USED BMW Z4 Open (03 - 09)

My car

Bought this car early this year and so far so good - very impressed. Have owned various cars over the years civic type r/ bmw 3 series convertible/ supra 3.0 twin turbo / and a undesirable ford puma!!!!!!!!!! Not as fast as i expected but saying that the sound from the car is beautiful to say the least. ride quality as others hve aid isnt poor but more like what you should expect from a motor like this - it tells the driver what its doing which is spot on so shut up. my only concern as yet is these run flats seen expensive to replace and being rear wheel drive going to shred them fairly quickly so am sure will find out but wont stop me sticking the foot down thats what the car was built for.

My car

I bought the Z4 4 years ago from new and have done 65,000 miles. In that time I've had two oil change services and one inspection service - totalling about £800. I've had quite a few tyres but have managed about 15,000 miles per set of rears and 30,000 for fronts... the standard tyres on mine are about £140 a pop from the main agent - for some reason they seem to be the cheapest.

I've had a handful of problems, all fixed under warranty. Nothing too major: seat belt sensor, rain sensor, bonnet catch. It does burn a bit of oil, I was told to expect that when I bought it. Probably 500mls every six months.

On the road I think its fantastic.... a lot of my mileage has been motorway but after a bad day at work I often dropped the top and drove home the long way on the country lanes and chilled out. It's quite happy plodding along the motorway with the top down at normal motorway speeds ;-) but its a lot more fun on the curvy roads. On a good run I once get 40mpg out of it, driving at just under 70.... typically with m-way driving I've been getting low 30's. At the moment I work more local and just sit in traffic jams to get to work so the mpg has dropped to 25.... but my old golf GTi would have been no different.

For me its a good balance of performance, economy and looks.... and soo much fun! I'm looking to change it now and to be honest I'm really struggling to find an alternative - it'd be boring to get the same thing again.

My car

I have recently baught the Z4 2.2 SE. I am extremly pleased with this car. The car was bought on an impulse and boy am I happy. Very surprised with it's performance ability. The car always feels that it's got more to give!

Petrol consumptiom is rather surprising and represents good value. I would definitley recommend this car to someone who is looking for a stylish looking car that also performs well.

My car

I had a 2.2i SE for two years, which I bought at 18 months old with 14,000 miles on the clock.

It looks sensational, especially with uprated alloys. It gave a thrilling drive, especially when pushing on. It was also a quite practical for a roadster.

However, it had some problems. Both electric window regulators needed replacing. Twice it inexplicably failed to start leaving me stranded. The rear suspension coil snapped.

Also, the dashboard illumination kept 'pinking' out - the local garage (BMW dealer of the year, no less) couldn't fix.

I always needed to top the oil level up - the sensor was replaced by the dealer, which fixed problem for a while, but the problem returned.

Overall, I'm glad I bought it, but in the end I couldn't get rid of it quickly enough, because all but one of the problems occurred within the last six months of ownership.

It was the car I'd always promised myself but in the end it was just one thing after the next and in the end you just get sick of it.

Shame - you would have thought a premium brand like BMW could do better, especially as cars half the price (SEAT, Peugeot) have run faultlessly for 3 years.