HYPNOTIZED by the sea blue BMW that slipped into my parking space a few weeks ago, I stopped wondering about how fast this test car would go or whether it could stop at all.
You should do the same.
But if you insist on details and are given to using words like downforce and stoichiometry, be assured that the 2010 edition of the Z4 is plenty fast and halts like a drill instructor.
Will it describe an asphalt arc as mathematically as the Porsche Boxster? No. But here’s the dirty little secret of luxury convertibles: most buyers don’t do math.
For those who would consider dropping $50,000 or even $60,000 on a two-seat driveway ornament, this is what matters: the BMW is beautiful, inside and out. It’s the most luxurious convertible this side of a $100,000 Jaguar XKR or Mercedes-Benz SL550. The exterior makes the Porsche Boxster seem a bit played-out; the interior makes a Corvette’s look like recycled duct tape.
If you don’t believe me, ask my wife. She drove the Z4 to the corner bodega and pronounced it her new favorite car even before she shifted out of second gear. Add her to the week’s worth of women and men who flirted with the BMW, smitten by its mile-long hood and sophisticated creases and cavities.
The new Z4 is undoubtedly one of the best do-overs in recent years, a confident, muscular reinvention by Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout of BMW’s Munich design studio. The previous generation of the Z4 was cloyingly overstyled, arguably the least successful design by Chris Bangle, who has stepped down as BMW’s design chief. And with an exception for the brilliant M Coupe version, that earlier Z4 also fell short in arousing passion for many drivers.
The new car, now with a retractable metal roof rather than a soft top, soothes rather than strains the eye. And it is more engaging to drive, especially with the twin-turbo in-line 6 as was the case in the sDrive35i version I tested.
BMW has moved Z4 production across the Atlantic, transferring assembly from the American South — Spartanburg, S.C. — to the southern German city of Regensburg. It also slid the Z4 toward the decadent end of the two-seat spectrum.
The new car is nearly a half-foot longer and roughly an inch wider, but drivers are likely to show a greater appreciation for the richness of its cabin appointments, a first-class upgrade from the barren surroundings of the previous Z4. The glove box and interior storage accommodations are reasonable, and an optional center pass-through to the trunk lets owners carry two sets of skis or a full-size golf bag.
With its top down and midriff exposed, my Z4 test car looked ready for a South Beach summer, its paint hue contrasting smartly with the resort-ready ivory leather on the seats, dashboard and door panels. That leather adds $2,050 to the $52,475 base price of the sDrive35i, and also added sport seats and dark wood trim. Like other drop-top Bimmers, the Z4 features a sun-reflective coating on the leather that reduces their surface temperatures in direct sunlight — a boon to sensitive thighs.
Z4s equipped with the optional GPS navigation system use the newest version of BMW’s iDrive, the control interface for most every electronic device in the car. Once an infuriating maze of inscrutable menus and illogical buttons, the latest iDrive is vastly more user-friendly and surprisingly simple to operate. A rotary knob between the seats controls the settings of the navigation and entertainment systems on a dash-top 8.8-inch screen that seems IMAX-scale in a car this small.
The Z4’s two-piece metal hardtop retracts in about 20 seconds. It renders the cabin virtually as quiet as any conventional hardtop.
It’s quite a treat to watch the top fold and get swallowed by the trunk. But the aluminum panels and its structure add roughly 200 pounds compared with a soft top, bringing the Z4 to 3,500 pounds.
Yet as with most retractable hardtops, this designer sandwich, once folded, leaves room for little more than a few side dishes. The trunk is not as laughable as that of the Pontiac Solstice, yet a wheeled carry-on suitcase barely fit with the top down. Even with the roof raised, there are more mysterious braces and gussets than you’d see in a ’20s lingerie shop, cutting into storage.
After serial encounters with metal-roof convertibles, I’ve decided that I’d gladly take the inconveniences of a fabric top — overstated anyway, as the modern versions are precisely fitted, double-layered for insulation and all but leakproof — to gain enough trunk space for two people to make a weekend escape with one measly bag apiece.
On a run through the horse country of Dutchess County, N.Y., I dropped the top to feel the sun and hear that playful engine along the rolling two-lane roads. With 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, the twin-turbo power plant has become BMW’s well-bred workhorse, powering everything from the 1 Series coupe and 3 Series sedan to the X6 crossover.
BMW cites a 5.1-second 0-60 m.p.h. time for the stick-shift 35i. That seemed conservative; Car and Driver magazine managed a brisk 4.8-second run. Even the lesser sDrive30i, equipped with a naturally aspirated 255-horsepower in-line 6, runs the 0-60 dash in 5.6 seconds.
The Z4’s manual shifter is a squarish, short-throw chunk of aluminum that pivots beautifully through its six gears. While the Z4 30i model offers a sprightly 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters, the 35i model incorporates the even sportier dual-clutch automated gearbox first offered on the latest M3.
My test car’s $1,900 sport package added stickier tires and an M adaptive suspension with three firmness settings. In comfort mode, the ride is especially plush for a small roadster. But the handling was too laid-back for me so I tended to leave it set in the middle Sport mode.
This setting recalibrates the throttle, tenses the steering, loosens up the stability control system, and in cars with an automatic transmission, lets the engine rev higher before upshifts. Kick it up to Sport Plus and it gives a wild-child pilot some leeway for wheelspin and drift before the stability control wags a finger of disapproval.
Despite the electronic aids, the Z4’s handling yields some advantage to competing sports cars. The BMW’s steering is great at filtering unwanted vibrations but feels mildly isolated. Fly into a curve and you end up waiting a crucial beat to feel the computerized suspension hunker down before you can rocket out the other side. In the Boxster, you just fly, plotting to try it faster next time. It’s odd that BMW can virtually perfect the steering of its 1, 3, 5 and 7 Series cars but hasn’t quite nailed the formula in its small convertibles.
The con to all these pros is that the BMW has moved upscale, just in time to watch the economy pass in the other direction. All prettied up with $10,600 in options, my 35i shot past $63,000. Still, a comparably equipped Boxster S costs roughly $70,000. The Mercedes SLK350 and the Audi TTS easily reach the upper $50,000 range, so the BMW isn’t out of line. And the 30i model delivers all the style and most of the performance for about $6,000 less.
In the tricky balancing act for any expensive convertible, the new BMW definitely leans toward luxury — but not so far that it loses touch with its sporting principles.
BMW Z4 Slide Show
source: nytimes
