john-e89 said:mmm-five said:
Your post is THE perfect reply to what I’m saying, wait until you, ie, all of us, drive it before throwing it into the skip on looks or outright grunt. The whole idea of this car is to get as close to a Boxster as possible, not outright power. It’s heavier than the Boxster but has more power and torque to compensate just as the last 35is had, but whereas the 35is wasn’t in direct competition, and showed in its chassis, this new car, as far as we know, will be and has been developed with that in mind. It’s very very hard to use the power available in a 35is, the chassis just can’t cope with it, but the new car may well be able to going on the track review, it’s design and quite easily at that.
The old saying springs so much to mind here, power is nothing without control, and personally I think this new car will easily be the best handling Zed ever made and will make buying a Boxster or F type over it very very hard indeed. As Tomscott says give it time, I reckon this will be a game changer.
+1
Its easy to jump on the neg bandwagon.
Nobody here has driven it and very few have seen it in person. We have all been waiting and waiting for a new car from BMW which is probably one of the reasons people are upset. On the UK car creator £53k will get you the top end and every spec on the sheet. At the end of the day the 53k region is the cheap end of the performance market. This is the top model at launch and it seems to tick a hell of a lot of boxes for that money.
Dont get me wrong 50K is a lot of money but in the market vs the competition I think BMW have been very clever with its positioning.
People can bang on about competing with boxsters and caymans, the Z will never be mid engined so is at disadvantage from the start. Ive driven my fair share and owned one and I do like them but they are so good that they can be quite boring. Going from the Z4M to the 987 boxster S was pretty disappointing. The BMWs have always made you feel like if you push too hard it could put you through a hedge whereas the Box/Cay wont put a foot wrong.
The Box/Cay S variants start at 48k and you can spec them well into £70k. Now that is a hell of a lot of money for an 'entry level' car in my book especially one with a 4 cylinder that sounds like a 90s impreza. In terms of spec and tech level the Z4 will be roughly £17k cheaper, even if it gets 75-80% close its a great buy in my book, but I have a feeling it will do better than that.
You could buy this new Z and a really good Z4M roadster for the same money. Obviously im only talking new car sales not buying 2-3 year old car because some will buy new some pre owned.
Im not expecting it to be a Boxster S beater. The Standard boxster is in the same price category, the S competes at the M level and always has. BMW have made an M variants of near enough everything in recent years, if they make X5Ms then surely the only sportscar in the lineup must have some sort appeal to the M division. The fact we are at M40i to begin with leaves room for an IS or M. I know BMW have said there wont be an M version... There's no reason not to. Something similar to the M2 CS with the M3/4 engine and some uprated discs, suspension and chassis improvements.
Similarly the F type, lovely car and so good looking. Preowned yes but from new again your looking at another 20k its not a fair comparison. Pretty much ruled out for me as I like to go on euro trips and the boot in the roadster couldn't fit enough luggage for 2 with the roof down.
I have mentioned it before but funny how demographics deal with change. Ive found it amusing going back and reading the posts from 2009 when the E89 was released too.
I dont know why everyone is so down in the mouth I feel pretty optimistic and looking forward to a test drive.
1066 Country
North West Surrey
