The z4 is ok. Don't get me wrong, S is cooler. The breaker is the interior. The z4 has a completely unsinspired dash that seems designed for 50+ businessmen. Pass. Now the z4 M...hmmm

 

i think the "land shark" look isnt that bad. if you had the chance to get the M get that otherwise i'd stick with the s2000.

 

I had a 98 M Roadster and loved the look of that car. The rear wheel offset was really agressive and looked almost cobra-ish from the back. I have never been able to warm up to the Z4 styling. The past two cars I've bought I have thought about getting a Z4. The chassis is very good and fit and finish is excellent. I just can't accept the styling. Bangle put so many curves and "flame surfaces" into the design is comes off as busy and confused to me. Awkward. The S2000 to me has a nice shape, assertive, but not overly aggresive.

I think the Z4 Coupe on the other hand is big step in the right direction. The simple act of adding the hardtop makes a lot of those busy body lines work.

As for performance, The new Z4 3.0si has a lot of bang and even the base 3.0i now is pretty stout. Chassis and handling not as sharp as s2k though. Haven't driven the new MZ4 yet. $55k a little rich for my blood, that's getting into Cayman or slightly used 911 territory :-D

 

I looked at the BMW Z4 for a long time. In fact, I looked at just about every roadster (2-seat convertible) out there before buying my S2000. I really like the Z4. It "fit's" me very well and is a lot more comfortable than the S2000 (not that I found my S2000 to be uncomfortable) but, as someone else pointed out, all verisons available were more expensive and none of them (back then anyway) had any kind of performance advantage. If price had been no object, I might have considered the Z4 but only the 3.0 version. I did get to test drive a 2.5 w/automatic and, while it was a nice driving car, I was not impressed with it otherwise. Car's like these have no business with slush box on them! Then again, the guy that owned this particular car had one bad hand. It had been mangled in some kind of accident. I don't know the particulars but for him, a manual transmission would have been very difficult to operate so the automatic does have it's place sometimes.

As for styling, the Z4 is, always has been, and probably always will be, controversial. The S2000's styling is, IMO, classic. It has a style that is simple and elegant and it will still be a good looking car 100 years from now.

FWIW!
Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

http://www.z4um.com/viewtopic.php?t=17528 Both polls still going strong!