BMW Z4 Road Test Review

The Z4 has two variants in India, the standards sDrive35i and the sDrive35i DPT higher variant. We got the expensive higher variant to test with all the expensive kit that usually is standard apart from some interior trim and the burnt orange paint. DPT stands for Design Pure Traction which includes an optional Valencia Orange exterior paint which just adds so much zing to the car. The Z4 was designed by two different women. One designed the exterior, while the other the interior which is probably why the car looks so tasteful. From the outside, there isn’t a single angle the car doesn’t look pretty from. The back is pure beauty. But then upon closer inspection you notice that the roof isn’t made from fabric but metal. So it’s a coupé? No, at the push of a button, the metal roof folds into the boot and makes it into a two seat roadster. Here is the thing, convertibles usually has a coupe version and a convertible version. The Z4 is only available with a metal folding roof and no coupé. In 20 seconds, and even on the move, at the push of a button the roof folds down. Brilliant!

Just like the outside, same attention to detail is paid to the interior. In the DPT trim, you get black and orange leather seats and door trims with colour coded orange velvet.  Right in front of the driver is the 3 spoke, BMW black and grey steering wheel with some buttons and binocular shaped dual analogue Seedo and Tacho dials with a small, illuminated, digital display which tells you some information like driving mode setting, time and distance. At the drivers feet are a floor hinged accelerator and floating brake pedal glazed with aluminium. The thing that catches the eye inside is the beautifully crafted metal weaved panel on the dashboard. The grey finish and a slight roughness to it, gives a feeling of specialness. Placed right in the centre on the centre console are the BMW signature gear lever and the iDrive dial with infotainment navigating buttons.

But enough of touchy feely stuff, let’s get down to business. How is the Z4 to drive? Well at the heart of the Z4 is a 3 litre TwinPower Turbo straight six engine from BMW and a ­7 speed automatic transmission.  This might sound odd, but some might say a straight 6 is a thing of the past, well we can tell you that the straight 6 is as economical as any other car in the range with 10.3km to the litre even though it’s a relatively old engine that produces 306bhp and 400Nm of torque. Put your foot hard down and the Z4 does 0-100kmph in 5.1 seconds. You can have 3 driving modes: comfort, sport and sport+. In comfort mode, the car feel a bit lazy, the steering isn’t sharp even with an electric power steering though you do get a lot of feedback. The throttle is relatively linear in terms of power delivery in comfort and the transmission is decently responsive.

In sport mode, it’s the mode in which we mostly tested the car; it’s just so much fun. The steering is much sharper, the throttle responds much quicker and so does the gear box. You can probably count the difference in time between gear changes in comfort compared to sport. With a flip of the perfectly placed paddles behind the steering wheel changes gears in manual mode instantly in sport and it’s the same if you choose to use the sequential shifter.  The Z4 easily climbs to around its max speed and still manages to be comfortable even when you have massive undulations. What this car loves is corners. The Z4 seems like it was engineered by the Greek God of perfect handling. You just pace yourself and fling it, it just turns in, and those grippy 18 inch run-flat tyres are just always glued to the road. The cornering braking control which acts like a torque vectoring system just adds a little more sharpness to the handling.. Give it a dab of throttle into the corner and the back slips out easily and you can hold it, control it to execute a perfect slide, but in sport the traction control does step in to spoil the fun just a little bit. The engine is at the front and the rest of the weight is distributed evenly around the car..

In Sport+ mode, is where it gets a bit leery. Even though everything gets sharper with the steering, throttle and gear changes, but you’re on your own because whether you like it or not, it disables the traction control in Sport +. It’s good on the track, but on the public road, we decided to test it minimally so we don’t end up on a tree!

Now the question of practicality must be addressed. Can it be used every day on the road? That is definitely a yes. Usually roadsters don’t last very long with soft tops but with a hard top on, you’re less likely to tear the roof off and you don’t have to do it yourself, all the mechanism does it for you and the kids love the theatrics. It’s like a tiny transformer on the road which all of a sudden starts breaking into shapes and sizes before looking like a car again. Another thing on the practicality front in that the seats are immensely comfortable and offer a huge range of seat positioning. The boot however might be small for Indian standards--a total capacity of 310 litres with the roof up, which is more than what you get from sub 4 metre sedans. But if you package your luggage correctly you can squeeze in enough for a weekend getaway for two and a little more with the roof down as well. So yes it is more practical than you might think.

Coming back to the spare 70 lakh rupees lying around, we suggest you force yourself to take a look at the Z4, and we dare you to not have a smile on your face!