Research, buy & sell with confidence

David Festa purchased this BMW Z4 used for $19,990 (including all on-road costs) in 2019. David Festa wouldn’t buy this car again because: “Very good car but not the right car for me. Good looking, luxurious and practical I enjoyed owning this car but did not love driving it as much a I thought I would. As is often the case, it comes down to fit for purpose and my main priority is driving feel.”

When buying an older prestige car you have to go in with your eyes wide open, and reliability and maintenance were about what I expected. In more than three years of ownership the Z4 only let me down twice.

The first was when the electric motor in the roof mechanism seized resulting in a wet drive home in the rain from an early Sunday morning drive to Healesville. The E85 Z4 is infamous for having the electric motor for the hydraulic roof located deep in a drainage well. The well is drained by a tiny rubber tube that blocks immediately from leaf litter causing the motor to flood and seize. Every Z4 has had the roof motor replaced, usually more than once.

Some try sealing the motor in a plastic bag but this never lasts for long. The only real solution is to relocate the motor into the boot where it remains dry permanently. Expensive but worthwhile. The second time I was let down I was again heading for a Sunday drive to Healesville when the car suddenly started running very rough and would not idle. This time a flush of all the small oil channels in the VANOS variable valve timing mechanism cured the problem. This was a relatively quick and cheap fix.

Apart from the above there was of course the famous BMW dash light issues. All older BMW owners soon get used to amber warning lights in the dash. Amber means something is wrong but it is safe to keep driving, a red light means stop immediately. For the first year or so I would intermittently have an oxygen sensor light that would come and go.

This would be checked and reset by the mechanic who could find nothing actually wrong, only for the light to reappear a few weeks later. It usually disappeared after a long, high speed run (what I like to call an Italian tune up) and eventually it stopped appearing. I then started to have a dash light telling me one of the head light or tail light bulbs was faulty. Except all the lights were working perfectly well even when the warning light was on! Again this warning light would come and go randomly.

These warning lights are just part of the “experience” of owning an older German prestige car.

Everything else I did to the car I would consider routine maintenance but when it comes to deciding what is “routine” for BMWs of this era things get interesting. In their wisdom BMW decided to pretend that there was virtually no need for maintenance whatsoever. The concept being that BMW owners should not have to bother themselves with any of the mundane, dirty bits of the car.

Hence the run flat tyres even though they made the ride and handling worse. My Z4 did not even have a dipstick to check the oil! Oil changes were recommended for every 2 years or 20,000km and the engine coolant and transmission fluid were sealed for the life of the car. This might be fine for the first three years when the car is under warranty but more than 10 years down the road it is just stupid. Changing the coolant is as simple as any other car but changing the transmission fluid means replacing the whole gearbox floor pan at $700+.

To enjoy the car running well I changed the spark plugs, brake fluid, battery and cabin filters. I also changed the oil every six months. The horrible run flats were also swapped out for some lovely Michelin PS4 tyres which absolutely transformed the ride. All of this was not cheap but expected as part of owning an older BMW. And no, the engine never leaked a drop of oil or used any oil between services.

At only 12 years old when purchased with a full service history and receipts and a mere 56,000km on the clock you would expect the car to be immaculate, but I suspect it had had a pretty rough life before I owned it.

For a start the car was filthy when I first saw it (so much for expecting a luxury dealer to be able to present a car properly), the interior was showing signs of wear, the roof lining was ripped and the BMW badge fell off the boot when the salesperson drove it around from the back! But the body was straight, rust-free and mechanically it checked out well. The dealer repaired the roof lining and had the leather seats restored. It took another two days of cleaning until I finally felt the car was mine.

The joy of driving a car like this is that for most people it is ageless. The car is just classy and good looking. And I love driving a convertible and everybody should own one at least once in their lifetime.

For $20,000 I had a prestige car that looked gorgeous, was luxuriously equipped and verging on classic status so I considered my Z4 a bargain.

Not quite a mid life crisis I bought the Z4 trying to recapture something special from the past. I had previously really enjoyed the convertible experience of owning an MX-5 NC, it was an absolute joy. Greatly entertaining but so unassuming, you could drive the pants off the MX-5 and still draw smiles from all around.

I was also remembering the fun my wife and I had years ago when you could hire MX-5s and Z4s from a mainstream company. I still have a picture of my son with a beaming smile in his primary school uniform sitting in a rental Z4.

Trying to relive all these experiences in another convertible seemed to be just the ticket. Of course time moves on. My sons are now grown and both 2.0 metres tall so the MX-5 was out of the running. But a used Z4 was more tempting. I have always been a huge admirer of the look of the first generation Z4. It is the peak of the Bangle design era and still looks fresh and modern today.

There are usually lots of Z4s on the market at any given time but finding a good one, especially a manual, is not easy. After looking for close to 12 months I eventually settled on the car you see. Although not a manual the six-speed tiptonic automatic was very good and being a low mileage updated “si”model with the upgraded VANOS engine the rest of the specification was perfect.

The 3.0 litre is more powerful but from what I read the 2.5 puts less weight over the front wheels and is said to handle better. So when I saw this car advertised by a well-known prestige dealer at a reasonable price I put down a deposit sight unseen.

The BMW straight six is an absolute sweetheart, loves to rev and pulled like a train to the 7000rpm redline. Fuel use was a consistent 12 litres per 100km in the traffic and 7.0 litres or so on a cruise depending how fast you were going. The six-speed ZF gearbox with paddle shifters was smooth and responsive and easy to live with. The suspension firm with hardly any body roll through the corners and the short wheel base made the Z4 really fun and chuckable on a winding mountain road above 80km/h.

Unfortunately below this speed, which means in most day to day traffic, the chassis feels a bit wooden and lifeless. Combine this with absolutely no feel in the electric steering and unfortunately I never really gelled with Z4. I really enjoyed the way it looked and the level of luxury.

It was great to go cruising or parade down a street with the top down. My wife loved it and found it much more comfortable and luxurious than the MX-5, but the thing I enjoy is light, responsive handling. I have been spoiled with having owned lots of really good handling cars (Toyota 86, MX5, first series MR2, a few Alfa Romeos and now the updated BRZ) and although pretty good the Z4 is not in the same league.

As you would expect from a upmarket prestige car the Z4 had everything available for the time including a great sounding stereo, automatic climate control, rain-sensing wipers, auto lights, auto dimming rear vision mirror, remote central locking, powered roof, cruise control and heated power leather seats with multiple memory function.

My Z4 even had factory fitted Bluetooth which was temperamental but worked okay.

Ride comfort was transformed by getting rid of the run flat tyres. This was BMW’s first car with run flats. The decision to supply all BMWs with them was made late in the car’s development so the Z4 was never really engineered to have run flats and should never have been released with them.

The ride was still hard but went from Flintstone car with stone wheels to just barely acceptable with the normal tyres. As for handling I talked about that under performance as for me a car’s performance is all about how it handles corners. Corners are where the fun is at. If you just want to go fast in a straight line buy a Tesla (yawn!).

I try to look after my cars and usually when it comes time to sell one I do not have any trouble. When I went to sell the Z4 the first person to see it wanted to buy it. He wanted to have it checked by a mechanic which I thought was fair enough and he arranged an on site pre purchase inspection through the big car sale website everyone uses.

Unfortunately the mechanic drove it into a deep gutter doing a U-turn and damaged the front end. It did not look like much but as is often the case the damage was much worse than it first appeared. The car sales company offered to send around a “bloke in a van” to “touch it up in my driveway” and assured me he would do a “very good job.”

I declined the offer and suggested the damage needed to be assessed properly. When I showed it to a panel beater I know and trusted he immediately pointed out that the whole plastic front end was cracked and torn off the mounting points and would need to be replaced. Four months (!) later it was finally repaired and back on the market. Lucky this was not my only car and I was not desperate to sell!

It may have sold for more than I paid but I spent money on the Z4 and substantially improved the car. I do not kid myself being a “Wheeler Dealer” and I am not giving up my day job. To really enjoy an older prestige car you have to put in the time and money to maintain it. The purchase price may seem tempting but that is only the start.

I really enjoyed driving an appreciating classic and I think I would do it again. In this case I bought a car on styling more than whether it matched my ideal driving characteristics and perhaps that was a mistake. But I feel richer from the experience. I am always keeping an eye on the car classifieds and you never know what might turn up.

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