Description
Whilst my day to day World is with older classic cars I will occasionally get involved with what I would deem more modern cars for close friends and family and only examples that I know have been properly maintained and cared for. I am not interested in average modern cars they have to be special for me to get involved.
This lovely BMW Z4 3 litre straight six, is such a vehicle as it belongs to my brother in law, whom is, in the nicest possible way when I say this, extremely fastidious (bordering on obsessive) when it comes to maintaining his cars. Now retired he spent most of his working career running his motoring parts shop and ran a small workshop to the rear of premises. So, he knows his cars and how to look after them properly.
He has recently acquired through me a BMW 420 convertible so hence the sale of his Z4 which was bought back in 2019 from a dealer near to me. I have had the pleasure of using RY03 SWW quite a bit in the past few weeks before putting it up for sale here and it’s a pleasure to drive. Somewhat unsurprisingly everything works as it should do. There are no rattles or knocks and it is a really assured driving experience from the precise handling to that beautiful straight six engine which smoothly and effortlessly drives the Z4 along.
The pictures you see are current having been taken just a couple of days before this listing started. Overall, this Z4 is extremely clean inside and out. You will struggle to find cleaner example in my opinion from this era. The Interior is in amazingly good condition, all clean and tidy with no obvious marks to be seen anywhere. The paintwork, which is finished in Saphire black, is excellent with a good shine and lustre to it and shows very well. There is the odd blemish here and there but nothing obvious or unsightly. For instance, on the rear boot between the Z4 and the BMW badge there is a little scratch, small though and hand touched in. To the top of the driver’s front wing a very small area of the paint is a tiny bit faded, but again not obvious. You have to be looking hard for these details and perhaps I am being a bit over critical here. All the tyres are excellent as are the alloy wheels although two have a couple of very small marks to them. The only other cosmetic thing I have noticed is the two side wing indicator badges have a couple of chips to them. But other than those relatively small imperfections the car is in amazing overall condition for its age.
During my Brother In laws past 7 years of ownership, he has always maintained RY03 SWW to a very high standard, regardless of cost. He has also improved the car with a couple subtle upgrades. One of these was to replace the standard headlight units with Zenon HID “Black Angel” ones costing in the region of £500. He took the Z4 to mark specialists The Zed Shed to have the folding soft top roof motor relocated to within the boot area, which is discreet and out of sight. Z4’s have the motor as standard fitted in the rear wheel arch and it is a common fault that they can fail from water ingress. So this potential problem has been overcome. Whilst there he had some front suspension bushes replaced by them as well. The hood mechanism works perfectly and has had a little upgrade to it. Now you can open and close the roof using the ignition key fob which is handy. As you approach the car you can open the roof before you get in which is not factory standard. Parking sensors front and rear have been installed. Another potential known fault has been dealt with by installing an upgraded air control DISA valve. On the servicing side the history file is full of invoices going back many years and it is clear that RY03 SWW has always been well maintained. As recently as July last year it received a big service with the cambelt and tensioner replaced as well, the invoice for this work came to £1010 and is in the file.
RY03 SWW has a continuous MOT trail from new showing its steady progression to the 95, 000 miles it has covered to this date. Interestingly if you do a quick MOT check on the car online you will see that of the 23 MOT tests it only failed two and this was on both occasions for low tyre depth only. Which is very rare and impressive from my experience. There is normally always a suspension bush fail or brake fail, light fail, wiper blade fail etc but not with this Z4 which again points to it being properly maintained all its life.
This is the factory specification of the Z4 as provided to me from BMW recently:
Alarm system, Chrome line interior, Hardtop preparation, Wind deflector (present and in the boot), Automatic soft top, Velour floor mats, Electric memory seats, Headlight cleaning system, Rain Sensor, Automatic Air conditioning, Radio, CD changer for 6 CD’s, M Sport suspension, Battery master switch.
RY03 SWW is ULEZ compliant. It comes with a nice history file which includes a current red style V5c, 2 keys, various invoices for serving and all its original books
