BMW E89 Z4 Test Drives Thread

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Autocar - Roadtest:



BMW Z4 3.0 sDrive35i

Test date 02 June 2009 Price as tested £37,060

For: Elegant interior, flexible engine, versatile twin-clutch gearbox

Against: Balance between ride and handling, steering, pricey options




BMW Z4 3.0 sDrive35i - Autocar.co.uk

[Merc1]

I drove the Z4 sDrive35i (what a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid name; there's even a ridiculous badge with this horrible combination of letters and numbers) around Ann Arbor and environs over the Memorial Day weekend and came away impressed. First, the exterior styling is about perfect, with the long, sexy hood, the curvaceous rear, and the handsome 19-inch wheels. The interior is also very nicely designed, with an appropriately upmarket ambience. This was one of those cars that, after it got a little dust on it over the weekend, I dug out the detailing spray and a chamois and cleaned it up. I didn't want this car to be dirty while it was in my possession, even if I were just driving to the grocery store.

The Z4 sDrive35i's body structure is notably stiff; every time I went over rough pavement, I marveled at how well this very tightly screwed-together roadster absorbed the bumps, the heaves, the asphalt patches, and the railroad crossings. Structural rigidity appears to be first-rate.

Our test Z4 sDrive35i is equipped with BMW's 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, for which I had mixed feelings. Shift quality is uniformly smooth and quick, but the driver interface is a little fussy. I found myself playing around with the stubby gearshift lever more than I would have liked, and I found the shift paddles to be only marginally useful, which is what I find with ALL shift paddles (some day, we're going to look back at shift paddles and wonder why we thought they were so cool). Sometimes, a graphic of the gearshift knob would appear in the center display, and I could never figure out why. It's easy, though, to grab the shift knob and push the wrong button on it; it takes a while to trust that, indeed, you have put the car in P for Park, not R for Reverse. I decided that the best thing to do is to shove the gearshifter to the left, which causes an "S" for sport to appear in the center display. Then just treat it like an automatic and use your right foot. You're rewarded with crisp, fast upshifts, accompanied by lovely rorty exhaust sounds.

Not surprisingly, the Z4 sDrive35i's steering feel and precision, body control, and ride quality were pretty much above reproach. Some of the fussier chassis gurus around the office might find something to nitpick, but it all worked for me, and I was able to drive the Z4 sDrive35i way too fast on some of my favorite roads with little drama and a lot of pleasure. Somehow, though, the 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six didn't seem to strain at the leash, to be quite as exuberant, as it is in other BMW applications. Maybe I just didn't have enough opportunities to really let the Z4 sDrive35i unwind this weekend; it being a holiday, everywhere I went in Washtenaw County was thick with radar-gun-pointing cops. And the Z4 sDrive35i makes a mighty tempting target.

The folding hard top really does seem like overkill in a tiny little car like the Z4 sDrive35i, but the car looks great when the top is up. Top down, there's still a respectable amount of cargo space, enough that I was able to stow a case of wine (in a horizontal, not vertical, box) under the tonneau cover with lots of room to spare. The top goes down quickly enough, but I wish there were a more noticeable signal that it is indeed all the way down, or all the way up, so you know when to stop pushing the open or close button. Sometimes I thought I was done, put the car in Drive, and then the car gave a little "dong" or something and there was a warning graphic in the central display.

The only real downside to the Z4 sDrive35i is its cost: $58K as equipped. Then again, this car is a long way from the 1996 BMW Z3 roadster and its little four-banger.


More Editor Reviews: Automobile Magazine - Review: 2009 BMW Z4 sDrive35i


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HYPNOTIZED by the sea blue BMW that slipped into my parking space a few weeks ago, I stopped wondering about how fast this test car would go or whether it could stop at all.

You should do the same.

But if you insist on details and are given to using words like downforce and stoichiometry, be assured that the 2010 edition of the Z4 is plenty fast and halts like a drill instructor.

Will it describe an asphalt arc as mathematically as the Porsche Boxster? No. But here’s the dirty little secret of luxury convertibles: most buyers don’t do math.

For those who would consider dropping $50,000 or even $60,000 on a two-seat driveway ornament, this is what matters: the BMW is beautiful, inside and out. It’s the most luxurious convertible this side of a $100,000 Jaguar XKR or Mercedes-Benz SL550. The exterior makes the Porsche Boxster seem a bit played-out; the interior makes a Corvette’s look like recycled duct tape.

If you don’t believe me, ask my wife. She drove the Z4 to the corner bodega and pronounced it her new favorite car even before she shifted out of second gear. Add her to the week’s worth of women and men who flirted with the BMW, smitten by its mile-long hood and sophisticated creases and cavities.

The new Z4 is undoubtedly one of the best do-overs in recent years, a confident, muscular reinvention by Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout of BMW’s Munich design studio. The previous generation of the Z4 was cloyingly overstyled, arguably the least successful design by Chris Bangle, who has stepped down as BMW’s design chief. And with an exception for the brilliant M Coupe version, that earlier Z4 also fell short in arousing passion for many drivers.

The new car, now with a retractable metal roof rather than a soft top, soothes rather than strains the eye. And it is more engaging to drive, especially with the twin-turbo in-line 6 as was the case in the sDrive35i version I tested.

BMW has moved Z4 production across the Atlantic, transferring assembly from the American South — Spartanburg, S.C. — to the southern German city of Regensburg. It also slid the Z4 toward the decadent end of the two-seat spectrum.

The new car is nearly a half-foot longer and roughly an inch wider, but drivers are likely to show a greater appreciation for the richness of its cabin appointments, a first-class upgrade from the barren surroundings of the previous Z4. The glove box and interior storage accommodations are reasonable, and an optional center pass-through to the trunk lets owners carry two sets of skis or a full-size golf bag.

With its top down and midriff exposed, my Z4 test car looked ready for a South Beach summer, its paint hue contrasting smartly with the resort-ready ivory leather on the seats, dashboard and door panels. That leather adds $2,050 to the $52,475 base price of the sDrive35i, and also added sport seats and dark wood trim. Like other drop-top Bimmers, the Z4 features a sun-reflective coating on the leather that reduces their surface temperatures in direct sunlight — a boon to sensitive thighs.

Z4s equipped with the optional GPS navigation system use the newest version of BMW’s iDrive, the control interface for most every electronic device in the car. Once an infuriating maze of inscrutable menus and illogical buttons, the latest iDrive is vastly more user-friendly and surprisingly simple to operate. A rotary knob between the seats controls the settings of the navigation and entertainment systems on a dash-top 8.8-inch screen that seems IMAX-scale in a car this small.

The Z4’s two-piece metal hardtop retracts in about 20 seconds. It renders the cabin virtually as quiet as any conventional hardtop.

It’s quite a treat to watch the top fold and get swallowed by the trunk. But the aluminum panels and its structure add roughly 200 pounds compared with a soft top, bringing the Z4 to 3,500 pounds.

Yet as with most retractable hardtops, this designer sandwich, once folded, leaves room for little more than a few side dishes. The trunk is not as laughable as that of the Pontiac Solstice, yet a wheeled carry-on suitcase barely fit with the top down. Even with the roof raised, there are more mysterious braces and gussets than you’d see in a ’20s lingerie shop, cutting into storage.

After serial encounters with metal-roof convertibles, I’ve decided that I’d gladly take the inconveniences of a fabric top — overstated anyway, as the modern versions are precisely fitted, double-layered for insulation and all but leakproof — to gain enough trunk space for two people to make a weekend escape with one measly bag apiece.

On a run through the horse country of Dutchess County, N.Y., I dropped the top to feel the sun and hear that playful engine along the rolling two-lane roads. With 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, the twin-turbo power plant has become BMW’s well-bred workhorse, powering everything from the 1 Series coupe and 3 Series sedan to the X6 crossover.

BMW cites a 5.1-second 0-60 m.p.h. time for the stick-shift 35i. That seemed conservative; Car and Driver magazine managed a brisk 4.8-second run. Even the lesser sDrive30i, equipped with a naturally aspirated 255-horsepower in-line 6, runs the 0-60 dash in 5.6 seconds.

The Z4’s manual shifter is a squarish, short-throw chunk of aluminum that pivots beautifully through its six gears. While the Z4 30i model offers a sprightly 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters, the 35i model incorporates the even sportier dual-clutch automated gearbox first offered on the latest M3.

My test car’s $1,900 sport package added stickier tires and an M adaptive suspension with three firmness settings. In comfort mode, the ride is especially plush for a small roadster. But the handling was too laid-back for me so I tended to leave it set in the middle Sport mode.

This setting recalibrates the throttle, tenses the steering, loosens up the stability control system, and in cars with an automatic transmission, lets the engine rev higher before upshifts. Kick it up to Sport Plus and it gives a wild-child pilot some leeway for wheelspin and drift before the stability control wags a finger of disapproval.

Despite the electronic aids, the Z4’s handling yields some advantage to competing sports cars. The BMW’s steering is great at filtering unwanted vibrations but feels mildly isolated. Fly into a curve and you end up waiting a crucial beat to feel the computerized suspension hunker down before you can rocket out the other side. In the Boxster, you just fly, plotting to try it faster next time. It’s odd that BMW can virtually perfect the steering of its 1, 3, 5 and 7 Series cars but hasn’t quite nailed the formula in its small convertibles.

The con to all these pros is that the BMW has moved upscale, just in time to watch the economy pass in the other direction. All prettied up with $10,600 in options, my 35i shot past $63,000. Still, a comparably equipped Boxster S costs roughly $70,000. The Mercedes SLK350 and the Audi TTS easily reach the upper $50,000 range, so the BMW isn’t out of line. And the 30i model delivers all the style and most of the performance for about $6,000 less.

In the tricky balancing act for any expensive convertible, the new BMW definitely leans toward luxury — but not so far that it loses touch with its sporting principles.

• • •

INSIDE TRACK: A fast lap of luxury.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/au...ef=automobiles

[Bartek Sikorski]

More than a decade ago, I gushed like a schoolgirl over the new Z3. It was almost embarrassing. Thoughts of cruising down PCH with the top down and music up took me back to a time when happiness was a rusty 914 and a full tank of gas.

The Z3's 140 hp wasn't going to win many stoplight grand prix but that was OK. It was more than enough for a smart driver to have a great time. I did. The European-bred equivalent to the Mazda Miata bode well for the industry. Plus, the Z3 looked great and was every bit as good as the MX5. Just looking at the car's profile, the pronounced nose and low-slung cockpit, made you realize BMW had big plans for the little Zed.

Within a year the Z3 was powered by BMW's vaunted inline six, the "Damascus steel" of engines. As performance rose, so did everything else, including its price.
That first Z3 felt like such an innocent car. It had an air of gritty adventure you can't buy (probably because you didn't have much money). The Z3 didn't need a lot of extras. In fact, that might have spoiled its roadster purity.
They say you can never really go home. The new Z4 isn't interested in that. It wants you to do a low fly-by at mach 1 and wave at the plebes below. BMW is not given to nostalgia.

Sitting in the new BMW roadster is like the captain's chair in a Citation Jet. And it feels just as fast. With a brilliant twin turbo six under hood it's got forward thrust comparable to a genuine muscle car. Squirting from roundabout to roundabout (Spain is really into roundabouts) was a study in traction management. The car produces 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of twist that equates to a burnout machine of the first order.

Obviously there's more to the car than simply smoking the tires. In an effort to get a cornering pic, I had my driver circle an empty cul-de-sac. I figured the car would get to a point when it would transition from slight understeer to throttle-induced oversteer. It wasn't happening. The Z4 kept going faster and faster, refusing to budge. My poor driver was ready to puke. It looked like one of those Tyco slot cars, the really trick ones with the undertray magnets. We learned that the Z4 has a tenacious grip. Getting this thing to step out is something you would need to do on a racetrack, probably wearing a helmet.


Driving the Z4, you can't help but sense BMW's motorsport DNA. The seven-speed double clutch transmission is something that might have been culled from its race department. Accelerating hard, your body is pushed back into the seat. Pulling toward you induces upshifts. Likewise, aggressive braking pushes the body forward and downshifts are accomplished by pushing forward. Gear changes are instantaneous, punctuated by a BLAAAT between shifts. Hearing that, the auto/manual tranny almost begs to be driven hard. Or not. Simply leaving the gear lever in drive yields a highly intuitive shift program, extremely smooth and fluid. Unlike the previous SMG gearbox, this one is a genuine dual-purpose transmission. It'll play fast or slow or anything in between.

Sporting a near 50/50 weight distribution, the Z4 uses a significant amount of aluminum suspension components including a "double-jointed" front section and constant geometry rear axle. Wearing the optional bigger running gear (8x18 front and 8.5x18 rear with 225/40 and 255/35 performance tires), the Z4 bears more resemblance to the bad boy Z8 than its older sibling. And while the Z8 had something of an unorthodox cabin, the new Z4 is pretty close to perfect, entirely redesigned and hyper-functional. Moreover, BMW's freshly revamped iDrive will make its first roadster appearance. And yes, iDrive is much better now.

Full article: europeancarweb