Has anyone owned both a Boxster and BMW Z4?

[MrBen]

A guy paid me to drive his z4 from Chicago to la. I met him at LAX and flew back to midway. The boxster imo is a way more fun car to drive. Better balance probably quicker although I never pushed the z I didn't want to have to explain anything. I've always felt the BMW are the most overrated cars. Mechanic friends concure. The boxster is the real deal

[pomerlo]

Have owned a 2003 Z4 3.0 and now I drive a 2002 Boxster base 2.7
Dont get me wrong.... The Z4 is a wonderful car. The 3.0 engine is reliable.
But the Boxster is little bit more fun to drive..
I prefer the ride smoothness and the car weight balance much more to what a Z4 can offer.

Overall.. like it has been said here... drive both(many) and see for yourself.

[norcalconvertible]

Thank you for all of the replies! It seems like either will be a decent car, but I am now leaning a bit more towards the boxster.

A friend owned a Z4 so I have driven one before. If the boxster were just even with that car, I would be happy with it's driveability.

I think I left out a key point though:

I haven't driven a manual car in a decade. My wife has never driven a manual. We both will drive the weekend car from time to time. SO, we are looking for a tiptronic. Probably not a popular decision, but we will use the car only 3k miles a year and don't want either of us burning through clutches with our inexperience. I will search this forum, but how often do you hear of the tiptronic transmissions failing?

Since this will be a weekend car, I want to keep overall ownership cost low, so will continue to dive through these forums trying to gain a good picture of what I can expect for maintenance.

[Quadcammer]

Originally Posted by norcalconvertible

Thank you for all of the replies! It seems like either will be a decent car, but I am now leaning a bit more towards the boxster.

A friend owned a Z4 so I have driven one before. If the boxster were just even with that car, I would be happy with it's driveability.

I think I left out a key point though:

I haven't driven a manual car in a decade. My wife has never driven a manual. We both will drive the weekend car from time to time. SO, we are looking for a tiptronic. Probably not a popular decision, but we will use the car only 3k miles a year and don't want either of us burning through clutches with our inexperience. I will search this forum, but how often do you hear of the tiptronic transmissions failing?

Since this will be a weekend car, I want to keep overall ownership cost low, so will continue to dive through these forums trying to gain a good picture of what I can expect for maintenance.

The tiptronic is for me a nonstarter especially on a base car. Really saps a lot of the fun. That said, they seem to be reliable.

Since a major concern is keeping costs low, do you plan to do the work yourself? Porsche parts arent cheap and when combined with indy labor rates at porsche specialists, the numbers add up fast.

The 3.0 in the bmw is rock solid so long as you dont overheat it. The boxster engine is a bit iffy.

I think the bmw is the better vehicle for you