Z4 coupe
- Thread starter Lee1
- Start date
Welcome to the forum. 
I'm on my third Coupe now as I just fell in love with the shape the first time I saw one!
Looking for cars advertised on here is a good starting point as they tend to be well looked after, although I found my first one on Autotrader.
They have an electric water pump which will die at some point. When that happens the engine overheats within a mile so it can be a major inconvenience. Some owners get a new one fitted to avoid that, but OE pumps cost around £250/300 so long as you don't buy from BMW as they charge over £500 for the same part. But it is a bonus if you find a car that has recently had a new one fitted.
You need to check everything you would for any other car, but especially look for oil leaks from the cam-cover and oil filter housing as the gaskets tend to get brittle and leak over time. Rear brake pipes can suffer from corrosion in front the passenger side rear wheel and it's worth checking the edges of the tailgate for possible corrosion.
Standard equipment was quite mean although they all had electric seats with driver's memory. Sport models have M-Sport seats which are highly sought after, although some SE models had them as an option. Other options were Bi-Xenon headlights, heated seats, cruise control, rear parking sensors, multi-function steering wheel, Sat Nav, cup-holders, power-fold mirrors, 6 CD changer and upgraded stereos.
So if any of those are "must-have" features you can rule out cars that don't have them. Of them all cruise and cup-holders are fairly easy to retro-fit, the others not so much. I've had cars with some but never all those features. Bi-Xenons are well worth having and the top of the range stereo is great, but the rest probably come down to personal preference.
Happy hunting!
I'm on my third Coupe now as I just fell in love with the shape the first time I saw one!
Looking for cars advertised on here is a good starting point as they tend to be well looked after, although I found my first one on Autotrader.
They have an electric water pump which will die at some point. When that happens the engine overheats within a mile so it can be a major inconvenience. Some owners get a new one fitted to avoid that, but OE pumps cost around £250/300 so long as you don't buy from BMW as they charge over £500 for the same part. But it is a bonus if you find a car that has recently had a new one fitted.
You need to check everything you would for any other car, but especially look for oil leaks from the cam-cover and oil filter housing as the gaskets tend to get brittle and leak over time. Rear brake pipes can suffer from corrosion in front the passenger side rear wheel and it's worth checking the edges of the tailgate for possible corrosion.
Standard equipment was quite mean although they all had electric seats with driver's memory. Sport models have M-Sport seats which are highly sought after, although some SE models had them as an option. Other options were Bi-Xenon headlights, heated seats, cruise control, rear parking sensors, multi-function steering wheel, Sat Nav, cup-holders, power-fold mirrors, 6 CD changer and upgraded stereos.
So if any of those are "must-have" features you can rule out cars that don't have them. Of them all cruise and cup-holders are fairly easy to retro-fit, the others not so much. I've had cars with some but never all those features. Bi-Xenons are well worth having and the top of the range stereo is great, but the rest probably come down to personal preference.
Happy hunting!
Hard to beat the E86 for looks and there's at least four decent examples available in the for sale section of the forum.
However, with prices for decent ones pushing in to Z4MR territory, for me, there's only one way to go.
I've had 3 E86's but if you're buying for the sake of driving it's hard to look past the S54 and in a convertible format there's no better value to be had than the E85.
Enjoy the search and undoubtedly you'll enjoy the experience once it arrives whichever way you go
However, with prices for decent ones pushing in to Z4MR territory, for me, there's only one way to go.
I've had 3 E86's but if you're buying for the sake of driving it's hard to look past the S54 and in a convertible format there's no better value to be had than the E85.
Enjoy the search and undoubtedly you'll enjoy the experience once it arrives whichever way you go
