Copied from Z4-forum.com
Well, it’s been a year now since I picked up the Z4! Although last Jan certainly wasn’t as snowy as it is this yr! Argh!
Anyway, I thought I would produce a short write of my experience to date, complete with costings. I hope this can be useful for potential buyers and guys who have just bought the car.
I have previously only been a Renault owner, ranging from my first Clio 1.2, to a Williams, RS 172’s and currently V6. In a lot of ways my passion for the V6 still remains. I’ve had it for over 3yrs now!
At the end of 2008 I decided that I wanted something a bit more refined and useable. I had been in current employment for near on a yr and was fairly comfortable in the role. The choices for ‘said’ car were limited. I’m not a Jap fan at all and for my budget £22k, the Z4MC ticked all the boxes. My original intention was to buy a Car around April time to avoid the grotty Scottish winter. But alas I got bored of the 172 I bought for winter VERY quickly.
On wed the 28th Jan, I spotted a car on Pistonheads, also a Z4-Forum members. http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8708&p=133918#p133918 it was in the colour I wanted with a relatively low mileage and a good 10k away from any hefty servicing expense. That night I bit the bullet and raised the required money. I booked a flight to Cardiff and was met and greeted by Phil. (Top man) I was taken immediately on face value, given that all the banks were all closed that day and I handed over 22k’s worth of a bankers draft…then again, I’d like to think I come across trust worthy. We gas’d about cars for about an hour, signed all the relevant paperwork and then I was on my way…Cardiff to Glasgow in one go! YAWN…Long bloody way, by the way!! Anyway, taking it easy for the first hour, I got the opportunity to play about with the toys, the awesome Logic 7 stereo and the sat nav., which is still a mystery to me tbh! I was returning a comfortable 31mpg at 70mph! I’ve not seen that figure EVER again! Lol
Anyway first impressions of the car was the solid feel, the immediate power and sharpness of the throttle on sport, with a couple of silly bursts I was assured that it was “nippy!!!”
Anyway. Returned to Glasgow in this state…Yuk! And I was immediately on with Stage 1 of the detail. (thanks to Alan for the assistance in -1deg temps)
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9040
On inspection my only gripe with the car was a minor scuff on the front bumper…it wasn’t correctable without inflicting more harm than good. With a minor wet sand and polish it was looking better but not perfect. I was convinced after the detail that the car had seen paint before, so I took the bumper off, all the brackets looked fine, so I assume it was just given a “poor” front end respray by the 1st owner. (Not Phil)
At this point I was considering modding the car…I really need to grow out of this! But given the initial outlay I decided to enjoy it for a while…Plus the weather was crap anyway.
With a couple of months passing, I still wasn’t 100% comfortable with the car, I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t really feel apart of it. Whilst it was hugely fast and handled very well, I felt it lacked soul…(I still feel this now) Problem was I was continually comparing it to the V6 which is radical looking and so so rare. The V6 has the noise and presence which I crave every time I hit the road… Once I accepted that it was never going to be that, I started to enjoy it more…bizarre but true
Here come the faults….
Well I suppose the joy of warranty is to get everything rectified in the given time frame.
• Broken Engine mounts - £400 circa
• Broken Alternator - £300 circa
• 2 sets of Lamda sensors. - £500 circs
• Gearbox end seal. (Box out job) - £200
Nothing major, but unexpected!! He who says BMW’s are bombproof were clearly telling fibs. Anyway, duly fixed by Aberdeen’s John Clark and a courtesy car provided on each occasion. This left me with a very satisfied impression of the BMW dealer network.
Driving the car
Given that I’ve always driven lowered cars, or sports cars with coils, the perception of smooth ride differs from person to person. I personally never found the M to be uncomfortable. And with the Eibachs, it’s visually improved the car whilst maintaining the handling characteristics. I’m yet to track the car, but I have the utmost confidence in the balance and poise of the chassis.
The performance is as you would expect from the M cars, fast, both low down torque and top end power. Nuff said really. I drive with Sport mode on all the time once moving, but not in traffic. The Lazy pickup due to the FBW does annoy me.
The biggest let down for me is the gearbox, it’s tiresome and clumsy and after tryin the SMG, I wish they’d gone down that route. It’s bearable but not great.
Snow driving – LOL! Lets not go there…s**te to be quite polite.
Couple of pics from the year.
Costs…
Up to now the core costs have been Inspection 1. – Circa £660. This was done in Aberdeen; I made every precaution to ensure the work was carried out properly. That included a sneaky painting of a couple of bolts to ensure they carried out the critical valve clearance checks. Pathetic I know, but my trust in dealers, esp. with less than 6 months of warranty left is not what it used to be.
Insurance – I was 23 when I bought the car, as part of a multi car discount it was £664 for the yr. I have just renewed it and it’s costing basically the same £646 iirc, but that includes a lower excess and the elevated VAT.
Fuel costs – meh. (Ignore this section) but if you really want to know. Approx 16-18mpg in town traffic, 26-28 on the motorway at 80+ Approx 250 to a tank of £53 pounds.
Tax - £225 for 6 months!
Costs to come will include rear tyres. Currently I have PS2’s which will NOT be replaced, not for 300+£ a corner. I have Vredesteins ready to go on which cost £182!
Additions…
Since owning the car, I have made a number of visual changes to the car, imo, all for the positive. I had the front end and sills resprayed as there was some chips and that scuff to the front bumper, I also had them smooth the front end. (Personally I love it, I appreciate it’s marmite to some) and I fitted Eibachs and CSL wheels to beef it up a little.
Stage 2 detail was a bit more intense.
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14093
Future additions coming very soon – Carbon Roof and Meistershaft rear boxes + A13 LYR (Thanks Santa) Maybe….8 pots…Maybe,!!! At some point you have to know when to draw the line!!
Overall opinion
After a bit of a negative start, I’ve grown to really like the M, it’s a great daily driver, it looks great, it performs well, and it carries a great image. It gets the looks that it deserves with the mod’s I’ve made and I enjoy driving it, be it to work or for pleasure. Given that I paid 22k for it, after 6k miles, I’ve not lost any money; in fact, I reckon I could sell it for more than I paid for it. Bonus!
(Apologies for the shocking grammar and spelling but I hope this has given you a flavour for the car)
Ali
Well, it’s been a year now since I picked up the Z4! Although last Jan certainly wasn’t as snowy as it is this yr! Argh!
Anyway, I thought I would produce a short write of my experience to date, complete with costings. I hope this can be useful for potential buyers and guys who have just bought the car.
I have previously only been a Renault owner, ranging from my first Clio 1.2, to a Williams, RS 172’s and currently V6. In a lot of ways my passion for the V6 still remains. I’ve had it for over 3yrs now!
At the end of 2008 I decided that I wanted something a bit more refined and useable. I had been in current employment for near on a yr and was fairly comfortable in the role. The choices for ‘said’ car were limited. I’m not a Jap fan at all and for my budget £22k, the Z4MC ticked all the boxes. My original intention was to buy a Car around April time to avoid the grotty Scottish winter. But alas I got bored of the 172 I bought for winter VERY quickly.
On wed the 28th Jan, I spotted a car on Pistonheads, also a Z4-Forum members. http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8708&p=133918#p133918 it was in the colour I wanted with a relatively low mileage and a good 10k away from any hefty servicing expense. That night I bit the bullet and raised the required money. I booked a flight to Cardiff and was met and greeted by Phil. (Top man) I was taken immediately on face value, given that all the banks were all closed that day and I handed over 22k’s worth of a bankers draft…then again, I’d like to think I come across trust worthy. We gas’d about cars for about an hour, signed all the relevant paperwork and then I was on my way…Cardiff to Glasgow in one go! YAWN…Long bloody way, by the way!! Anyway, taking it easy for the first hour, I got the opportunity to play about with the toys, the awesome Logic 7 stereo and the sat nav., which is still a mystery to me tbh! I was returning a comfortable 31mpg at 70mph! I’ve not seen that figure EVER again! Lol
Anyway first impressions of the car was the solid feel, the immediate power and sharpness of the throttle on sport, with a couple of silly bursts I was assured that it was “nippy!!!”
Anyway. Returned to Glasgow in this state…Yuk! And I was immediately on with Stage 1 of the detail. (thanks to Alan for the assistance in -1deg temps)
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9040
On inspection my only gripe with the car was a minor scuff on the front bumper…it wasn’t correctable without inflicting more harm than good. With a minor wet sand and polish it was looking better but not perfect. I was convinced after the detail that the car had seen paint before, so I took the bumper off, all the brackets looked fine, so I assume it was just given a “poor” front end respray by the 1st owner. (Not Phil)
At this point I was considering modding the car…I really need to grow out of this! But given the initial outlay I decided to enjoy it for a while…Plus the weather was crap anyway.
With a couple of months passing, I still wasn’t 100% comfortable with the car, I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t really feel apart of it. Whilst it was hugely fast and handled very well, I felt it lacked soul…(I still feel this now) Problem was I was continually comparing it to the V6 which is radical looking and so so rare. The V6 has the noise and presence which I crave every time I hit the road… Once I accepted that it was never going to be that, I started to enjoy it more…bizarre but true
Here come the faults….
Well I suppose the joy of warranty is to get everything rectified in the given time frame.
• Broken Engine mounts - £400 circa
• Broken Alternator - £300 circa
• 2 sets of Lamda sensors. - £500 circs
• Gearbox end seal. (Box out job) - £200
Nothing major, but unexpected!! He who says BMW’s are bombproof were clearly telling fibs. Anyway, duly fixed by Aberdeen’s John Clark and a courtesy car provided on each occasion. This left me with a very satisfied impression of the BMW dealer network.
Driving the car
Given that I’ve always driven lowered cars, or sports cars with coils, the perception of smooth ride differs from person to person. I personally never found the M to be uncomfortable. And with the Eibachs, it’s visually improved the car whilst maintaining the handling characteristics. I’m yet to track the car, but I have the utmost confidence in the balance and poise of the chassis.
The performance is as you would expect from the M cars, fast, both low down torque and top end power. Nuff said really. I drive with Sport mode on all the time once moving, but not in traffic. The Lazy pickup due to the FBW does annoy me.
The biggest let down for me is the gearbox, it’s tiresome and clumsy and after tryin the SMG, I wish they’d gone down that route. It’s bearable but not great.
Snow driving – LOL! Lets not go there…s**te to be quite polite.
Couple of pics from the year.
Costs…
Up to now the core costs have been Inspection 1. – Circa £660. This was done in Aberdeen; I made every precaution to ensure the work was carried out properly. That included a sneaky painting of a couple of bolts to ensure they carried out the critical valve clearance checks. Pathetic I know, but my trust in dealers, esp. with less than 6 months of warranty left is not what it used to be.
Insurance – I was 23 when I bought the car, as part of a multi car discount it was £664 for the yr. I have just renewed it and it’s costing basically the same £646 iirc, but that includes a lower excess and the elevated VAT.
Fuel costs – meh. (Ignore this section) but if you really want to know. Approx 16-18mpg in town traffic, 26-28 on the motorway at 80+ Approx 250 to a tank of £53 pounds.
Tax - £225 for 6 months!
Costs to come will include rear tyres. Currently I have PS2’s which will NOT be replaced, not for 300+£ a corner. I have Vredesteins ready to go on which cost £182!
Additions…
Since owning the car, I have made a number of visual changes to the car, imo, all for the positive. I had the front end and sills resprayed as there was some chips and that scuff to the front bumper, I also had them smooth the front end. (Personally I love it, I appreciate it’s marmite to some) and I fitted Eibachs and CSL wheels to beef it up a little.
Stage 2 detail was a bit more intense.
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14093
Future additions coming very soon – Carbon Roof and Meistershaft rear boxes + A13 LYR (Thanks Santa) Maybe….8 pots…Maybe,!!! At some point you have to know when to draw the line!!
Overall opinion
After a bit of a negative start, I’ve grown to really like the M, it’s a great daily driver, it looks great, it performs well, and it carries a great image. It gets the looks that it deserves with the mod’s I’ve made and I enjoy driving it, be it to work or for pleasure. Given that I paid 22k for it, after 6k miles, I’ve not lost any money; in fact, I reckon I could sell it for more than I paid for it. Bonus!
(Apologies for the shocking grammar and spelling but I hope this has given you a flavour for the car)
Ali
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