[StefLag67]

I have driven a 981S for 3 years, sold it when Covid came in.
Loved the car, every mile has only been pleasure, especially in the mountain passes of France, but I have also driven it in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and the German Black Forest. Loved the sound, the agility, the naturally aspirated flat-6, the Porsche logo (was a child's dream to own one), the Porsche Boxster/Cayman community. And I sold it after 3 years and 30000Km for the price I bought it, which is a nice bonus.

I live in Alsace, France, a beautiful region in the north-east part of the country, right next to Germany. This region includes beautiful roads in both sides of the French/German border, with amazing roads in the German Black Forest, the A5 Autobahn with unlimited speed in some parts, the Vosges mountains with passes at above 1300m, etc.
I was part of a Boxster/Cayman owners club and I frequently organized week-ends with 10 to 20 cars, driving around 400km on the most beautiful roads of the region. But everything stopped with Covid.

So with the ease of the Covid restrictions, I started to propose to some friends a week-end like in the good old times, and it happened last week.
For the occasion, I could have used our cabriolet Mini Cooper S, but I wanted something a bit more fun. So I went to Sixt and found a beautiful M40i, for a reasonable price (800€ for 3 days).



To be honest, the first minutes were a bit disappointing.
I was expecting to be pushed to the back of my seat by the 340hp, but that wasn't the case, really; and I found the engine rather silent.
On the other side, I was immediately impressed by the comfort of the car. The wind protection, without being perfect, was much better than the Boxster; the seats much more comfortable, and the ride really good.

The next day, my friends joined me and the real stuff started, with over 300km of nice and twisty roads in the Black Forest from the north to the south.



Again, I wasn't super enthusiast at first. Compared to my Boxster, on twisty roads that I know by heart, there was a big difference. I found the M40 heavy, not very precise, not as balanced as the Porsche. I didn't have the same confidence in the car as I used to have. A couple of times, I exited a turn thinking: "wow, that was close", which never happened with the 981.
Kilometer after kilometer, I then started to drive differently - anticipating more my braking points, turning less aggressively. Honestly it's a bit hard to measure as I've been leading the group the whole week-end, but I think it would be very hard to keep the pace behind a 718S with a M40.

That said, I finished the week-end really convinced by the car.
1) the car is extremely comfortable, much more than the Porsche.
2) the G29 really looks awesome, probably the best looking BMW these days, and certainly amongst the best looking cabrios in the production today.
3) the car is really modern technology-wise, with wireless Android Auto, HUD, large digital displays, ACC, etc. - the 718 looks really old in comparison.
To the point that my wife looks at me and says: "you sure don't want to consider buying one?"
Well, when you have an invitation like this, what can you do?

So the next day I'm going through the French websites to look at what is available on the market, with a 50K€ budget in mind.
First observation, the prices for M40i's in France are just crazy, over 70K€ for a nice model without too many kilometers. Other option is to go for a 20i, but I was really afraid that this would be underpowered.
I then started to look at what was available in Germany, and I found a nice M40 within my budget, but it was a grey one, and more importantly it had 85000 km, and you already know that the value will decrease significantly as soon as you reach 100'000.
The I realized that there was another option, the 30i - there is hardly any in France.
I know well the engine as my company car is a G21 330i, so I knew what to expect in terms of power, torque and so on.
I start to watch YT videos, trying to understand if the 30i was a good option, and learned that the 4cyl engine is much lighter than the 6, with 100kg less on the front wheels.
Additionally, as I buy my car in Germany and import it in France, CO2 numbers matter a lot - there is almost 6000€ difference between the 2 cars for me in taxes, so given the extra cost of a M40, I end up with 15 to 20K€ difference between the 2 cars.

And then I saw that blue beauty, which was just an hour drive from home.



My wife and I immediately loved the color, both outside and inside. As I was in Munich for my job, I told my wife that I would make a stop over on my way back to check the car and possibly test drive it.
She said "I'll meet you there" and this is how we ended up at a Smart/Brabus dealer. The car was a trade-in (yes sounds weird but some Brabus Smarts are well over 60K !), in absolute perfect condition.
28000 kilometers, April 2019, the only missing option being the electric seats, but I can live with that.

The big question was really to check how the car drives and sounds compared to the M40.
Let's be clear - there is no 4 cyl engine that will sound as good as a 6.
But I've been really impressed by the difference of sound between the G21 and the G29. In sport mode, the engine is pretty vocal and sounds definitely much better than my 330i.
Additionally, I could really feel the weight difference and I was happier with the handling of the 30i compared to the M40.
And this is how, in a matter of days, I bought a G29 and I'm super happy about it!
I'll get it at the end of the month and I can't wait!

[COKen]

Welcome to the club!

[Flying Clog]

Lovely car.

Enjoy it.

[Westside Guy]

Congratulations, you have a winner!

PS, The Misano Blue/ ivory colors are my favorite combination.

[leeatmg]

Wow...great story, and congratulations. Great color combo!

[Z4itis]

Awesome story and Congratulations she is gorgeous!

[Karnidge]

Love the color. Congrats.

[CJ421]

Beautiful car and welcome!

You echo the sentiment that Porsches are more fun, but the BMW Z4 is a better all-around driving car - comfort, modern electronics, etc. The Sport Plus mode really wakes up this car.

I know I'd like to see some photos of the areas where you drive, if you have any.

Charles

[Bayernzeit]

Great story and congratulations. Alsace really is beautiful; wishing you many wonderful drives in the future.

[StefLag67]

10 more days to get the car, but in the meantime I received some parts!

I am looking forward to trying the black grilles, I think it will look really cool on it

[Westside Guy]

Please post pictures once the grill is installed.

I also have those black Z4 mats and love the way they look.

[StefLag67]

some very nice pictures taken by my seller... enjoy

[RavenGX]

Originally Posted by StefLag67

some very nice pictures taken by my seller... enjoy

you bought it from batman?

The car looks awesome, i wish you a lot of fun with it

[Bigmouth Studio]

Welcome to Z4 family!

[StefLag67]

All right, so let me tell you about my trip to the dealer to get my new toy...

Everything was agreed with the salesman to get the keys of my car this Monday, 1:30pm. My bank organized the wire transfer so the car was fully paid, and the dealer confirmed he would have the license plates ready on time.
If you buy a car in Germany and export it to another EU country, you need to buy time-limited license plates. You can choose their longevity, from a few days to a month or so, the cost would of course increase accordingly. In all cases it includes an insurance.

When my wife and I arrive, the car is there, and it's really splendid. As agreed with the dealer, it has been detailed and it looks almost brand new. One wheel had a little scratch, it's been fixed; the driver seat was a bit dirty, it's now brand new... I'm super happy.

We then sign the papers and finally me make a picture in front of the car when the sales guy hands the keys over to me, together with a prosecco bottle.

I must say this is the best experience I ever had at a dealership when buying a car, everything has been great from a to z.

It's now time to drive back to home, about 45 minutes.
My wife is driving in front of me and, because of traffic, I soon lose her. I don't really care and after a couple of minutes I stop at a traffic light. I'm super happy, play with the navigation while waiting for the traffic light to go green... and I hear the noise of a car hitting my bumper.

I just can't believe my ears and then my eyes when I see the car of this old lady in the bumper of my Z4! I wasn't more than 5 minutes away from the dealer!
I'm shouting in French, while she hardly speaks anything else than Chinese... but I manage to have her following me back to the dealer, or at least close to it, as I quickly understood that I would need his help.
Fortunately he immediately accepts to join us in a parking next to the dealership, while in the meantime the old lady kept shouting in Chinese in her phone to get her daughter to come...
Long story short, I finally called the police so that I had a proof of the incident, and after an hour finally got back home...
Tomorrow I'll go to BMW to get a quote to repair the car. The damage is very light, only the rear bumper is slightly damaged, but I expect them to quote a full bumper. Then let's hope that the insurance companies do their job!

During the week I did a few trips to test the car, and I'm really happy I opted for the 30i vs the M40.
I can really feel the difference in weight on the front wheels, I find the 30i much more precise and agile. The engine sound is clearly not as nice as the 6 cylinder but it does a very decent job.
All in all, very happy with this new car!

A picture of my 2 BMWs with the exact same engine (sorry one is very dirty)

[ebirotedu]

Sorry to hear about your mishap on the way home - that really sucks!

And hopefully, you're able to get it sorted & repaired quickly, and paid for by the other driver's insurance at little to no cost to you.

Originally Posted by StefLag67

All right, so let me tell you about my trip to the dealer to get my new toy...

Everything was agreed with the salesman to get the keys of my car this Monday, 1:30pm. My bank organized the wire transfer so the car was fully paid, and the dealer confirmed he would have the license plates ready on time.
If you buy a car in Germany and export it to another EU country, you need to buy time-limited license plates. You can choose their longevity, from a few days to a month or so, the cost would of course increase accordingly. In all cases it includes an insurance.

When my wife and I arrive, the car is there, and it's really splendid. As agreed with the dealer, it has been detailed and it looks almost brand new. One wheel had a little scratch, it's been fixed; the driver seat was a bit dirty, it's now brand new... I'm super happy.

We then sign the papers and finally me make a picture in front of the car when the sales guy hands the keys over to me, together with a prosecco bottle.

I must say this is the best experience I ever had at a dealership when buying a car, everything has been great from a to z.

It's now time to drive back to home, about 45 minutes.
My wife is driving in front of me and, because of traffic, I soon lose her. I don't really care and after a couple of minutes I stop at a traffic light. I'm super happy, play with the navigation while waiting for the traffic light to go green... and I hear the noise of a car hitting my bumper.

I just can't believe my ears and then my eyes when I see the car of this old lady in the bumper of my Z4! I wasn't more than 5 minutes away from the dealer!
I'm shouting in French, while she hardly speaks anything else than Chinese... but I manage to have her following me back to the dealer, or at least close to it, as I quickly understood that I would need his help.
Fortunately he immediately accepts to join us in a parking next to the dealership, while in the meantime the old lady kept shouting in Chinese in her phone to get her daughter to come...
Long story short, I finally called the police so that I had a proof of the incident, and after an hour finally got back home...
Tomorrow I'll go to BMW to get a quote to repair the car. The damage is very light, only the rear bumper is slightly damaged, but I expect them to quote a full bumper. Then let's hope that the insurance companies do their job!

During the week I did a few trips to test the car, and I'm really happy I opted for the 30i vs the M40.
I can really feel the difference in weight on the front wheels, I find the 30i much more precise and agile. The engine sound is clearly not as nice as the 6 cylinder but it does a very decent job.
All in all, very happy with this new car!

A picture of my 2 BMWs with the exact same engine (sorry one is very dirty)

[CJ421]

StefLag67 so sorry to hear about the incident. It sounds fixable.
But your car looks fantastic either way. The blue really pops.

Charles

[Mastakko]

Congratulations on the car! I searched ages for a 981S manual and couldn't see spending the same or more for an 8 year old car. I also wanted a miata really badly but wife was against it and not nearly as comfortable as other options. Local dealership had the car I would end up with which had literally every option ticked (I think a launch vehicle for the G29). It even has levelling wheel center caps.

It's a 30i also and I appreciate the balance and weight loss compared to the 40i but I haven't yet driven a 40i. I can tell you compared to the 981s I drove it has so much more low end power. I do miss the 6 speed manual but the 8 speed auto keeps you in the power band like crazy. Wish I could join you in a drive out there.

[FABS68]

Originally Posted by StefLag67

I have driven a 981S for 3 years, sold it when Covid came in.
Loved the car, every mile has only been pleasure, especially in the mountain passes of France, but I have also driven it in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and the German Black Forest. Loved the sound, the agility, the naturally aspirated flat-6, the Porsche logo (was a child's dream to own one), the Porsche Boxster/Cayman community. And I sold it after 3 years and 30000Km for the price I bought it, which is a nice bonus.

I live in Alsace, France, a beautiful region in the north-east part of the country, right next to Germany. This region includes beautiful roads in both sides of the French/German border, with amazing roads in the German Black Forest, the A5 Autobahn with unlimited speed in some parts, the Vosges mountains with passes at above 1300m, etc.
I was part of a Boxster/Cayman owners club and I frequently organized week-ends with 10 to 20 cars, driving around 400km on the most beautiful roads of the region. But everything stopped with Covid.

So with the ease of the Covid restrictions, I started to propose to some friends a week-end like in the good old times, and it happened last week.
For the occasion, I could have used our cabriolet Mini Cooper S, but I wanted something a bit more fun. So I went to Sixt and found a beautiful M40i, for a reasonable price (800€ for 3 days).



To be honest, the first minutes were a bit disappointing.
I was expecting to be pushed to the back of my seat by the 340hp, but that wasn't the case, really; and I found the engine rather silent.
On the other side, I was immediately impressed by the comfort of the car. The wind protection, without being perfect, was much better than the Boxster; the seats much more comfortable, and the ride really good.

The next day, my friends joined me and the real stuff started, with over 300km of nice and twisty roads in the Black Forest from the north to the south.



Again, I wasn't super enthusiast at first. Compared to my Boxster, on twisty roads that I know by heart, there was a big difference. I found the M40 heavy, not very precise, not as balanced as the Porsche. I didn't have the same confidence in the car as I used to have. A couple of times, I exited a turn thinking: "wow, that was close", which never happened with the 981.
Kilometer after kilometer, I then started to drive differently - anticipating more my braking points, turning less aggressively. Honestly it's a bit hard to measure as I've been leading the group the whole week-end, but I think it would be very hard to keep the pace behind a 718S with a M40.

That said, I finished the week-end really convinced by the car.
1) the car is extremely comfortable, much more than the Porsche.
2) the G29 really looks awesome, probably the best looking BMW these days, and certainly amongst the best looking cabrios in the production today.
3) the car is really modern technology-wise, with wireless Android Auto, HUD, large digital displays, ACC, etc. - the 718 looks really old in comparison.
To the point that my wife looks at me and says: "you sure don't want to consider buying one?"
Well, when you have an invitation like this, what can you do?

So the next day I'm going through the French websites to look at what is available on the market, with a 50K€ budget in mind.
First observation, the prices for M40i's in France are just crazy, over 70K€ for a nice model without too many kilometers. Other option is to go for a 20i, but I was really afraid that this would be underpowered.
I then started to look at what was available in Germany, and I found a nice M40 within my budget, but it was a grey one, and more importantly it had 85000 km, and you already know that the value will decrease significantly as soon as you reach 100'000.
The I realized that there was another option, the 30i - there is hardly any in France.
I know well the engine as my company car is a G21 330i, so I knew what to expect in terms of power, torque and so on.
I start to watch YT videos, trying to understand if the 30i was a good option, and learned that the 4cyl engine is much lighter than the 6, with 100kg less on the front wheels.
Additionally, as I buy my car in Germany and import it in France, CO2 numbers matter a lot - there is almost 6000€ difference between the 2 cars for me in taxes, so given the extra cost of a M40, I end up with 15 to 20K€ difference between the 2 cars.

And then I saw that blue beauty, which was just an hour drive from home.



My wife and I immediately loved the color, both outside and inside. As I was in Munich for my job, I told my wife that I would make a stop over on my way back to check the car and possibly test drive it.
She said "I'll meet you there" and this is how we ended up at a Smart/Brabus dealer. The car was a trade-in (yes sounds weird but some Brabus Smarts are well over 60K !), in absolute perfect condition.
28000 kilometers, April 2019, the only missing option being the electric seats, but I can live with that.

The big question was really to check how the car drives and sounds compared to the M40.
Let's be clear - there is no 4 cyl engine that will sound as good as a 6.
But I've been really impressed by the difference of sound between the G21 and the G29. In sport mode, the engine is pretty vocal and sounds definitely much better than my 330i.
Additionally, I could really feel the weight difference and I was happier with the handling of the 30i compared to the M40.
And this is how, in a matter of days, I bought a G29 and I'm super happy about it!
I'll get it at the end of the month and I can't wait!

J aurai put ecrire la meme chose bravo avec 3 modifs venant d une 991 , du 68 et la mienne est blanche

[Horseman]

Welcome to the party! Hope you enjoy the new ride! Thanks for the pics. There’s a lot of us here that are active so Stay Awhile, and Listen!