? Maybe it'll suit the M40i. Who knows. But still very sad that for their single 'sports' car Z car in their huge range of vehicles, they couldn't fit a manual gearbox.
Now if I could option an M40i in silver, darker silver details (grill surround etc), with red leather interior, round exhausts, and have a pair of round graphic dials with less clutter (in sport mode), I'd be pretty much sold pending a test drive... oh and someone else ordering it, owning it 3 years, then trading it in where I jump in and buy it haha!
But honestly, if it drove well enough, I can see me getting one in a few years. But I'd certainly want to get the right colour combo to then be able to 'mod' things.
I think I'd go for an M40i, any colour exterior (sans frozen). Any non-black interior. Silver wheels. Silver trim. Round exhaust back end.
Thankfully it looks like most M40i will get heavily optioned, so no worries there.
I'm genuinely interested if anyone has bought one brand new and gone for an individual colour?
Also curious if when ordering you can customise a bit more than the configurator suggests? Ie, can you go for silver trim, or are you stuck with gold or black only on the M40i?
I'm hopeful that the options open up a bit on these. Compared to the E85, the G29 is like 3x less choices on colours, wheels, interiors, gearboxes etc.
Thanks for reading.
I know it'll never be an E85. But if it can capture the spirit in a new way, then great.
The looks on the outside at least are interesting enough to be challenging, and that means it'll age well and never look too dated. I thought the E85 looked crap in 2003, but by 2009 I loved it haha.
My main issues were:
A generic dash/gauges.
The entire BMW range shares the same dash design now.
The E85 Z4 was very unique inside and so much better for it. So much is the same in the BMW range, it just doesn't feel special vs how the E85 felt at the time it was new and even now 15+ years later.
And on the dash, how bad is it to have a dash in a driving sports car so cluttered? Speedo with multiple linearity steps... that could easily catch you out at 60-80mph range... right in the region where clarity is the difference between points or a ban.
BMW should have done a unique and more focussed dash for sport mode at least. Nice clear dials, linear, easy to read, no wasted space for nav info or whatever.
Options stratification.
I don't mind paying for a good car. But I do mind a lot, being limited to what I can have... especially as the car becomes limited the more you're spending.
Why does the M40i get less colour options? You pay more, you get a car more likely to look like everyone elses, or the batmobile. Not good.
Why do you have to get gold trim, or black trim? Gold goes with none of the colours on offer alongside any other colour, so you're limitedd to a black interior without it looking a bit 'over-coloured'. Black on black is maybe ok, but not with forced black wheels too.
But with black interior its dowdy. With gold trim outside, choosing a colour inside, leaves you with a mess of colours. It's too much in my opinion. The lower models are actually much more sophisticated and classy looking because of the colour combos, and avoidance of black wheels.
And the basic model exhausts look better.
No manual. On a sports car. Honestly? Maybe it'll suit the M40i. Who knows. But still very sad that for their single 'sports' car Z car in their huge range of vehicles, they couldn't fit a manual gearbox.
Now if I could option an M40i in silver, darker silver details (grill surround etc), with red leather interior, round exhausts, and have a pair of round graphic dials with less clutter (in sport mode), I'd be pretty much sold pending a test drive... oh and someone else ordering it, owning it 3 years, then trading it in where I jump in and buy it haha!
But honestly, if it drove well enough, I can see me getting one in a few years. But I'd certainly want to get the right colour combo to then be able to 'mod' things.
I think I'd go for an M40i, any colour exterior (sans frozen). Any non-black interior. Silver wheels. Silver trim. Round exhaust back end.
Thankfully it looks like most M40i will get heavily optioned, so no worries there.
I'm genuinely interested if anyone has bought one brand new and gone for an individual colour?
Also curious if when ordering you can customise a bit more than the configurator suggests? Ie, can you go for silver trim, or are you stuck with gold or black only on the M40i?
I'm hopeful that the options open up a bit on these. Compared to the E85, the G29 is like 3x less choices on colours, wheels, interiors, gearboxes etc.
Thanks for reading.
