Me and a friend went to test drive some BMWs the other day at the High Wycombe dealership. I have to say first off, the service was excellent. They were very accommodating, let us take the cars out on our own, and really didn't apply too much pressure afterwards. I was quite shocked! We spent 6 hours there in total! Anyway, the main cars that i'm focusing on are the Z4 Roadster and Z4 coupe. I tried the 2.0 manual Z4 roadster and the 3.0 automatic Coupe. So a few thoughts:
1) I was pretty set on the Coupe, but once I had the top down on the Roadster, and the sun came out, boy it became pretty addictive.. I never thought i'd consider a soft-top, but now i'm giving it serious consideration.
2) I think I still prefer the manual gearbox. I didn't have too much time to play with the flappy paddle system on the coupe, but I think manual is still for me
3) The standard CD-Radio in the Roadster was, as I feared, pants. It lacked mid range, and generally sounded like somebody had put a wet flannel over the speakers. The sound in the Coupe was better (but still not great), I think the dealer said that any car with the Sat Nav system had slightly uprated speakers anyway (The coupe had the Sat-Nav). But obviously the next step up would be the Hi-Fi speakers and DSP Hi-Fi. Can anybody confirm that all Sat-Nav cars have better sound than the regular ones?
4) The interior of the coupe was fantastic. Felt very roomy, and felt like a place that i'd love to be on a long journey. However I can't help but feel that on a sunny day i'd be cursing myself for not getting the Roadster..
So i'm checking out specs atm, and I think atm, my ideal solution would be to find a nearly-new 3.0 Z4 Roadster Manual with the upgraded Hi-fi, but I think i'll be searching for a while. The amazing thing was that they're chopping out the remaining new Z4s. They had a few 3.0 Z4 roadsters, all brand new, for £25k, including some decent extras like Sat-nav in some of them.. but they were all autos sadly.
Would buying a £25k brand new Z4 3.0 Roadster make sense? I can stretch to £25k, but would rather spend £22k odd for a really nice one. I'm guessing that despite the heavy discount, a brand new Roadster will still lose a good £7k+ in the first year..
1) I was pretty set on the Coupe, but once I had the top down on the Roadster, and the sun came out, boy it became pretty addictive.. I never thought i'd consider a soft-top, but now i'm giving it serious consideration.
2) I think I still prefer the manual gearbox. I didn't have too much time to play with the flappy paddle system on the coupe, but I think manual is still for me
3) The standard CD-Radio in the Roadster was, as I feared, pants. It lacked mid range, and generally sounded like somebody had put a wet flannel over the speakers. The sound in the Coupe was better (but still not great), I think the dealer said that any car with the Sat Nav system had slightly uprated speakers anyway (The coupe had the Sat-Nav). But obviously the next step up would be the Hi-Fi speakers and DSP Hi-Fi. Can anybody confirm that all Sat-Nav cars have better sound than the regular ones?
4) The interior of the coupe was fantastic. Felt very roomy, and felt like a place that i'd love to be on a long journey. However I can't help but feel that on a sunny day i'd be cursing myself for not getting the Roadster..
So i'm checking out specs atm, and I think atm, my ideal solution would be to find a nearly-new 3.0 Z4 Roadster Manual with the upgraded Hi-fi, but I think i'll be searching for a while. The amazing thing was that they're chopping out the remaining new Z4s. They had a few 3.0 Z4 roadsters, all brand new, for £25k, including some decent extras like Sat-nav in some of them.. but they were all autos sadly.
Would buying a £25k brand new Z4 3.0 Roadster make sense? I can stretch to £25k, but would rather spend £22k odd for a really nice one. I'm guessing that despite the heavy discount, a brand new Roadster will still lose a good £7k+ in the first year..
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