Newbie - buying 2nd hand advice please

Y

Yosemite Saem

New member
Evening All
I'm being made redundant shortly and wife and I decided to hell with it so we'd like to buy a Z4 for fun motoring whilst we still can.
Don't have much of a budget so I'm thinking of <£6k and will look at autotrader and the like etc but was hoping for some advice from the hive mind here as to things to watch out for/to be aware of when buying a Z4 please?
cheers in advance
Yos
 
Hello and welcome, I cant offer much advice on the e85 but always try to get Si with heated M sport seats seems a big one.

Check the for sale section on here, currently a few under or around your budget and normally better to buy a forum car as it may have a traceable history or be well know and forumites tend to pamper there cars more

Good luck with the search

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133661
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=129496
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133762
 
Welcome to the forum, bought my E85 from a forum member. It's a 2.2 6 cylinder with sport seats and for me it is enough power although most seem to prefer the oomph of the 3.0. If you go for the Si make sure the water pump is okay or has been replaced as they are electric on these cars and can suddenly pack up it seems. Some say to avoid the 2.0 4 cylinder cars as they are unreliable but members that have these seem to like them. Try to avoid cars with run flat tyres as they give a very hard ride. Anyway good luck with your search and have fun doing it.
 
No need to avoid runflat tyres, they are easily changed! You haven’t said what Z4 you are after, but the budget kinda constrains you to an E85 (1st generation) roadster. Nevertheless, you should be in scope for a pre facelift 3.0i or a post-facelift 2.5Si which has the later N52 engine and is nearly as powerful. A 3.0Si is probably out of reach unless you are comfortable with a higher mileage, and these cars are capable of high mileages if properly maintained.

Heated MSport seats if you can get them, but just heated if you can’t. Be prepared to make compromises to get the car that you want, everything can be fixed and there’s no shortage of help available on the forum.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. :thumbsup:

As has been said those on here with 4 cylinder models seem to like them, but there are other 4 cylinder Roadster options whereas a straight 6 is one of the unique features of the Z4 so would always be my preference.

There were 2.2i, 2.5i and 3.0i models in the pre-facelift range. As they all use the same engine just in different sizes running costs are going to be pretty much the same for any of them.

If you do look at a facelift car (2006 or later) bear in mind that there was a 2.5i with 177bhp and a 2.5Si with 218bhp and the latter ones will generally cost more as they are more desirable. Although 3.0Si models may be out of your budget they have 265bhp.

Here's a link to a buyers' guide someone put together:- https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21281
 
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