Quote:
Originally Posted by chris719
While you do make a valid point about the car's straight line acceleration, you are missing the point. I test drove one and it's just too numb. Capable, no doubt, and I would not call it a "hairdresser's car", but it's not what most people want out of a sports car I think.
A sports car should have feel, feedback, and an aggressive character. The Z4 since E85 and E86 M versions have lacked that. An automatic Z4, as good of a car as it is, is very far in terms of sportiness to a Z4M with S54, manual, and a much more aggressive setup. Is the old Z4M a slower and less capable car? Yes, it's not a modern car, but it was BMW's last attempt to make an actual sports car out of the Z4. They moved the goalpost to a softer setup since then and I don't think it's helped.
The Supra has just enough feedback (barely), but somehow BMW can't even be bothered to figure out what Toyota did parameter wise to the steering and differential and copy that into the Z4.
If BMW made another Z4M or a Z4 M40i that isn't designed to occupy the GT / cruiser segment I would be very interested. The car needs to be more Boxster and less MB SLC or whatever they call it now. If the Z4 M40i had the tuning of the Supra and a manual out of the gate I would already own one.
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What you're saying is all correct, but I feel BMW figured out a while ago that that 99% of their customers just want a car that's somewhat sporty but not all out sports car. That's why the F/G generations have not earned the adoration of enthusiasts in the way prior models did. I know a lot of colleagues and friends who own BMWs, and none of them really give a shit about cars in the way we do. They won't be waking up at 7am to find a fun back road or hanging out on forums in their free time.
As a result, the Z4 just straddles that line between luxury and sporty without being truly committed to the latter. I had test drive a Z4 M40i too and like most BMWs, I felt it had the right "stuff." Amazing powertrain, stiff ride, decent exhaust note, great chassis. But the "feedback" part in the steering/handling category was absent. Steering felt mostly mute and uncommunicative. For majority of customers it's not a dealbreaker. For those of us who care, our only option for a sports car is Porsche.