What to replace it with...

[paulcockermouth]

I bought a Z4 3.0i last spring to scratch an itch for a convertible (a long held desire). To be perfectly honest I haven't enjoyed it as much as I expected. Its a 3rd car (my daily is an A6 tdi and g/f has a Fabia VRS) that was supposed to be fast (its reasonable), handles well (it does), look good (it does) and is easy/reliable etc (it has been). My problems are two fold:

1) I feel a real **** with the roof down.
2) It isn't used as much as it should (I'd rather take the A6 quattro in the snow/ice/rain!) and is sat looking forlorn in the corner of the garden.

I realise that this is a Z4 forum and I will get flamed but I dont think I could ever have another convertible....I wouldnt mind a Z4M coupe though!

My plan is to go from 3-->2 cars. Sell all 3 and get a diesel snotter for the daily grind (15miles commute and holidays), thinking V50/V70 or Passat estate and an Audi S3 (265bhp) for the g/f (2 mile commute and then its mine for the weekend!).

The g/f will only drive a maximum size around the Golf/A3.It has to manual and I dont want her to have RWD (as the car needs to be powerful!) and we live/drive on mostly little country lanes that are untreated.

So far:
1)Audi S3 (2009 15-30k miles)
2)New Golf GTI (demonstrator)
3)Focus ST (new)
4)Mini Cooper S (new)

I like my cars (I dont think I'm the greatest driver in the world but I do like 'quickish' cars) so it needs to have performance comparable(to an extent) to the Zed and ideally 4wd/fwd and give 30mpg on a run (we may use it for holidays sans child)...

Apologies in advance.....

 

[Wondermike]

Know what you mean about the roof down thing.

I'd have the S3 out of that lot any time.

 

[playalistic]

I'd go S3 too if the Z4C is out of the question.

 

[paulcockermouth]

I really liked the S3 when we drove it. It felt far faster than the Z4 (good old turbos!) even though its not that much quicker. I'm concerned that the new A3 is out next year and the prices will crash at this point.

 

[Wondermike]

Don't think that would have a massive effect on a 2009 car though, the new S3 won't come out at first so it might be 2012 before it comes out, and that is a very different price point.

 

[paulcockermouth]

Thats a good point about the delay before an S car comes out...I did really like the S3! (I would love a Z4M but I wouldnt want it as a daily snotter and wouldn't want the g/f to drive it in the winter months)