Misunderstood hero

BMW’s sports car hasn’t set every enthusiast’s soul on fire, but living with it every day has James Taylor convinced we should give it another chance

Part of the point of a long-term test is to see if a car can change your mind – for better or worse. A car that shines on first acquaintance can become an irksome bag of niggles to live with every day, while a car that initially underwhelms can worm its way into your affections and convert you. This is one of the latter cases.

Winding back to the Z4’s first appearance in CAR six months ago, the question was whether or not it could convince as a desirable sports car after a lukewarm reaction at launch. It was a perfectly nice car, sure, but a memorable one, a thrilling one? Nah, not really.

But now the Z4’s gone, I really miss it. It’s been a great companion.

It’s not one stand-out quality that’s made the difference (although the 335bhp/369lb ft straight-six certainly helped), more a cumulative total of small, very likeable attributes. The quick-draw roof, the balanced handling (helped by an excellent limited-slip di‹), the refinement, the way it’s just so easy to jump in and go anywhere, any time, any weather. The styling, which I initially thought awkward, has grown on me too.

It’s just a shame the ride quality is so busy. The 19-inch wheels and adaptive dampers handle big bumps well, but there’s a constant, gentle jostle on anything other than millpond-smooth roads. On an average dual carriageway it never quite settles down.

Otherwise it would be a nearperfect long-distance car. With plush seats, unstinting equipment (though you’d hope so for £50k) and a news-anchor-smooth manner, the Z4 feels very much like a grand tourer in miniature. It even has a decent boot (one that’s carried all sorts, from musical instruments to garden rubbish, during its time on the CAR fleet). Other than a few absent seats, you could almost be driving a 3-series. Which is a double-edged compliment. I drove a Porsche 718 Boxster, the Z4’s express benchmark, not long before the end of the BMW’s time with us, and the Porsche is unquestionably more involving and rewarding – more of a sports car to the Z4’s roadster. But the Z4 isn’t as far behind it for enjoyment as I’d thought it would be in isolation. And driven back-to-back, the BMW’s engine makes the 718’s four-pot feel particularly lacking.

Any niggles? A few. Keyless entry wasn’t a policy that always applied to the boot, which would occasionally sound the alarm if you opened it without first plipping the keyfob; the sat-nav frequently lost track of the Z4’s position, believing it to be ploughing through fields and buildings a quarter of a mile or so to the side of its actual

It’s a shame the ride quality is so busy. There’s a constant, gentle jostle. It never settles down

co-ordinates; and the moulding around the drive mode switch would expand in hot weather and get stuck down when depressed, needing to be freed up again by hand. This seemingly fixed itself over time (that or nature fixed it via the onset of autumn). And there was the recalcitrant windscreen wiper connection mentioned in Month 2. But I still really enjoyed life with the Z4, mostly because it fitted in so neatly. The first time I pulled onto my drive in something else I felt an odd pang of pining. So it’s done its job.

I understand why people aren’t struck by the Z4 initially, because I was one of them. It’s not a car you’d set an early alarm to take the long way to work for, and other sports cars (718, A110 and the platform-cousin Supra too, for my money) are more exciting. But it is good fun, it’s remarkably easy to live with and driving one every day can make you feel, if not thrilled, then quietly contented. And there’s plenty to be said for that.