Late 20's car dilemma

[Mr Tidy]

Jamesstanley16 said:

I'm also late 20s (just turned 30 in fact!) and am looking for a new car having been abroad for sometime. I want something fun to drive, sounds great, but useable enough as a daily if required and for UK road trips. One option was the Z4 coupe 3.0. Older than the E89 but most reviews point to a better, sportier drive, more involved etc.

Can you give me any advice on the Z4 coupe Si 3.0 - ownerships costs, reliability, petrol/MPG, niggles, what to look out for? Any thoughts on this vs the Z4 E89 23i or 3.0?

Thanks!

Slightly off-topic so apologies to the OP.

But I've run a 3.0Si Coupe as a 2nd car for over 5 years and 20K miles.

I bought my 1st one in 2014 and kept it 2 years - even sold it for a few hundred pounds more than I paid for it!

I've never commuted in them, and 95% of my miles have been 30+ mile trips on Motorways or Dual-carriageway A roads outside of rush hours - used that way they seem to average about 33 mpg, even allowing for chasing the 7,000 rpm red-line from time to time!

The biggest issue is probably the electric water pump - it tends to fail any time after 60K miles and 8 years. New ones cost over £500 from BMW, but the same Pierburg pump can be bought for about half that from places like Euro Car Parts. (It was a failed water pump that prompted me to sell my 1st one, but then I realised what I would be missing so I bought another). If you find one that has evidence of having a new pump that is a bonus.

They also suffer from corroded rear brake pipes. They run under the floor below the passenger seats in a plastic cover, but the end of the cover just in front of the rear axle tends to collect road debris which holds water. I had them replaced in copper on my current one as fitting new OEM ones involves dropping the fuel tank to get the driver's side pipe into the supporting brackets.

They can leak oil from the cam-cover which means fitting a new gasket, and new bolts - these engines have an alloy block so anything attached to it uses aluminium single-use bolts.

Other than that I don't think there is anything specific to them, just the usual routine stuff. And at least they all have a stainless exhaust!

The E89 30i has the same N52 engine as the 3.0Si Coupe, so any issues will be the same.

Probably worth having a browse on z4forum - the consensus on there is that the E85/E86 is more sports car whereas the E89 is more of a GT. Plus the folding metal roof is pretty heavy - and they have an electric handbrake which seems to need software updates from time to time!

The E89 23i uses the same engine as the E85 2.5Si - so it's a 2.5 litre version of the 3 litre in the 3.0Si/30i.

Would I buy one? No.

I bought an E91 325i with the N52 engine last year as a daily - earlier this year I replaced it with an E90 330i with the bigger N52 engine which says it all I think.

If the 2.5 isn't great in a 3 Series you really wouldn't want it in a 2 seater!

Hope that is of some use anyway.