Newbie E86 advice please

[Fugitive]

Hi. Ok so I'm a newbie. Think this is 4th post there or thereabouts. Love the forum. Some great info out there & some funny stuff too. Think I'm addicted.

Mrs Fugitive has finally caved in (at last) & is allowing me to switch from Italian (Fiat) to German (E86).

I'm right smack bang in the market for an E86 this Summer. Have loved the car for years. Time to get one - though I accept this could be a mid life crisis!

Anyway. I'm set on the spec I'm after. It's colour I'm having trouble with. By that I mean actual car colour, interior and combinations of both.

Can any owners and/or ex owners please share their thoughts? Understandably you might be biased to what you own, but there might be some thoughts on what suits the car best. Perhaps you bought black but now think silver shows the curves best, etc, etc?
Would be v v grateful for any advice and experiences.

Cheers.

 

[Jembo]

There's a red one just come up if ur quick

 

[-Tom-]

I'm on my second Silver Grey - out of choice! Love the colour on the car, shows the curves and plays around a bit in different lights. With that paint, I've had a white/ivory kind of colour and now red. I'm not 100% sure which interior colour I prefer tbh - although my red reminds me more of a r r r racing car

 

[stevo///m3]

I'm biased - I have a black Sapphire metallic which looks lovely IMHO although there are better colours available - black is nice and seems to be one of the more common colours for e86s but If I could go back to BMW and choose the colour I definitely think the grey/silver colours are beautiful with red leather. There are a couple of reds availabble - Imola and Dream red spring to mind, there may be others. I'm not sure if I mean titanium silver - I think there is a grey/silver that looks awesome but I couldn't tell you the name of it. As an alternative, I go for carbon black - you'll probably know that colour - the black/blue that a load of E46 M3s came with. That looks fab if kept spotless. Failing all of which, interlagos blue and cream/champagne leather is a good match, or even with just black leather.
Stevo

 

[bluestreak56]

Deep Green, Ruby black best two imo

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Big Red Cat]

It can depend on what your budget is & how long you would be willing to wait for your perfect combination to come along.
Last year when I was looking for an e85 bottom of my list was silver as I had previously had 2 silver BMWs & wanted a change. Second bottom was black as there are a lot of them about. The nearest e85 I could test drive was titanium silver, walked into the dealers & fell in love with it & that was the one I bought.
When I was looking for an Alpina on my budget colour choice was not really an option. I love it in black sapphire but boy does it show the dirt.
I never wanted a red car until I saw Stuart's Imola red MR it is just gorgeous.
If money was no object I would have an Alpina in Alpina blue but hey ho.

 

[Stug]

When I was searching only sapphire black with red leather and piano black interior would do. I still feel this is the best combo by far. You really need to see the black range in the metal. Photos do them no justice at all.
conversely when I bought a Roadster only sterling grey with black leather would

 

[un1eash]

Phoenix Yellow!

 

[stevo///m3]

When I was searching only sapphire black with red leather and piano black interior would do. I still feel this is the best combo by far. You really need to see the black range in the metal. Photos do them no justice at all.
conversely when I bought a Roadster only sterling grey with black leather would

Great choice Stug. I've fluked your ideal MC!
Stevo

 

[y3putt]

I think on the Coupes a Ruby or Sapphire Black with Ivory or cream leather..

Finished off with 19" CSL's

De badged...the mutts nuts..IMO..

 

[Wa'ya]

When I got mine used, I really didn't care so much for the green, the last 3 cars I owned were either silver or charcoal, but as I started looking around there were 6 shades of gray local and 4 black ones but only 1 dark green. Guess it grew on me cause I bought the Deep Metallic Green one now I love the color. I wish it had the walnut leather interior but I've got black leather, who knows I may have it reupholstered down the road. Grin

 

[Phil H]

Having made the mistake twice over the last 20 years I will never buy a black/black metallic car ever again. They look great in the showroom and for the first 10 minutes after you've just spent the day polishing them. And then the dust begins to gather! You can't get away with just washing and leathering off as the tiny water marks still show. And any dents/ scratches seem to stand out more on black than any other colour....all just my opinion!

I knew that I wanted a grey metallic E86 from the start, although for me the blue metallic looks good too! I was not sure about a black interior, but that is what mine has and I'm actually quite happy with the look of it with the grey paint.

 

[Stug]

When I was searching only sapphire black with red leather and piano black interior would do. I still feel this is the best combo by far. You really need to see the black range in the metal. Photos do them no justice at all.
conversely when I bought a Roadster only sterling grey with black leather would

Great choice Stug. I've fluked your ideal MC!
Stevo

Well played Stevo...Awesome looking car isnt it.

 

[tomscott]

Silver grey and a red leather interior or Carbon black with red would be my perfect option. But Any black from BMW is a pain the last car I had was carbon black and you literally breath on it for it to swirl PITA. Have to be nifty with a DA to make sure it always looks good.

I have silver grey, the curves are pretty insane when the sun hits it. Interior is black which makes it a little subdued but still looks awesome, imo its all about contrast

I also have the carbon leather interior which is M only but looks fantastic. Last thing I would have is the piano black, looks great but reflects and scratches like mad. Aluminium is nice but again it can blind you in the cabin.

 

[stevo///m3]

Silver grey and a red leather interior or Carbon black with red would be my perfect option. But Any black from BMW is a pain the last car I had was carbon black and you literally breath on it for it to swirl PITA. Have to be nifty with a DA to make sure it always looks good.

I have silver grey, the curves are pretty insane when the sun hits it. Interior is black which makes it a little subdued but still looks awesome, imo its all about contrast

I also have the carbon leather interior which is M only but looks fantastic. Last thing I would have is the piano black, looks great but reflects and scratches like mad. Aluminium is nice but again it can blind you in the cabin.

That's exactly what I meant - this grey looks fantastic IMO. Black shows off your detailing if you can get it right, lasts a good 10 mins before it gets dirty again so probably worth the 8 hours it takes to get it there, but this grey/silver effect is completely transfixing.
Stevo

 

[tomscott]

Ye and silver grey in my experience shows exactly zero swirls, they are there but extremely difficult to find even in direct sunlight.

Also the paint barely shows any marks at all, very easy to look after and doesn't look dirty.

In these pics I had done around 100 miles over fells country roads etc in the middle of November and looks clean.





It does help if you protect the car properly which effectively repels the dirt which I am pretty anal about don't usually spend 2-3hours on a good detail it will get a 2-3 day treatment but find a deep clean protects the car much better and needs to be cleaned less.

 

[StevenH72]

I love my carbon black, in the sun it's the best colour imo. Tom's right it's a pain to keep looking good, but if you have a decent cleaning regime it's not too much of a problem. Poor Boys Black Hole is a fantastic product to keep black cars looking fantastic and is easy to use.

That said, Titanium Silver is a great colour and really suits the E86 imo.

 

[edd_jedi]

As you say this is all completely subjective, but what I found when looking was that the vast majority of dark Z4s come with light (grey, red or cream) interiors. Now I'm not that fussy about external colour, I even went to see an oxford green one, but I personally HATE any interior colour other than black. Sure grey and cream look lovely when they're brand new, but after 5-10 years even with a lot of care they start to look drab. Just look at any E31 8 series to see what I mean - beautiful cars ruined by dreadful, dated interiors. So for me a black interior was a must-have. As you can see my interior wasn't black when I bought the car, I swapped the interior, which was quite a lot of work but well worth it. some people think it's boring, but personally I love the 'Batman' look of my dark-on-dark Z4:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56947

 

[tomscott]

Edd_Jedi is correct black is a classic colour that doesn't date it also suits the premium quality of the product. Which when I couldn't find a Z4M with the colour interior I wanted Black was the natural on the fence colour.

At the same time the Z is an indulgent purchase and on the road its necessity is a lot less than other cars so having something a little more exclusive is always an addition to the package. Leather restoration is so good these days that a day or so will have your interior looking like new again.

What I will say is the Z interior isn't its strongest point, not as high quality as some other BMW interiors so wears poorly and needs attention, also a few plastic components are prone to breaking so ensure the interior is in good nick parts are hard to come by. Also drivers bolsters wear quickly with simply because people slide in with the car being so low. Easy to repair as long as there are no tears.

 

[ab7]

It's colour I'm having trouble with. By that I mean actual car colour, interior and combinations of both.

Can any owners and/or ex owners please share their thoughts? Understandably you might be biased to what you own, but there might be some thoughts on what suits the car best. Perhaps you bought black but now think silver shows the curves best, etc, etc?
Would be v v grateful for any advice and experiences.

Cheers.

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I was in your situation a few years back, and knew I wanted a blue E86. I liked the idea of a light interior but not with silver trim, so decided I either wanted black leather, or cream with piano black dash.

After looking for a long time my ideal car appeared at a dealership with only 12k on the clock. Midnight blue with champagne nappa interior and piano dash. I didn't know what to expect of midnight blue but cleaned up it looks awesome especially on a sunny day. Problem is like black etc. it doesn't take much for it to look dirty. Likewise the champagne nappa requires a fair bit of attention to keep it looking clean but personally I love the combination and it's worth the extra bit of work. I get a lot of comments about the colour combination and particularly the interior.

I've been browsing E89's recently, and I'm looking at deep sea blue with cream/ white interior, so either it's worth the effort or I've not learnt my lesson 8)

A not brilliant photo below... need to take some when the sun comes out this year!

P.s Tom love the snow pics