What is a Z4 like to own? Or alternatives?

[anonymous-user]

Yeah every time I find something that grabs my interest its invariably on the south coast, which might as well be on the moon as far as popping over to have a look at it goes.

I looked a few Boxsters as there are quite a lot available at the sort of prices I was looking at, but the IMS failure on these older ones (and do they have bore-scoring issues too?) would worry me too much for me to enjoy the car. Similar to the reasons why I've stopped looking for a Hemi GC or 300C.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 28th March 09:53

[cerb4.5lee]

TameRacingDriver said:

I can relate to the distance thing. Nothing really much up here in the North East, every decent looking car is down south. Funnily enough I'm off down to Wolverhampton tomorrow to pick up my Boxster. Exciting but I've never much liked traveling, I find the whole thing stressful personally but that's probably just me.

I had a long drive down south to pick the E92 M3 up, and it was the most miles I'd ever driven to collect a car. What also didn't help was that I nearly smashed the Z4M up on the way down there though! It was wet and I hit a bump in the road at about 70 on a dual carriageway and it nearly punted me into the barrier! It underlined to me why I was getting rid of the bloody thing though to be fair, and the Z4M could be so unforgiving at times for me for sure.

Enjoy collecting your new motor bud, and a new car day is always a very exciting day I reckon.

[cologne2792]

GroundEffect said:

Owned two:

- Z4 3.0si Coupe Sport
- Z4 M Roadster

3.0si positives:

+ Looked the bks
+ Sounded great
+ Was very economical for what it was

3.0si negatives:

- Steering was dead (EPAS)
- Lack of LSD meant it liked to spin inside wheel at roundabouts
- Ride was very, very harsh
- Handling balance was a bit safe

I bought the M because of the negatives. It ticked all the boxes (and was properly fast) but running costs went through the roof, and its own handling was sadistic - it would spit you off the road if you looked at it funny.

Overall, the 3.0si was a competent car, but not all that fun (IMO).

Was your Si on runflats?

[TameRacingDriver]

JimSuperSix said:

Yeah every time I find something that grabs my interest its invariably on the south coast, which might as well be on the moon as far as popping over to have a look at it goes.

I looked a few Boxsters as there are quite a lot available at the sort of prices I was looking at, but the IMS failure on these older ones (and do they have bore-scoring issues too?) would worry me too much for me to enjoy the car. Similar to the reasons why I've stopped looking for a Hemi GC or 300C.

Aye that's exactly it isn't it? No chance of popping down for a test drive or poke around when everything is at least 150 miles away. I had one guy who had a car I was genuinely interested in who refused to answer any questions and told me I'd need to come down and see it as he'd had too many time wasters. I suggested to him that this was completely unviable considering the distance. To be honest I liked the car but I didn't like his attitude so I left it at that. In the end I paid an expert to do a pre purchase inspection and also checked out the MOT history. I've done as much due diligence as I can really.

As for the Porsche, as I've said on another thread, I'm never sure how much risk these things really are. People who've had very expensive engine failure tend to be quite vocal about it, understandably, but for every person who suffers this it seems there are a lot more who genuinely seem to have no issues.

I think overall the risk is about 1 in 20 of something catastrophic, which still doesn't seem great but it's a 95% chance that you'll be alright, and I doubt you're going to get much better odds on anything else really. There was a guy on here who had a lovely 350 or 370z which are known for good reliability but his engine failed, so it can clearly happen to anything. Z4 coupes have reliable engines, but if a water pump goes (which they do) then the risk is for the engine to overheat and warp the head or worse, so again, it illustrates that no car is entirely risk free even if we would like it to be the case.

Going back to the Porsche, you can mitigate the risk by doing due diligence and that's all you can do really. Another option is going for a 2.5 which has the dual row IMS which is the safest option of all. Though it's worth mentioning that it's very likely that if the car has survived this long it'll probably be ok and there are cars out there that have had it replaced. It's also worth mentioning that IMS isn't the only thing that could be ruinous for the engine but most people seem to only think about the IMS.

Overall, you just need to find a car that's been looked after and continue to look after it. With Boxsters being quite cheap my thinking was the money I save on buying it could be put to one side in case the worst does happen, but you know what I'm just going to use it and enjoy it and try not to worry, life's too short, and it's a Porsche, they're very special cars I reckon. Food for thought anyway

cerb4.5lee said:

I had a long drive down south to pick the E92 M3 up, and it was the most miles I'd ever driven to collect a car. What also didn't help was that I nearly smashed the Z4M up on the way down there though! It was wet and I hit a bump in the road at about 70 on a dual carriageway and it nearly punted me into the barrier! It underlined to me why I was getting rid of the bloody thing though to be fair, and the Z4M could be so unforgiving at times for me for sure.

Enjoy collecting your new motor bud, and a new car day is always a very exciting day I reckon.

Yeah I'm nervous in two ways. First I don't trust the trains. I used them often enough for me to know they're not the most reliable, especially when you're relying on three of the buggers.

Secondly you know what happened to my old Boxster, so I'm somewhat nervous of something happening again to this new one, I'm not superstitious but the last drive I had in my old one was in a badly damaged car limping home through no fault of my own. I really hope this car is luckier

That said I'm definitely excited but it's nervous excitement and I'll be glad when I'm back home for sure.