Reviews, Comparisons and Flying Low

[YellowJacket]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

SOmetime you need to drive a tin can with now power, handling or steering to fully appreciate what Stuggart has engineered.

OR a Z4. A buddy just bought one, and convinced me to take a test drive. Took out a 2005 Z4 3.0 w/ 6-speed. My thoughts:

Sounds dead. Same dull drone through the entire RPM range. They took the "if it's loud, it'll sound sporty" approach. The opposite is our Boxsters, where there's a nice high whine at low RPM that slowly changes into an all-out growl under WOT at about 3-4krpm on up.

Road feel sucks. In my Box, I feel like I'm driving a go-cart. In the Z4 I felt like I was driving a loud Buick. Even though it handles well, it had that disconnected feeling.

STEERING!!!! Can't stress this enough. I can dart in and out of traffic, handle crazy twisty roads, etc, etc. In the Z4, it felt like a truck. I felt like I was out of control. The car had a mind of it's own and felt skittish.

Seating position. I'm a small dude (5'10, 150lbs), and the Box fits me like a glove. Even at 5'10, I felt like I was looking over the windshield in the Z4. This is in addition to the fact that I could NOT find a comfy seating position and the lack of bolster on the seat allowed me to go flying all over the seat every time I hit a curve.

Verdict: BMW did a great job at making a roadster that even Mazda and Toyota would laugh at, despite costing twice as much as a Miata or MR2 Spyder.

[PasadenaBoxster]

And that hump on the Z4's hood is just fricken annoying!

[Perfectlap]

wow that's too bad the Z4 is uderwhelming for the moolah.

I appreciate what BMW is doing style wise. They are determined to bring concepts to reality rather than just tweaking current designs like Mercedez and Volkwagon. I find most of the Mercs and VW's sterile and boring. Very star bucks yuppy like. Its easy to sit back and criticisize something like Z4 when no one else is taking design risks.

But performance wise, those wheel base configurations of the Z3 and Z4 and M coupes are very limiting if they are to compete with the mid engine Boxster.