Newbie introduction - Car potentially on the way!

[zmaster007]

Hi Guys,

Finally in a position to look for a Z4MC! It's been a dream car for me since launch, and I want to own one before the values go up too much, and before they get more expensive to maintain due to age.

My perfect car is:
- not (sapphire) black, white or red
- Sat nav
- folding mirrors (so it fits in the garage!)

I've seen that there is a nice car currently at Munich legends, hopefully I will find be time to see it soon (I'm in North Hertfordshire). I will be doing approx 90 miles per day so going for a low miles car to begin with might help things.

Things I already know about z4m
- the 1200 mile running in service is crucial
- the idrive isn't great (would appreciate advice on whether sat nav is a must have as it does seem to push the values up)

Questions:
- anything I should look out for while car hunting?
- is the BMW warranty worth the premium
- are there any forum cars currently for sale that you guys would recommend?


A little bit about me - I currently own a tastefully modified 118i, which will be part exchanged for the M. A few pics:







So yeah, hi!

 

[flimper]

No idrive on the M, nice and basic

 

[StevenH72]

welcome,

as Flimper mentioned there is no idrive on the ///M, but the Nav does appear to affect resale. If you are looking at the one at ML your budget is obviously high enough to afford one with a nav so I'd definitely go for it.

Things to look out for: the cars are pretty reliable but there are a few gremlins that some cars suffer from: Engine Hesitation, Vanos issues and rod bearing failures. A quick search on here will give you plenty of reading materials for those.

The warranty issue is a very split opinion on here. Personally I don't bother, but then I only cover ~4-5k per year, if you are travelling 90 miles / day then it could be worth consideration.

These cars change hands quite often, so don't be too put off by high number of previous owners, it doesn't necessarily mean the car is a lemon, seeing 4-5 previous owners now is not uncommon on decent examples.

 

[Ninarvana]

Welcome to the forum Zmaster
Firstly, really like your 118 - I'm currently selling my 130 to offset my new Z purchase so I'm a fan of the hatches!

The Munich Legends car you mentioned I have personally driven. I was searching for a low mileage example for 8 months to which Ruby Black was my first preference... Luck had it that ML got this car in the day AFTER I settled and collected a forum car that came up for sale! Typical! I was due in there with my new MC for Munich Legends to health check so whilst there I took a good look at the Ruby and took her out for a test drive as I was actually considering doing a swap but in the end decided to stick with my Interlagos as I did love the car combined with the Ruby being on 'Sale on return' so I couldn't do a direct swap. I can fully vouch that the Ruby drives 100% and is a first class car... Had I not bought the forum car this would have been my car and I am VERY fussy as most people on here know after my long search! The car has good spec and is in top condition, it also comes with a BMW warranty which may well be a good route for you if you rack up the miles and has been serviced correctly. I would now only use ML for my car(s) and recommend them highly... If you are interested in the car, by all means give reception a call and you are welcome to mention I (Nina) 'vouched' for the car as such. They can also give you an indication of P/Xing the 1er as thy can offer that too.

I personally like having the nav... Gives you on-screen integration plus I find the nav itself works adequately.

There are so few M's on the market right now, numbers have seen a slump whilst prices continue to rise. Combining this with trying to find a car that has been serviced and cared for correctly means the real gems are few and far between... If you have the budget, I would seriously recommend you taking a look at the Ruby, or that aside, ML is a great place to visit for all the tasty M cars that fill the showroom

 

[stevo///m3]

I can only answer your first Q. Watch out for dodgy dealers (not ML by all accounts), dodgy rattling engines and the massive kick in the back when you press the loud pedal if you do buy a Z4MC - that covers my advice I reckon!
Welcome to the forum
Stevo

 

[Adamski]

Welcome to the forum.

Given how generally bulletproof these cars are, and that many an E46 M3 has 150k + on the clock, I wouldn't be too concerned about finding a low mileage example, particularly if you're going to be adding 25,000 miles a year on it.

Very few common faults with these cars, most are covered above. Rear springs are a common failure on all E85/86 models. Typically they have a life of around 40k miles.

Happy hunting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tertius]

Welcome to the forum Zmaster


I personally like having the nav... Gives you on-screen integration plus I find the nav itself works adequately.

"adequately" is an extremely generous assessment of the M's SatNav performance. I have conducted extensive, rigorous and methodical tests and can reveal that the M system is exactly 11.24% as good as my £100 TomTom (approximately).

To be fair a newer disc might help but they are an absolutely extortionate price.

 

[jimmybell]

I've got the latest firmware and the latest DVD for my nav, it's fine. I tend to battle between it and Google Maps - and google maps tends to only come out in heavy traffic for more options.

The real plus of the Nav is the display for Intravee.


Oh - and i like your 1series Mods look nice. Tempted to get one in the long run as 'the practical car'.

 

[StevenH72]

I've got the latest firmware and the latest DVD for my nav, it's fine. I tend to battle between it and Google Maps - and google maps tends to only come out in heavy traffic for more options.

The real plus of the Nav is the display for Intravee.


Oh - and i like your 1series Mods look nice. Tempted to get one in the long run as 'the practical car'.

I get along fine with my nav also. Get the latest maps from eBay...much cheaper.

 

[Adamski]

I find the Z4 Satnav ok. It does what it's supposed to. Do I use it for navigation? Rarely.

Do I like the display and attached functions for DSP etc? Yes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zmaster007]

Thanks for the warm welcome and kind words about the 118. It's been a good car, but jimmybell, if you do go for a 1er, avoid the 4cyl petrol engines. They are thirsty and suffer from repeated coil pack failures. I get an average of 27mpg out of mine (!).

Ah ok so it's just a Nav system, and not the 1st gen idrive? Maybe I'll have to go an see a car and see whether it's worth the extra money.

Thank you for all the advice so far!

 

[BlackOut]

Welcome - hope you find the right M for you. You'll certainly enjoy it when you do and there is a wealth of information on the forum to help you out!

Mine comes with the Nav, the biggest problem is the fact it only does 5 digit postcodes so you need the supporting number and road name - not a problem when you are visiting a house but a little more annoying if you cannot find said number in advance it ends up taking you to the general area.
It's also an older style sat nav so it hasn't got the POI functionality of the newer units but to be honest, with an up to date disc, mine has taken me up the road to the shops (or a shop I've never been too ;-)) all the way to a tiny village in the South of France without real issue.

It could be better, yes. But then so could just about anything in life. It's more fun getting lost any way - that's how you find the best roads

Warranty-wise - totally personal preference but I've been unfortunate with a couple of big bills and it would have been cheaper to pay for a warranty:

Stuck caliper - resulting in badgered caliper, warped disc and scuppered pads so needed a new caliper, front discs (pair) and front pads (both sides) and a flooded xenon unit that took out the ballast and corroded all internal wiring so needed an entirely new headlight unit.
Both could have happened to any car you own but I wish I'd kept shelling out for the warranty...or maybe that's the hindsight kicking in..???

Nice 1er by the way.

 

[Ninarvana]

Whatever you do, don't look at this one that's just come back up for sale:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/z4m-coupe/bwm-z4-m-coupe-3-2/2444065
It was for sale privately in Birmingham and I had arranged to see it to then find out it hadn't been serviced in 4 years... Such a waste.

 

[zmaster007]

Thanks! I was actually looking at that one because it was similar to the ML car but with more miles. Will avoid!

 

[Bing]

Welcome - lovely 1er, good luck with your search

I am another fan of the nav - it gets me where I want to go 95% of the time, the other 5% is what google maps is for. Also, when you reach a location you can store the car's position with a 'favourites' name, on 2007 cars and later there are two tuners in the head-unit so you get basic traffic alerts on your selected route when listening to a radio station other than classic fm... And there is basic POI information actually, but it is quite clunky and well-hidden under a menu item called 'travel information' or something, which is in one of the navigation menus somewhere.

 

[jimmybell]

With the right DVD and firmware - the Nav can (as mine does) alert you to speedcamera locations.

 

[zmaster007]

I saw the approved used car at Sytner Leicester today. Nice car, low miles but with more stone chips than I would expect for 28k miles. The dealer agreed and offered to respray the front end to improve things. The car didn't have nav, but there was another z4 on site that had the navigation - I can't say I was a huge fan of it, I actually thought it dated the car a tad. The flip up screen is pretty cool, but after that I found the nav system a bit clunky. Maybe it's not a must have for me!

 

[zmaster007]

Just come across the Zanetti Auto car - a quick search on the forum shows it's been on sale for a while..does anyone know why?

 

[DPG]

Just come across the Zanetti Auto car - a quick search on the forum shows it's been on sale for a while..does anyone know why?

Does look a lovely car but it has been for sale for ages.

Price seems ok for spec and mileage

 

[zmaster007]

I got a call back from him, told him to come up with finance numbers, and never heard back. Not sure the car exists or he whether he wants to sell it. Apparently it was sold by zanetti in 2013 and has come back to them from the new owner to resell. Did some snooping on his facebook page, the pictures that he is using this time are the same pictures as last year. Seems fishy to me. Been a week now with no call back.

In better news, I've put a deposit down on an approved used car, going to see it on friday, very excited! Midnight blue with Light Sepang leather, Nav, DSP, folding mirrors (!) and heated leather, bluetooth etc.

Been looking at iPhone options, seems most here go for the intravee. Searched through the forum and saw a post from a member that had a bit of a hassle fitting the intravee to a car with DSP and CDC - is this the case? If so, I was thinking of going down the ashtray aux option - the car is a Sept 06 build so I don't think it'll have AUX from factory as far as I am aware.