Z4 sDrive35i DCT

I have a bit of a love hate thing with the Z4. I love driving it but would hate to own it so I'm really rather grateful than it's somebody elses and I can just borrow it when I see fit. I'm just fussy but if its not top down weather or I've got some distance to cover the Z4 drives me insane.

Yet when I'm doing short trips with the roof off, it's fantastic. The steering makes me a sad panda, mind - it shouldnt be possible to have an executive saloon and a roadster from the same manufacturer and it be the executive saloon that has the considerably better steering feel.
 
[TW]Fox;17575412 said:
The steering makes me a sad panda, mind - it shouldnt be possible to have an executive saloon and a roadster from the same manufacturer and it be the executive saloon that has the considerably better steering feel.
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<3 Fox... This I completely agree with. Steering wise (I'm reluctant to call it feedback for fear of giving myself too much credit), I agree with Tommo's assessment, the E46 is better to drive. The problem is that with the E85 you can take the roof off in traffic and enjoy the sun (read:clouds), whereas the extra driving bit the E46 gives is only applicable 10% of the time.

The obvious answer would appear to be the E46 Convertible, but the one I drove was awful, it shook all over the place. It almost felt like someone had taken a coupe and cut off the roof...

Trouble is a Z4M will cost me £10k and my keys, while giving worse economy/range. The 3.0Si is better fuel wise, but costs the same as the +80bhp Z4M. The 987S is appealing, but I don't know enough about the boot, and the fully specced 3.4 I found was £24k... ouch...
 
I did 600miles in 4 days: Motorway, A road and welsh country lanes. Average was 28MPG which was really impressive for the engine size and weight.

The manual was just notchy from 1st to second, however its probably me being spoilt by the S2000 change. On reflection -I think the same about getting it off the mark, it could be heatsock related. I had it hooked up perfect once with a smooth gearchange too, and that was the first time I tried out of the M6 toll booth. Any other time was a bit 'boggy' but it was 25C+.

I agree on the bit about it not wanting to be driven hard, however it didnt really suit the character of the car. Definately a GT - the S2000 felt like a house fly when I got back in it, the interior did rather dreary though after the White Nappa in the Z4.

Definately a great car for a all purpose daily car, however £45k would be hard to justify.
 
Strange box, I would have thought Sport+ would hold the gear. They should also be able to program in (or out, if it's too much) the creep.

As far as DCT/PDK vs SMG speed, I posted this last time:

Manufacturers measure the shift time in different ways, there is no standardization. BMW quote clutch-actuation-clutch, whereas DCT quote paddle-clutch-swap-clutch.

So the DCT time of .2 on paper seems slower but the next gear is already engaged, so the equivalent DCT time for what BMW quote for on SMG II is actually ~.004-6, depending on mode. In other words, on the SMG II, there is an interruption of power for .08, in the GR6 box, actual shift time is much lower. Same with PDK and M-DCT, these are super quick in actuation.

That may explain why you prefer the SMG, it feels more like a gear change because of the .08 "bang" on engagement instead of a seamless delivery for one gear to the next...

I love DCT if it's implemented properly and you have it tweaked to suit yourself. Paddle forward/backward on both sides though, that's counter intuitive, like having left for upshift.
 
Simon said:
I did 600miles in 4 days: Motorway, A road and welsh country lanes. Average was 28MPG which was really impressive for the engine size and weight.

The manual was just notchy from 1st to second, however its probably me being spoilt by the S2000 change. On reflection -I think the same about getting it off the mark, it could be heatsock related. I had it hooked up perfect once with a smooth gearchange too, and that was the first time I tried out of the M6 toll booth. Any other time was a bit 'boggy' but it was 25C+.

I agree on the bit about it not wanting to be driven hard, however it didnt really suit the character of the car. Definately a GT - the S2000 felt like a house fly when I got back in it, the interior did rather dreary though after the White Nappa in the Z4.

Definately a great car for a all purpose daily car, however £45k would be hard to justify.
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I tend to cruise at ~95 when I can, which doesn't help fuel wise, not least from a comparison perspective (?) but if we were talking like for like, do they lie as much about the auto boxes not sapping consumption as much as they do the car as a whole?

I don't mean this disrespectfully as both cars are very much in the same sector, but with the miles I do, I don't think I could live with a screaming 4pot without my toy-laden interior.

As a weekend toy (possibly with supercharger?) that noise would be epic...
 
Kingy said:
<3 Fox... This I completely agree with. Steering wise (I'm reluctant to call it feedback for fear of giving myself too much credit), I agree with Tommo's assessment, the E46 is better to drive. The problem is that with the E85 you can take the roof off in traffic and enjoy the sun (read:clouds), whereas the extra driving bit the E46 gives is only applicable 10% of the time.
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I think the Z4 handles really well - it's certainly fun to drive and chuckable. It just has two flaws - the steering and the suspension. It's so stiff that if you take it over a B road you can't push on because its too skittish. It's much better without runflats, but it's still not perfect.

One thing I will say is that the fuel economy on the Z4 is brilliant for what it is. It does 40mpg on a run, which is staggering!
 
Fett said:
Strange box, I would have thought Sport+ would hold the gear.
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I only tried Sport+ for the .08 seconds it took me to realise that my computers wouldn't step in and alter physics when I ran out of talent...

After that I was back to normal sport mode. The DSC light went out, but the GIRL light came on... :(
 
[TW]Fox;17575679 said:
I think the Z4 handles really well - it's certainly fun to drive and chuckable. It just has two flaws - the steering and the suspension. It's so stiff that if you take it over a B road you can't push on because its too skittish. It's much better without runflats, but it's still not perfect.
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Ah yes the suspension! The new one was better at speedhumps (despite the 19s/runflat combo over my 108s/F1s) but seemed to skip pot holes...

[TW]Fox;17575679 said:
One thing I will say is that the fuel economy on the Z4 is brilliant for what it is. It does 40mpg on a run, which is staggering!
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h8 Fox! :(
 
Kingy said:
h8 Fox! :(
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I wish I had the patience to sit there at such low speeds.
Fox - you got the 260 or 231 bhp Z4?

I'm now averaging 30MPG, rather than the quite frankly astounding 40 I managed on the cruise back from the dealer.
I'd be amazed if I ever see that average again :p
 
How you have the patience to pootle along at or below the limit is really quite remarkable. Admit it, you're 65 inside ;)
 
[TW]Fox;17575998 said:
Driving on the Motorway is dullsville central at any speed, might as well do the speed limit tbh
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At least you have the option to go faster should you wish, apart from hills, I'm stuck @ 55MPH..... Now thats dullsville central!
 
[TW]Fox;17575998 said:
Driving on the Motorway is dullsville central at any speed, might as well do the speed limit tbh
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I just can't cruise slowly unless I'm in a funny mood though, I just lose concentration and my mind wanders. Cruising faster makes it a lot less boring!.
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
At least you have the option to go faster should you wish, apart from hills, I'm stuck @ 55MPH..... Now thats dullsville central!
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At least you're getting paid while you're on it!
 
Kingy said:
You made it into a Z?! Ignore the fact that 'made it' could be taken to be pretentious, I've done a DiamondMark, and had couple of beers... I knew you'd been after one forever, but didn't know you'd taken the plunge...

How are you finding it? Was it worth the wait? What spec/etc?
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Indeed I did in April. 03 3.0l with most of the trimmings bar heated seats. It's been fantastic, I mean I went from a 96 1.6 Polo so a new lawnmower would have been a decent improvement.

It's been fantastic over the summer. I've been on a few long journeys and the ride doesn't really bother me. The steering doesn't really bother me either, but again coming from where I was I don't have the range of experience. As they say, ignorance is bliss!

Not really looking forward to the winter. And I am getting more warning lights than I'd like at the moment. Overall, I wouldn't have changed my decision. There's nothing else out there I realistically want.
 
Re getting used to paddle shift gearboxes I would have to say that it tokk me around a month to totally get to grips with it in the M3, after that, other than the hill start issues, I really loved it

The different operation of the paddles you have described doesn't sound great though, I liked the 1 paddle for up and 1 for down arrangement though I would have preferred them to be fixed as Ferrari do as opposed to rotating with the sterring wheel as on the M3
 
SMG II => normal DCT

SMG II = M3 DCT

IMO of course.

You really need to live with both SMG II and DCT for a few months to understand how to get the best out of them. I very nearly handed back my SMG II M3 after two weeks but now would not go back to manual (in an E46 M3) after living with it for six months.
 
What do you guys think on the chances of seeing a new Z4M at some point?

The people at BMW I've talked to have all indicated that ///M don't sound interested, but you never know.
 
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