[MarkB01]

I had a conversation with a BMW salesperson the other day and he said he had never even seen a Z4 at his dealership (and wanted to see mine). I found that an interesting statement.

So just out of curiosity, I used cars.com to find how many new Z4's and Supra's (since they are built at the same plant) are currently on the market in the US. The results were interesting. Here's what I found...

BMW Z4's - 64
Z4 30i - 46
Z4 M40i - 18

Toyota Supra - 978
Supra 2.0 - 323
Supra 3.0 - 632
Unknown - 16

I live in Denver, but the nearest new Z4 for sale is 450 miles away. In contrast, the nearest Supra is right down the street. It does imply that I was very lucky to find my M40i at a local dealer a few weeks ago.

[ejm3]

I check maybe a month or so ago and for M40i's there were like 2 on the entire east coast.
I can't imagine they will be willing to make deals on cars that barely exist.

Edit: That's 2 new ones; not sure about used.

[MarkB01]

Interestingly, car.com shows 230 new C8 Corvettes are available on the market.

But I learned the hard way from trying to buy a vette a couple of months ago, that that number really is not true. I would say 90% are already spoken for (i.e. preorders that are sold) and the other 10% are being horded by the dealers to be sold at $25K-$30K over list.

[ejm3]

I honestly thought all the C8 pre-orders would have been filled by now because its been out for a while. But I have been hearing that they are still hard to come by.
Maybe Covid or chip shortage slowed production. Or maybe demand is higher than anyone thought.
But so far I have only seen one of these out in the wild.

[MarkB01]

Originally Posted by ejm3

I honestly thought all the C8 pre-orders would have been filled by now because its been out for a while. But I have been hearing that they are still hard to come by.
Maybe Covid or chip shortage slowed production. Or maybe demand is higher than anyone thought.
But so far I have only seen one of these out in the wild.

I actually have a refundable deposit down at a dealer for a preorder on a C8. They are estimating it will be two years before I can get the order fulfilled.

Given that I really love my Z4, not sure what I'm going to do once I get to the top of the list.

[German1967]

I have a pending order on a 992 C2S Cab. Likely 6-12 months before fulfilled. I also can sell my 2020 Z4 M40i right now for 80+% of MSRP given zero availability.

[ejm3]

I kind of ruled the C8 out because its probably to much of a true sports car than I really need.
I'm not going to track it and I live in a place where the roads are generally lousy.
Personally I wanted a car that could be driven more like a regular car rather smashing it on every pothole in Connecticut.

[MarkB01]

Originally Posted by ejm3

I kind of ruled the C8 out because its probably to much of a true sports car than I really need.
I'm not going to track it and I live in a place where the roads are generally lousy.
Personally I wanted a car that could be driven more like a regular car rather smashing it on every pothole in Connecticut.

My read on the C8 is that they did a great job making it a GT car as well as a sports car (in the same vein as a Z4). Not only does it get the performance accolades, but it also get's the comfort and convenience accolades.

As a reviewer from "Everyday Driver" said, it's the most compromised sports car out there, and that's a good thing.

[ejm3]

Originally Posted by MarkB01

My read on the C8 is that they did a great job making it a GT car as well as a sports car (in the same vein as a Z4). Not only does it get the performance accolades, but it also get's the comfort and convenience accolades.

As a reviewer from "Everyday Driver" said, it's the most compromised sports car out there, and that's a good thing.

When I read that the C8 has the ability to raise and lower the suspension based on GPS location for speed bumps, potholes, etc. i realized this wasn't as much of a DD as I was thinking...

[Rob_G77]

Those low numbers can mean different things. For example, what if dealerships are simply not ordering the Z4 because of low sales? I know that is the story with my dealership. There's a used 2019 Z4 30i for sale at my dealership and I am very keen to see how long it stays available.

I've seen a few C8. The few used ones I have seen on autotrader locally are generally priced at least 30% over original MSRP. I hope they don't sell.

Rob

[DJ-VOLUME]

Originally Posted by Rob_G77

Those low numbers can mean different things. For example, what if dealerships are simply not ordering the Z4 because of low sales? I know that is the story with my dealership. There's a used 2019 Z4 30i for sale at my dealership and I am very keen to see how long it stays available.

I've seen a few C8. The few used ones I have seen on autotrader locally are generally priced at least 30% over original MSRP. I hope they don't sell.

Rob

My buddy I work with has a c8. Beautiful car. Wouldn't trade my z4 m40 for it though.
The z4 is much more livable... as a daily driver IMO.

[ejm3]

Originally Posted by Rob_G77

Those low numbers can mean different things. For example, what if dealerships are simply not ordering the Z4 because of low sales?

Rob

At least here in the northeast US they generally don't stock a lot of new convertibles.

They get a few on the lot and they get a lot of attention in the spring and summer from people driving by but then when reality sets in they usually just end up leasing a regular 3-series or something.

The reality is that the market for 2 seat RWD convertibles isn't that big, especially at the $70k+ range.

Pre-Covid it really only took a couple months if you ordered one so the dealerships would rather go that route than stock lots of them and potentially have them sit there for a while.

[CJ421]

I didn't verify the sources but here are Supra/Z4 sales numbers:
https://www.supramkv.com/threads/toy...-figures.2061/
Z4 sales seem minimal, especially this year (241 sold Jan-Mar), but I have no idea what is "normal" for this vehicle class.

Charles

[MarkB01]

Originally Posted by CJ421

I didn't verify the sources but here are Supra/Z4 sales numbers:
https://www.supramkv.com/threads/toy...-figures.2061/
Z4 sales seem minimal, especially this year (241 sold Jan-Mar), but I have no idea what is "normal" for this vehicle class.

Charles

Sales seemed to have dropped drastically last October. Tied to that, one dealer told me they didn't have an Z4 slots available, and another dealer said there were only 10 slots for all of western US available. It seems weird. (note, one must take comments like this from sales people with a grain of salt).

[Rob_G77]

Originally Posted by ejm3

The reality is that the market for 2 seat RWD convertibles isn't that big, especially at the $70k+ range.

I completely agree! I'm still on the fence about keeping mine or not, but loathe the idea of leaving it on a dealer lot for consignment. I need to decide this month. It depends what I can get for it I guess. It's a tough decision.

Rob

[TAZ007]

Originally Posted by MarkB01

Sales seemed to have dropped drastically last October. Tied to that, one dealer told me they didn't have an Z4 slots available, and another dealer said there were only 10 slots for all of western US available. It seems weird. (note, one must take comments like this from sales people with a grain of salt).

Funny, I was told the same thing. Took me a month of searching before finding a dealer with an open order slot. I realize now that the dealership is only allotted a certain amount of slots and they use about 85% to fill their lot.

Would be better to use the European sales model and have a small lot for cars to test drive then place orders as needed for clients.