Anyone else there with a car configured like mine, BMW won't tell me :(

[sw4nny]

Well Crazy Harry I can safely say that is the most genuine answer to all the questions in this thread .Amen
Well put that man :happyclap
:

[Tumnus]

Now the reality of course is not all Z4s were created equal so let's cut to the chase. A Z4 without a twin turbo six is really just a stripped down Z4 made to compete with lower price cars. U.S. pricing wise, a twin turbo Z4 is a $65k car where as the non-twin turbo six cylinder cars could be had for up to $20,000 less.....a very significant price differential. It would be like comparing an R230 Mercedes SL500 to an SL600......there really is no comparison. They may generally look the same but they do not drive the same. An AC with four banger ain't no Cobra.

Clearly the twin turbo Z4 was massively overpriced in the US market, an extra $20k for the turbo engine and management! BMW must've seen these idiots coming!

Your car is not a collectors car (and probably never will be), neither is it a super car (whether it has 450bhp or not), it's just a twin turbo roadster in an unpopular colour. It's not the greatest handling car either, with dead steering and no slip diff, not that the Americans know too much about good handling as they drive in straight lines with the occasional 90deg corner, the more recent Boxster (2013 onwards) is widely acknowledged to be a better handling car than the Z4.

Whether you actually have a Z8 and Z1, who knows, but I'm now erring on the side of calling BS to that.

[wegras]

Now the reality of course is not all Z4s were created equal so let's cut to the chase. A Z4 without a twin turbo six is really just a stripped down Z4 made to compete with lower price cars. U.S. pricing wise, a twin turbo Z4 is a $65k car where as the non-twin turbo six cylinder cars could be had for up to $20,000 less.....a very significant price differential. It would be like comparing an R230 Mercedes SL500 to an SL600......there really is no comparison. They may generally look the same but they do not drive the same. An AC with four banger ain't no Cobra.

Clearly the twin turbo Z4 was massively overpriced in the US market, an extra $20k for the turbo engine and management! BMW must've seen these idiots coming!

Your car is not a collectors car (and probably never will be), neither is it a super car (whether it has 450bhp or not), it's just a twin turbo roadster in an unpopular colour. It's not the greatest handling car either, with dead steering and no slip diff, not that the Americans know too much about good handling as they drive in straight lines with the occasional 90deg corner, the more recent Boxster (2013 onwards) is widely acknowledged to be a better handling car than the Z4.

Whether you actually have a Z8 and Z1, who knows, but I'm now erring on the side of calling BS to that.

[z4all]

holy s*** just seen this, is this for real????

[wegras]

[sunnydays]

Did OP ever find out the number?

[Dav the wheel nut]

Did OP ever find out the number?

What, the Samaritans

[Fishy Dave]

I've read this thread a few times now albeit with waning interest - and now its like I'm back in first school in a virtual game of 'top trumps' with real cars.

OP I'm pleased that you enjoy your cars and have managed to collect examples that you are pleased with and I recognise that knowing about their exclusivity is an important factor in your decision to purchase them. Indeed one of my own cars was one of less than 400 made in 1938 so not may about now and the previous owners of all of them have been published in collectors books but I bought it because I liked it - only found out about the numbers produced after I got it My last daily was built in 2003 and good low mileage examples are now worth in excess of their new price - if kept as standard. They had no options list - a one size fits all and to some extent while options make cars affordable they do noting for their value as this thread testifies. When I sold mine at the start of this year (as standard) it had a whisker short of 200K on it - I had all that value as grins and smiles. The car lives on with a collector but at least it had a life. I don't want to be scared of using my cars.

My Zed is blue because I like blue cars (my last three have been blue) and has what must be a common options list but I love it because it drives well and because of that its my daily. The value for me is how it makes me feel pushing into a tight corner and I can see it on the drive now and recall that feeling. Having read posts and meet some of the guys from the forum the interest here I suggest is owning your own thrill machine - we all have different circumstances so our ideal Zed differs you only have to look at past threads about roadster/coupe; 2.0/3.0; E85/E89.

As soon as you have options every car is rare but it just makes every car the same as they are described by the universal common denominator. You could have had a Mini Cooper or a Mini Rio and everyone knew the spec - but an E89 is an E89 if you get what I mean.

I can assure you that the next time I'm braking full on for a tight corner what will be foremost in my mind will be either 'did I make a good tyre choice?' or just screaming; not 'how many other owners have the same configuration as me?'

I'm sorry that this forum hasn't given you the answers you were looking for but its (IMHO) about loving the Zed here. This is the first forum I've joined where members are pleased for other members having a nice car - just look at the responses to new members posts and pictures. We celebrate owners good fortunes and look at their cars and think 'maybe mine would drive better with that done'. Members might tease others and already I realise there are some long running gags in the threads but there's nothing to prove here.

If you have a Zed we love you but I don't think we can help with the info you require. You have nothing to prove - now talk to us about driving

That's a nice answer

[GuidoK]

VIN numbers have country/region specific identifiers.

then say you've imported it or something like that if they would ask.
If you write in german I doubt they'll redirect you to bmw NA. That would be very.........'ungerman'

It would have been interesting if BMW had only offered the Z4 with a Twin Turbo Six. With a JB4 for $500 every Z4 then would have Boxster Spyder HP. As it is now it seems the vast majority of Z4s have little four bangers.

Around here it seems that the majority are 6 cyl engines.... and especially a lot of IS versions (the top model so to speak). Probably mostly enthousiasts that import them etc.
Also in the facelift, the turbo 4 banger isn't 'that little', as its easily and reliably tunable up to 300hp and is of course lighter than its 6cyl rivals, so I think a tuned 20i/28i will be quite the match for a stock 35i.
And its not always about the horsepower with a roadster (ok, that might sound odd coming from a person with a twinscrew compressor...)
Weight and handling are imho key for this type of car (or at least thats my view on how I use my z4, I'm not the boulevard cruiser kind of person....)

As for "mass produced" the E89, the only Z4 actually produced in Germany, is rare by "mass produced" standards, with roughly three Z3 for every one E89 and roughly two prior gen Z4 for every one E89. Last figure I saw showed about 1 Z4 for every 40 or so E90.

Depends on what you regard as 'mass produced'
I mean the e90 is also quite rare if you compare it to the 'mass produced' VW golf, but the lamborghini gallardo (a mass produced lamborghini) is very rare compared to the 'mass produced' e89.
So there's absolutely no point in comparing numbers to a word that has no fixed value. 'Mass produced' is an empty statement. It has no specific numeral meaning.

In 2016 Porsche sold 240k cars of which 13k were Boxsters.
In 2016 BMW sold 1.9 million cars of which maybe 2k were Z4.

Thats because production ended in 2016.... It was end of life.
So do you know whats really rare? A 2016 e89. Probably every colour/interior trim combo in that year was unique.......
To your eyes the e89 may be special or rare, but that's because it sold particulary bad in the US, in contrast to the e85 or z3.
Here in europe the sales were quite good, about 3-4 times as much as in the US. So maybe rare across the pond, but absolutely not here.
You want a really rare car across the pond? import a TVR or so....
If you look at a normal popular production year like 2010 or 2011 the e89 outsold the boxster easily...both in europe AND the us (according to carsalesdatabase at least). So not rare at all as you see now....

Mathematically speaking that would make the E89 Z4 rare, whether just as a BMW product or even compared to a Boxster.

Not really according to carsalesdatabase....
In the corse over 7 years (2009-2016) there were about 21200 e89's sold in the us and about 23000 boxsters, but the e89 stopped production in early mid 2016, so any person that can make a rough estimate would say that it would be about on par. If you look in the bmw ETK, the e89 production as searchable parts stopped in march, so probably orders also stopped in march. If you look at what number boxsters were ordered in 2016 from april to december, that number comes to 2005 pieces, so the e89 might even get the edge on the boxter...
In europe... a totally different story, here the e89 outsold the boxter in its complete lifetime about 2:1 or so. In the last 2 years of its lifetime less than the boxster but in the beginnings much much more. So your view on numbers and rarity is highly highly tainted by what you see around you on the road, not whats actually been made or sold. Over here my view is that mustangs and corvettes are really really rare (much rarer than say...911's). In reality that's of course not true, as I know in the US they're a dime a dozen.
So always take in mind that the world is a really big place.

That the z4 is one of bmw's more rare products.... probably. I think every 2 seater roadster is usually one of the more rare models of large global car manufacturers that serve all markets.... so thats not saying anything really.
I mean a TT roadster is also probably way way rarer than an audi A3 or A4.... that doesnt make it collectable as gold.... it makes it 2 or 3 dime a dozen instead of 1....
So broaden your view to a global one instead of an NA one.

[Pastry]

Surely this thread isn't for real, it's got to be a wind up I bet it is a spoof account and the OP is really PVR having a giggle

[idej_z4]

As if this thread is still going!!!

[z4all]

How do I get rid of this from the page that appears when I click "your posts". It's pissing me off looking at this cr*p still going.

[Marlon]

How do I get rid of the page that appears when I click "your posts". It's pissing me off looking at this cr*p still going.

You can't.
Its the price you pay for posting on it

[z4all]

How do I get rid of the page that appears when I click "your posts". It's pissing me off looking at this cr*p still going.

You can't.
Its the price you pay for posting on it

My life is officially over

[sunnydays]

How do I get rid of this from the page that appears when I click "your posts". It's pissing me off looking at this cr*p still going.