New Car

The lease on my Acura TL finally expired, not that I disliked the car, but it was deliberately conservative because of my somewhat excessive commute at the time I bought it. Having changed offices, reducing my commute to something more manageable I was looking forwards to going back to less practical vehicles.

Over the years I've owned a lot of impractical cars, among them an Fd RX7, a 3000GT-VR4, a Dodge Viper and an E46 M3. Of those the M3 was by far the most practical and the RX7 probably the least (at least the Viper had a usable trunk). Having said that if my RX7 had been reliable it might have been my favorite.

I've always loved the Z4, I'm not a big fan of Bangles design work at BMW, but the Z4 to me is the exception, the problem is that I really dislike convertibles. BMW finally released a coupe version, and M variants...... So there is now shiny new BMW Z4M Coupe sitting in my driveway. It's reminiscent of my FD RX7, the ride is brutal, and it feels smaller and lighter than it is, and there is no 3/4 or rear visibility to speak of. The engine sounds great, better than the E46 M3 which had the same engine, and I love the seats and the interior as a whole. I'm still trundling through the break in period on the engine, but even with the breakin imposed 5Krpm redline power is more than adequate.

Most reviewers prefer the 3.0 none M version of the coupe and I can see why that is. It's a lot more civil and has plenty of power for any on road use, but that's exactly why I love the M version.