Hi all. New Member here. Just wanted to tell my story how I became a member of the Z4 club.
We, my 19 year old son and I, bought our 2005 BMW Z4 from a local dealership around Oct 2020. He needed a new car. I wanted him to get some reliable compact SUV, but he saw the Z4 in the lot and loved it. He had the money to buy it himself, and I've always wanted a convertible anyway, so sure, let's get it! Got it checked out, it was supposedly good to go, and off we went. Unfortunately, it seems we've had issue after issue with it.
The stereo didn't work. We knew it didn't, but I figured I'd drop a new stereo in there with no problem. I didn't realize that it had a special system with its own amp making it not so easy to replace. But I bought an amp and finally had sound. But I screwed it up, see my Door Speakers don't work post for the details.
I think every light on the dashboard has been on at one time or another. SES, air bag, the brake trio of lights, you name it, it's been on. So it's been in the shop a few times and failed state inspection. I finally bought a BMW code reader this past weekend and was successful in clearing codes, but it read close to 30 errors that I need to get fixed.
The roof latch motor needed to be replaced. Replacing it wasn't a problem, but now the front plastic part of the roof is broken. See my other post for details on that. And honestly, I didn't know the roof automatically opened and closed. I always thought it was manual until I started doing research recently. Opening and closing by hand is not a problem, so replacing that motor isn't a priority for me at this point. And I've read it's not an easy fix.
There have been other problems, but those are the ones I can remember
So my son had been happily driving it since we're bought it. He just left for boot camp last week so I guess the car is mine for awhile. My DD is a 2010 Nissan Armada. I love it, but gas mileage on it is a ridiculous 12 mile/gallon, and I finally hit the $100 mark to fill it the other day. So I figure I can mix in driving the Z4 a little bit to save gas. But I also just realized Z4 uses premium. So not sure how much I'd be saving.
I really want to like this car. It's so fun to drive. And it's a great mid life crisis look on me (I'm in my 50s). But I also don't want to spend my life savings to keep it running.
Anyway, that's my story. I'm hoping to get a lot of good info off this forum. Thanks for reading.
We, my 19 year old son and I, bought our 2005 BMW Z4 from a local dealership around Oct 2020. He needed a new car. I wanted him to get some reliable compact SUV, but he saw the Z4 in the lot and loved it. He had the money to buy it himself, and I've always wanted a convertible anyway, so sure, let's get it! Got it checked out, it was supposedly good to go, and off we went. Unfortunately, it seems we've had issue after issue with it.
The stereo didn't work. We knew it didn't, but I figured I'd drop a new stereo in there with no problem. I didn't realize that it had a special system with its own amp making it not so easy to replace. But I bought an amp and finally had sound. But I screwed it up, see my Door Speakers don't work post for the details.
I think every light on the dashboard has been on at one time or another. SES, air bag, the brake trio of lights, you name it, it's been on. So it's been in the shop a few times and failed state inspection. I finally bought a BMW code reader this past weekend and was successful in clearing codes, but it read close to 30 errors that I need to get fixed.
The roof latch motor needed to be replaced. Replacing it wasn't a problem, but now the front plastic part of the roof is broken. See my other post for details on that. And honestly, I didn't know the roof automatically opened and closed. I always thought it was manual until I started doing research recently. Opening and closing by hand is not a problem, so replacing that motor isn't a priority for me at this point. And I've read it's not an easy fix.
There have been other problems, but those are the ones I can remember
So my son had been happily driving it since we're bought it. He just left for boot camp last week so I guess the car is mine for awhile. My DD is a 2010 Nissan Armada. I love it, but gas mileage on it is a ridiculous 12 mile/gallon, and I finally hit the $100 mark to fill it the other day. So I figure I can mix in driving the Z4 a little bit to save gas. But I also just realized Z4 uses premium. So not sure how much I'd be saving.
I really want to like this car. It's so fun to drive. And it's a great mid life crisis look on me (I'm in my 50s). But I also don't want to spend my life savings to keep it running.
Anyway, that's my story. I'm hoping to get a lot of good info off this forum. Thanks for reading.
olice:
