Drove up to Vacouver last night to Z4 unveiling at Brian Jessel BMW.
I want one. You will want one.
Will write more later. Less than 4 hours of sleep and have to pitch to president of Dassault at 8am this morning.
I want one. You will want one.
- I have nothing but good things to say about the styling of the exterior and the interior. The doors have a shape which makes them much thicker at the top than the Z3.
- The interior aluminum trim is real aluminum. Not E46-style matte chrome. It would be easy to leather cover every aluminum pieces in (deviating) colors of leather.
- Interior controls are placed perfectly. Ignore other people hacking on the flat dash. It is not a problem.
- Gauges are perfect.
- Steering wheel is great. Tilts and telescopes.
- Armrest is useable, but too low to be ideal and too small. E-brake boot is integrated into armrest leather.
- Glovebox is probably not large enough for the owner's manual.
- Rear storage compartment probably makes up for some glovebox space
- Door map pockets are very small and shallow.
- Cupholders are well thought out.
- There are no tools on board. No jack, no lug wrench, nuthin. No space or provisions for them either, at least under the trunk carpet
- Amp has been relocated to the battery compartment under the trunk floor
- Warning triangle is sized for the Euro E46 one now. Still cannot get those in the US
- No underhood liner on the models I saw. Aluminum hood is cool.
- Manual seats are nice.
- LED lighting behind interior door pulls to located interior door handle, Boxster style
- Overhead light panel is E46 with amber LED lighitng integrated
- Quality of dash and door panels is not as good as E46, but much better than Z3 wood pulp/vinyl door panels. They feel injection molded and hard plastic. Texture is good though.
- Plenty of room in cabin. Feels much larger than Z3
- Both of these cars had the 18" bolted 5-spokes, not slated for US. I like them.
- Car looks better de-badged. Neither of these had the Z4 or the 2.5/3.0 badges on them.
- I took only 1 picture. Will post when I get home tonight.
- Women employees at Brian Jessel are very attractive.
- Brian Jessel had a section dedicated to BMW Individual with several hides of leather draped around on display. This is the right way to spec out an interior.
- Exterior door handles appear to be E39 re-used.
- Interior door handles appear to be X5
- Door panels have soft vinyl section where your elbow goes. Probably no need for door armrests aftermarket. Most of door panel is vinyl. Very little leather.
- Windshield header is thicker and beerfier in all respects
- Lack of small wing windows makes windshield feel more solid. I prefer no wing windows.
- Roll hoops are 2 pieces of plastic snapped together. Would be easy to leather cover.
- Interior switches and controls are great. Lots of E46 re-use. The feel and operation is commensurate with a $45K car, not a $29K Z3 1.9 car. This is good. The auto climate controls and the manual climate controls are both nice feel.
- Quality of materials in general is much better than Z3 in all respects. I found a few Saratoga-made pieces, but BMW has done a good job.
Will write more later. Less than 4 hours of sleep and have to pitch to president of Dassault at 8am this morning.