It’s been almost a year since I bought my 2001 Z3 2.2i manual in Titan silver, so thought I had better start a progress thread.
I have been a car enthusiast my whole life and have always been particularly fond of BMW’s. My first car was an inherited 1984 5 series, and there have been several other E36 and E90 cars in the family that I loved. In the mid 1980’s, my father worked for a guy who had an M1 and this pretty much cemented my love of the brand and for M1’s.
In the early 90’s, I saw a disguised Z3 while it was undergoing development testing, which was very exciting for teenage me. A few years later, a friend had a new 2.8 and I remember driving in it once. It seemed so small, but sounded lovely and had a boot big enough for golf clubs. Almost 20 years would pass before I thought about Z3’s again.
My journey to ownership started in autumn 2021, when I realised that you could buy a reasonable Z3 or Z4 for less than £4k, even in winter when there are a LOT less for sale. I had been window shopping for something interesting less than £5k for months, after a family member got a Porsche and got me onto the idea that I should actually have an interesting car of my own before I die.
Then one day I saw this 2.2 Z3 advert and agreed to buy it for £3500 unseen.
Fortunately my wife agreed that it wasn’t a totally stupid idea and that she could also use it to drive to work. With a £100 deposit paid I planned to catch the train to Bristol and drive it home if it was okay. Then the dealer’s family took him away for a surprise 50th birthday weekend and the trip was off for a week. I started to worry about the car’s MOT advisories and the general dirty and rusty state of its engine bay and the contaminated paintwork. Then I realised not all Z3’s were ULEZ exempt. I panicked and pulled my deposit.
More homework and test drives followed. I looked seriously at a few MX5’s and TT’s. None really made an impression. The main issue for me was that I have been very sensible for many years with reliable but boring 4 cylinder family cars. The 4 cylinder engines just did nothing for me.
So with approval in principle, the search continued until I found this facelift Z4 2.5i.
It looked a bit lonely, surrounded by cheap hatchbacks at he dealers yard. I took it for a test drive and fell in love with the engine. It was over my £5k limit, but it had a broken roof, no books and only one key, so I made several cheeky offers, but it was not to be, as the dealer asked for time to sort the roof himself and I got fed up and worried about the work being done on the cheap. I’m sure someone has enjoyed this car in summer 2022!
I looked at a few more cheap Z4’s at dealers…a mistake I think. Most of their roofs didn’t work and some felt terrible to drive.
Then drove a sub £4k 2.2 on a very wet day.
I got soaked as I got in for the test drive. Then as we set off I needed to reverse to let another car pass and realised it needed a new back window that wasn’t totally cloudy. It’s still for sale in February 2023, over a year later and I suspect very well saturated, but the stance on the staggered rims looked great and it sounded amazing.
Then drove a low mileage 2.2 that had been enthusiast owned up in Manchester.
Sounded great, drove nicely, but was very damp inside, the original radio didn’t work and it had a puddle in the boot. I think they were asking almost £8k, so I was never going to buy it.
The following day I saw another one almost the same but less damp that the owner had worked on with his grandfather. It was advertised on Autotrader for just under £5k, but I managed to haggle down to 4.5. The following day I found a link to an advert on Gumtree for the same car for £3950! Doh!
Anyway, much fun has happened since. First job was to remove the 3.0 emblem
I have been a car enthusiast my whole life and have always been particularly fond of BMW’s. My first car was an inherited 1984 5 series, and there have been several other E36 and E90 cars in the family that I loved. In the mid 1980’s, my father worked for a guy who had an M1 and this pretty much cemented my love of the brand and for M1’s.
In the early 90’s, I saw a disguised Z3 while it was undergoing development testing, which was very exciting for teenage me. A few years later, a friend had a new 2.8 and I remember driving in it once. It seemed so small, but sounded lovely and had a boot big enough for golf clubs. Almost 20 years would pass before I thought about Z3’s again.
My journey to ownership started in autumn 2021, when I realised that you could buy a reasonable Z3 or Z4 for less than £4k, even in winter when there are a LOT less for sale. I had been window shopping for something interesting less than £5k for months, after a family member got a Porsche and got me onto the idea that I should actually have an interesting car of my own before I die.
Then one day I saw this 2.2 Z3 advert and agreed to buy it for £3500 unseen.
Fortunately my wife agreed that it wasn’t a totally stupid idea and that she could also use it to drive to work. With a £100 deposit paid I planned to catch the train to Bristol and drive it home if it was okay. Then the dealer’s family took him away for a surprise 50th birthday weekend and the trip was off for a week. I started to worry about the car’s MOT advisories and the general dirty and rusty state of its engine bay and the contaminated paintwork. Then I realised not all Z3’s were ULEZ exempt. I panicked and pulled my deposit.
More homework and test drives followed. I looked seriously at a few MX5’s and TT’s. None really made an impression. The main issue for me was that I have been very sensible for many years with reliable but boring 4 cylinder family cars. The 4 cylinder engines just did nothing for me.
So with approval in principle, the search continued until I found this facelift Z4 2.5i.
It looked a bit lonely, surrounded by cheap hatchbacks at he dealers yard. I took it for a test drive and fell in love with the engine. It was over my £5k limit, but it had a broken roof, no books and only one key, so I made several cheeky offers, but it was not to be, as the dealer asked for time to sort the roof himself and I got fed up and worried about the work being done on the cheap. I’m sure someone has enjoyed this car in summer 2022!
I looked at a few more cheap Z4’s at dealers…a mistake I think. Most of their roofs didn’t work and some felt terrible to drive.
Then drove a sub £4k 2.2 on a very wet day.
I got soaked as I got in for the test drive. Then as we set off I needed to reverse to let another car pass and realised it needed a new back window that wasn’t totally cloudy. It’s still for sale in February 2023, over a year later and I suspect very well saturated, but the stance on the staggered rims looked great and it sounded amazing.
Then drove a low mileage 2.2 that had been enthusiast owned up in Manchester.
Sounded great, drove nicely, but was very damp inside, the original radio didn’t work and it had a puddle in the boot. I think they were asking almost £8k, so I was never going to buy it.
The following day I saw another one almost the same but less damp that the owner had worked on with his grandfather. It was advertised on Autotrader for just under £5k, but I managed to haggle down to 4.5. The following day I found a link to an advert on Gumtree for the same car for £3950! Doh!
Anyway, much fun has happened since. First job was to remove the 3.0 emblem
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