2010 BMW Z4 - Ownership Report

Akshay1234 · 26th February 2010, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sahil

Nice car !

Which 93 octane do you fill and from which pump? I believe our regular fuel is 91 octane and only other one is 97 octane which costs a bomb. How much does 93 octane cost? Power/speed are just 91 octane with additives i believe, not 93 octane.

i thought i saw 93 octane at the indian oil pump when i was filling up my accord. i didnt check out the price though.

SSP · 28th February 2010, 12:33

I took the Z4 to Pune & Lavasa today. I'll try & capture my experience below.

I left Bombay at about 630am. Reached the beginning of the expressway in 54 min. That's 45km. Avg speed of 50km/h. I didn't expect this much traffic, but I guess everyone was heading out of town for the long weekend. Fuel economy 9.5km/l. I was impressed!!

Next leg was from here till Le Meridien Pune. Again traffic on E-way was crazy. I was actually using the xenons like strobes to get thru traffic. (I kept the beams on & then flashed when required)

Overall Fuel Economy dropped to 6.9km/l.

From Pune, I refueled & headed to Lavasa. Once you go past the toll booth on the road to Lavasa, it turns into a roadsters playground! Its the best stretch of asphalt twisties I've seen in this part of the world!! 2 lane road, perfect surface with not one pothole. There are a few villages on the way for which you need to slow down but its no biggie. I got to really test the car out, & I was blown away. I put the Dynamic Driving Control in Sport mode & slotted the gearbox into S. I was turning left & right all the time in quick succession and felt that S wasn't really keeping a gear, so I switched to Manual.

In manual, I couldn't adjust to using the Bimmers new paddle shifters (thumb operation for downshift, finger operation for upshift). It just didn't feel comfortable. So I switched to using the stick. That TOO was not intuitive enough since its - up + down, opposite of what I'm used to with my previous cars. So I kept selecting the wrong gear for a while.

Still the ride was fantastic. Not having to worry about the road conditions, I could freely punch it at every instance. Being low, I was able to throw it into corners at good speeds. I kept it between 60 & 120km/h. It actually put a good strain on my neck muscles to maintain my head upright while doing sharp left right turns at minimum 60km/h. Felt GOOOD!!!!

On the way back from Lavasa to Pune, I got more comfortable with the paddles than the stick. I guess its a matter of getting used to something different. Its not only the thumb+fingers operation, but also the 'feel' of them. Its got a higher 'resistance' than that of other cars that I've owned (Touareg, CLS550, Accord). So you have to click harder. Would like to hear from other Bimmer owners on their experience with it.

The turbo was FANTASTIC for this kind of driving. The real benefit of the dual clutch setup also came out on the twisties. Super fast shifts, giving near seamless power delivery. I was shifting back & forth between 2-3-4 (brief moments upto 6th) throughout the journey on Lavasa road & never once did I feel the need to hang on to one gear, so as not to get interrupted. What I mean is, when you shift up, there is a momentary loss of resistance, which sometime throws you off when you're right in the middle of negotiating a quick sprint & then a sharp turn. You end up having to brake, & down shift again. So sometimes its best to hold on to the lower gear & let it rev higher. I never felt the need to do this in the Z4 because the dual clutch allowed me to shift up, use that gear, brake, shift down & attack the corner. At no point of time was I revving higher than 5,000rpm. I want to keep it below that until about 2,000km.

The seats are fantastic. They hold you in TIGHT even through all the quick turns. At the same time they are very comfortable. I drove a total of 300km of city,highway & twisties in 6 hours & wasn't exhausted at all. 6 hours in traffic however, would have driven me nuts & I would have bitched about the seats, A.C., lack of a bottle/cup holder, yada yada

On the way back I managed a 10km/l fuel economy till the start of the expressway!

SSP · 28th February 2010, 12:52

snapshots of the on-board Journey Computer for each leg.

SSP · 28th February 2010, 12:58

A picture of the twisties and others of the car.

Notice the roof mechanism. Its the first one I've seen which does not fold in the middle. The rear panel would go on top of the roof panel, and then the 2 units would fold into the trunk as one.

shamik.bose · 28th February 2010, 13:55

You sure had a helluva time. You said you own(ed) a CLS 550. If you don't mind can we have some pictures of that gorgeous car please?

SSP · 28th February 2010, 14:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamik.bose

You sure had a helluva time. You said you own(ed) a CLS 550. If you don't mind can we have some pictures of that gorgeous car please?

found one for now. Its a 2008 CLS 550 with the AMG kit.

Akshay1234 · 28th February 2010, 15:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSP

found one for now. Its a 2008 CLS 550 with the AMG kit.

thats in the us isnt it? since i think the sell the 550s only over there.

what other cars do you have in bombay.

Sudan_NFS · 28th February 2010, 16:06

Nice write up and a good set of pics.Have you tried the cruise control in Z4?

Scorcher · 28th February 2010, 17:07

Nice write up man ! I'm dumbstruck that you got 10.6kmpl in E-ways.

Love the interiors, but im sure its a task in itself to maintain it in white.

Saw your car in the Supercar event video yesterday. It got a nice note i should say

For those who missed the video, here is it -

YouTube - Supercar Club of India 2010

And about the roof,The same Hardtop mechanism works on the M3 hardtop ci too.

SSP · 28th February 2010, 17:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234

thats in the us isnt it? since i think the sell the 550s only over there.

what other cars do you have in bombay.

Yup thats in USA. I just have regular cars in Bombay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sudan_NFS

Nice write up and a good set of pics.Have you tried the cruise control in Z4?

I actually forgot about cruise control until you mentioned it. But honestly, I doubt I would EVER use it. Any open stretch, I just want to floor it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scorcher

Nice write up man ! I'm dumbstruck that you got 10.6kmpl in E-ways.

Love the interiors, but im sure its a task in itself to maintain it in white.

And about the roof,The same Hardtop mechanism works on the M3 hardtop ci too.

Actually it was 10km/l for the 23 km from Pune city to the beginning of the e-way. The only way I could get that much on the e-way is if I use the cruise control

shamik.bose · 28th February 2010, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSP

Yup thats in USA. I just have regular cars in Bombay.

I actually forgot about cruise control until you mentioned it. But honestly, I doubt I would EVER use it. Any open stretch, I just want to floor it.

Actually it was 10km/l for the 23 km from Pune city to the beginning of the e-way. The only way I could get that much on the e-way is if I use the cruise control

What other cars do you have in the USA? And 10 kpl is very very good, albeit for an extremely short distance.

SSP · 28th February 2010, 21:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scorcher

Love the interiors, but im sure its a task in itself to maintain it in white.

Yup. Its a task alright. I cleaned the suede inserts today and plan on cleaning the leather out tomorrow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamik.bose

What other cars do you have in the USA?

I HAD a VW Touareg, CLS550. And a Honda CBR1000rr motorcycle

Moved back to India for good about 2 years ago

theragingbull · 28th February 2010, 22:23

Interesting roof mechanism. The Z4 looks more beautiful with the top down IMO. Pretty good F.E numbers there

kbk_75 · 1st March 2010, 01:55

Nice write-up SSP. Sweet car.

Ecks, I couldn't agree with you more, I think I'd consider a Z4M over the M3 as well if I was looking for a fun car and didn't care about practicality issues.

Since we're all talking about fuel efficiency, I just felt I HAD to chip in with a shot of my M3's onboard computer taken last year on the Bombay-Pune expressway. Granted this is an absolute best case scenario, with a downhill ghat section and a gentle right foot, but still, not bad for a 4L V8, right?! Sorry the image is blurry, I took it with my phone the moment I saw it!

//M · 1st March 2010, 06:52

Awesome ride SSP. Great pics and a very nice write-up there. Congratulations

28th February 2010, 12:33	#47
SSP BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 79 Thanked: 13 Times	I took the Z4 to Pune & Lavasa today. I'll try & capture my experience below. I left Bombay at about 630am. Reached the beginning of the expressway in 54 min. That's 45km. Avg speed of 50km/h. I didn't expect this much traffic, but I guess everyone was heading out of town for the long weekend. Fuel economy 9.5km/l. I was impressed!! Next leg was from here till Le Meridien Pune. Again traffic on E-way was crazy. I was actually using the xenons like strobes to get thru traffic. (I kept the beams on & then flashed when required) Overall Fuel Economy dropped to 6.9km/l. From Pune, I refueled & headed to Lavasa. Once you go past the toll booth on the road to Lavasa, it turns into a roadsters playground! Its the best stretch of asphalt twisties I've seen in this part of the world!! 2 lane road, perfect surface with not one pothole. There are a few villages on the way for which you need to slow down but its no biggie. I got to really test the car out, & I was blown away. I put the Dynamic Driving Control in Sport mode & slotted the gearbox into S. I was turning left & right all the time in quick succession and felt that S wasn't really keeping a gear, so I switched to Manual. In manual, I couldn't adjust to using the Bimmers new paddle shifters (thumb operation for downshift, finger operation for upshift). It just didn't feel comfortable. So I switched to using the stick. That TOO was not intuitive enough since its - up + down, opposite of what I'm used to with my previous cars. So I kept selecting the wrong gear for a while. Still the ride was fantastic. Not having to worry about the road conditions, I could freely punch it at every instance. Being low, I was able to throw it into corners at good speeds. I kept it between 60 & 120km/h. It actually put a good strain on my neck muscles to maintain my head upright while doing sharp left right turns at minimum 60km/h. Felt GOOOD!!!! On the way back from Lavasa to Pune, I got more comfortable with the paddles than the stick. I guess its a matter of getting used to something different. Its not only the thumb+fingers operation, but also the 'feel' of them. Its got a higher 'resistance' than that of other cars that I've owned (Touareg, CLS550, Accord). So you have to click harder. Would like to hear from other Bimmer owners on their experience with it. The turbo was FANTASTIC for this kind of driving. The real benefit of the dual clutch setup also came out on the twisties. Super fast shifts, giving near seamless power delivery. I was shifting back & forth between 2-3-4 (brief moments upto 6th) throughout the journey on Lavasa road & never once did I feel the need to hang on to one gear, so as not to get interrupted. What I mean is, when you shift up, there is a momentary loss of resistance, which sometime throws you off when you're right in the middle of negotiating a quick sprint & then a sharp turn. You end up having to brake, & down shift again. So sometimes its best to hold on to the lower gear & let it rev higher. I never felt the need to do this in the Z4 because the dual clutch allowed me to shift up, use that gear, brake, shift down & attack the corner. At no point of time was I revving higher than 5,000rpm. I want to keep it below that until about 2,000km. The seats are fantastic. They hold you in TIGHT even through all the quick turns. At the same time they are very comfortable. I drove a total of 300km of city,highway & twisties in 6 hours & wasn't exhausted at all. 6 hours in traffic however, would have driven me nuts & I would have bitched about the seats, A.C., lack of a bottle/cup holder, yada yada On the way back I managed a 10km/l fuel economy till the start of the expressway! Last edited by n_aditya : 2nd April 2013 at 17:42. Reason: high speed figures edited out
	(1) Thanks

28th February 2010, 12:52	#48
SSP BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 79 Thanked: 13 Times	snapshots of the on-board Journey Computer for each leg. Attached Images
	() Thanks

28th February 2010, 12:58	#49
SSP BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 79 Thanked: 13 Times	A picture of the twisties and others of the car. Notice the roof mechanism. Its the first one I've seen which does not fold in the middle. The rear panel would go on top of the roof panel, and then the 2 units would fold into the trunk as one. Attached Thumbnails Attached Images Last edited by Eddy : 28th February 2010 at 14:17. Reason: Corrected typo. Post can be edited by the poster within 20 mins. Thanks
	(1) Thanks

28th February 2010, 13:55	#50
shamik.bose Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Kolkata Posts: 1,684 Thanked: 126 Times	You sure had a helluva time. You said you own(ed) a CLS 550. If you don't mind can we have some pictures of that gorgeous car please?
	() Thanks

28th February 2010, 16:06	#53
Sudan_NFS BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: chennai Posts: 759 Thanked: 13 Times	Nice write up and a good set of pics.Have you tried the cruise control in Z4?
	() Thanks

28th February 2010, 22:23	#58
theragingbull Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 2,602 Thanked: 614 Times View My Garage	Interesting roof mechanism. The Z4 looks more beautiful with the top down IMO. Pretty good F.E numbers there
	() Thanks

1st March 2010, 01:55	#59
kbk_75 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Bombay Posts: 1,231 Thanked: 353 Times	Nice write-up SSP. Sweet car. Ecks, I couldn't agree with you more, I think I'd consider a Z4M over the M3 as well if I was looking for a fun car and didn't care about practicality issues. Since we're all talking about fuel efficiency, I just felt I HAD to chip in with a shot of my M3's onboard computer taken last year on the Bombay-Pune expressway. Granted this is an absolute best case scenario, with a downhill ghat section and a gentle right foot, but still, not bad for a 4L V8, right?! Sorry the image is blurry, I took it with my phone the moment I saw it! Attached Thumbnails
	() Thanks

1st March 2010, 06:52	#60
//M Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 4,310 Thanked: 9,322 Times	Awesome ride SSP. Great pics and a very nice write-up there. Congratulations
	() Thanks

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