Driving a 2003 BMW Z4
What’s this car you ask? Well you shouldn’t be asking that, the name is in the title. A 2003 BMW Z4, and it’s mine. For those of you who have read my last blog post (unfortunately a few months ago), you would know I was looking at buying a 2004 Mazda RX8 and I was experiencing major problems in the process. Well that’s all in the past. Now it’s all about the Z4, and let me tell you some changes I’ve noticed.
For one, I get a lot of looks. I mean, A LOT of looks. True, I got looks in my old car, a 1991 Mazda Miata that was falling to pieces. These are different looks though, these are the good kind of looks. The looks that seem to say, “hey man nice car”. Not to mention, I actually hear those words all the time as well. Gas stations, High school parking lot picking up my brother, Bank, Wal-Mart, etc. It almost never fails, about 50% of the stops I make with the car involve someone paying me a compliment. (Does it still count the first compliment I received was from a homeless guy who promptly asked me for money afterwards?).
The driving experience, I have mixed feelings about. It certainly is fast, I bought the 3.0i model. 0 to 60 speed averages around 5.6 seconds (not my numbers, I’ve yet to clock it). If it was a manual transmission, it would be absolutely fantastic to drive I am sure. This transmission however, is the BMW SMG transmission. Sequential Manual Gearbox. A paddle shifter. Let me be clear, it has a lot of pros. Shifting is fast with the sport button turned on, Its very handy to just bump it into automatic mode when I’m eating while driving, and the extra control you have over the gears compared to an automatic is very handy. Driving on an on ramp at 55mph, notice i’ve got cars coming up on my fast, dropping down to third gear by pressing the button once or twice, and VRRRROOOOOOOOOOOM slamming the gas to get up to 6 thousand RPMs in no time and flying ahead of the rest of the cars. Yes, its fantastic.
So what are the downsides? Why do I feel it’s not quite as good as manual even though it seems to be even more functional? 2 words. First Gear. BMW could have made the transition from a complete stop into first gear a lot easier. The car has the tendency to kangaroo very easily, like I’m right out of High School and learning how to drive stick. With practice, it seems to be getting better. On occasion it still happens though. Picture this scenario for me…
You pull up to a stop light, and you’re first in line. Other cars start pulling up behind you and in front of you on the other side of the street. Your light is about to turn green, everyone is slowing to a stop and naturally, you’ve got the coolest car on the road (your top is down, of course) so more eyes seem to settle on you than anyone else. The light flashes green, you press on the gas to go, and…
HOP HOP SKID BRAKE HOP THRUST BOINK SKID VRROOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Embarrassing? You bet! It’s happened to me at least 3 times now. Don’t start feeling sorry for me though, every other time I pull up to a stop light I’m the coolest car, except for that one time I pulled up to a stop sign and there was a Viper parked to my right. It was the first time my buddy had ridden in my car. I pull out and around the corner, come up to the stop sign and looked to my right. My buddy turns too, then looks back at me and says “He wins”. Yeah maybe, but only if his car doesn’t kangaroo at a stop light when my doesn’t 
-Kyle
