BMW 330i vs BMW Z4

What's the difference?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the BMW 320i M Sport. It’s fun to drive and I felt connected to what the car was doing on the road. The harder ride may not appeal to some but I didn’t mind it. The cosy back seat and boot mean it will probably suit a smaller family best and one which doesn’t have to worry about carrying a lot of gear around regularly, but it suited my needs just fine.

I reckon this is a car for those drivers who don’t want to compromise on performance but still have a kid or two. If you’re after the cushioned comfort of a Merc, this won’t appeal but I didn't want to give this one back and happily give it a firm 8/10.

My son liked the sports car looks and enjoyed the amenities in his row. He gives it a 10/10.

The Z4 didn’t make me feel like Peirce Brosnan’s 007. It’s way too serious – a proper gritty reboot. Maybe it’s meant for Daniel Craig. Either way, its brave design makes it one of the best-looking BMWs of recent memory, and it’s a tech- and comfort-fest that the Bavarian automaker should be proud of. I just wish it was a smidge more fun behind the wheel.

Sharper than its predecessor, the new 320i has LED everything with the rear lights being longer and curving around to the sides of the car.

The classic 'kidney' grille is darkened and more pronounced, with the black panelling extending to the rear to create an unapologetically sporty presence. A presence that’s accentuated by the twin exhausts.

The batcave interior with its black headliner, black seats… black everything, looks smart and stylish.

You do have a fair bit of harder touchpoints throughout but the customisable ambient lighting helps to soften the overall effect.

With its 2068mm width, 4709mm length and 1435mm height, the sedan makes its presence known without feeling cumbersome to manoeuvre. Urban dwellers need not fear their local car park!

The Z4 is a sight to behold. It’s brave, especially for a BMW, it even betrays the brand’s strongest styling pillars, making its own way with its more horizontal grille design, flat body and curved out rear.

It’s more than that, though. In black, this car looks sinister, brooding. The more you look at it, the more you notice tiny details - the scooped-out sides, or the way the entire rear seems to flick up into the integrated spoiler. I couldn’t get enough of staring at it – it manages to look even better with the roof down.

That’s probably when it hit me. To my eyes, at least, this is the most stunning BMW in years. Sure, the X7 is a sight to behold due to its sheer dimensions and borderline offensive grille, but the Z4 is the opposite. It’s subtle, it hides its details away in its silhouette.

It’s designer, Calvin Luk (an Australian no less), was inspired at least in part by the Z8 – another Brosnan bond car – and you can see the Fisker design reflected in the Z4’s low, flat grille and almost bulbous rear.

Inside, sadly, the Z4’s strong design doesn’t quite play out. There’s no wily Fisker touches here, just a standard set of BMW switchgear. While it all works well, it just dumbs down the Z4’s character.

The big, chunky steering wheel in particular is a let-down. It’s the same wheel that sits in the brand’s X5 SUV, and it feels right there, but not here in a convertible where you’re so close to the ground. A smaller wheel would not only suit this car better, it would make it feel just a smidge more alive. I miss the three-spoke M sport wheel from previous-generation BMW cars.

I do like the dash, which is seemly carved from rhomboid shapes - a theme that rolls into the doors, screens, and vents elegantly. I’m normally not a fan of gloss plastics and chrome touches, but in the Z4 they’re all tastefully applied.

The seats, too, are lovely. I’m not sure about the contrast bright-red leather our car came with, but they’re nice and close to the ground and have excellent trim that you seem to sink into just enough to be comfortable and sporty all at once.

It’s a slick place to be, I just wish it felt less like you were at the helm of an SUV and more like you were driving something that looks this damn good.

For such a sleek looking sedan, it’s generous up front with plenty of head and legroom.

You can adjust the seat to sit quite low and both front seats have extendable under-thigh supports, which should excite taller drivers. 

My 189cm (6’2”) brother has the 328i and is very comfortable but taller front passengers will encroach on back seat passenger comfort.

The front seats are quite firm on the backside, they also lack adjustable lumbar support, so expect to stretch the kinks out on a longer trip.

The amenities and tech feel well thought out and easy enough to use. The 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system looks great and has the best-looking graphics I’ve sampled.

The BMW system is intuitive to use once you get used to it. If you’re not interested in using the touchscreen, you can also utilise the rotary-wheel for menu selections.

There’s also Bluetooth connectivity, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus built-in satellite navigation.

The 12.3-inch digital instrument panel is customisable and the information displayed simply but you won’t really look at it because of the head-up display.

Front occupants enjoy a wireless charging pad for their smart phone, a USB-A and USB-C port plus a 12-volt socket. Rear passengers get a couple of USB-C ports, too.

The storage is good for this size sedan but overall passenger room takes priority, but the glove box and middle console will suffice for everyday use.

While it may not excite others, I love the big bottle holders in the doors. They’re large enough for my big 1.5L bottle and angled for easy access. These are found in the rear doors as well.

Back seat passengers enjoy climate control, directional air vents, two cupholders, netted map pockets and reading lights.

My six-year old was happy with the amenities and lower ground clearance because he felt comfortable and had his independence.

The boot offers a good capacity of 480L and the aperture isn’t too narrow, so you can comfortably access items if they roll to the back.

I had plenty of room for my little family’s needs but if you’re a larger family, you may need to get strategic with gear storage.

Being a base model, you do miss out on a powered tailgate, which is a shame but not too much of an issue given this is a sedan and the lid isn’t heavy.

There’s also no spare tyre or even a puncture repair kit but you have run-flats, so you should be able to limp to a service centre if need be.

The Z4 is a convertible, so it’s naturally compromised on space. As far as convertibles go though, you’ll be hard pressed to find one you can fit more stuff into.

The Z4 is wide - the same width, in fact, as a 5 Series - and this carries into the cabin. There are only two seats, but those seats are wide, and occupants will find themselves with luxurious amounts of airspace for their arms, as well as excellent leather-trimmed and padded surfaces for landing elbows on.

Legroom is also great, as the seats have a surprising amount of rail-travel on them, so that even taller folk won’t struggle to fit their limbs in.

A genuinely impressive characteristic of the Z4 is much head room there it is. Despite its low-slung looks from the outside, the roof towers over my 182cm tall head when I’m inside, so this isn’t one of those convertibles that feels like braking too hard might simply decapitate those above six-foot tall.

In terms of storage areas you get some long but shallow trenches in the doors, a bay with connection ports and a Qi wireless charging pad under the air-conditioning controls, a glovebox (hey, not all convertibles have them) and a trick centre console that houses two deep cupholders inside.

There’s also a netted shelf behind the seats that could fit small bags, and given the length of the cabin, you could even fit laptops and the like behind the seats provided you haven’t used the full extent of the seat’s rearward movement.

The boot is deep, wide and long for a drop-top, and offers a total of 281-litres which is more than some popular hatchbacks. It even offers tie-down points and netting either side. To top it off, the fabric roof folds away into its own compartment, so the boot space is unaffected if you choose to drop the lid.

For a convertible – the Z4 is a practicality wizard.

The Z4 isn’t cheap, but it plays in a field of expensive Deutsche drop-tops. Our car was the mid-spec 30i which comes in at an MSRP of $104,900 (before on-road costs).

For that you’ll get a more highly tuned version of the base 20i’s four-cylinder turbocharged engine, producing 190kW/400Nm, 19-inch alloy wheels, M Sport brakes, Adaptive M suspension, and adaptive LED headlights.

That’s on top of the already impressively-specified 20i’s kit which includes dual 10.25-inch screens – one for the multimedia functions, the other as a digital dashboard, a head-up display, full Vernasca leather interior trim, auto-dimming rearview mirror, power adjustable and heated front seats with memory function, dual-zone climate control, 10-speaker 205W stereo, a Qi wireless charging pad, and adaptive cruise control as part of a marginally upgraded safety package (more on that in the safety section).

It’s a pretty plush set of equipment, although a challenging value proposition as the almost-as-well-equipped 20i starts from $84,900, a full $20k cheaper.

Rivals for this 30i model? You’ve got the soon-to-be-discontinued Mercedes-Benz SLC300 ($102,500), all-wheel drive Audi TT S quattro ($105,661), and, at a stretch, the entry-level Porsche Boxster ($122,960).

Of course, being a premium European car, there is an extensive options list. Our car was fitted with the excellent and probably-worth-the-money M Sport differential ($2400), as well as the rudely priced M seat belts (literally just the M pattern embroidered in - $560!) and interior ambient lighting package (lovely, perhaps not worth $550).

The Z4 is only offered in five colours, three of which – including our car’s Black Sapphire – come at a cost of $2000. The red interior, surprisingly, is a no-cost option.

If you’re keeping track that brings the car you’re looking at here to $110,410. Not cheap, and it doesn’t have six-cylinders - but given its other attributes explored later in this review, the fact that it still manages to undercut an entry-level Boxster is actually reasonable.

The 320i M Sport has the ‘baby’ engine in the 3 Series line-up but the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-petrol powertrain still delivers on power with a maximum output of 135kW/300Nm. 

This is a rear-wheel drive and has an eight-speed auto-transmission which delivers very smooth gear changes.

Despite having the smaller engine, it can still go from 0-100km/h in just 7.4 seconds.

Welcome to the age of ridiculously powered four-cylinder turbo engines. Despite a capacity of just 2.0-litres, the engine in the Z4 30i produces a whopping 190kW/400Nm.

That’s probably enough for a car this size. I’m keen to drive the six-cylinder, but surprisingly it seems to offer diminishing returns for extra cylinders offering a 60kW/100Nm power boost for an extra $20,000. Perhaps a six-cylinder is the way to go in a BMW, and given this car’s other seriously sporty attributes, it might be the only way to make it a bit more… fun. More on that in the driving section.

All Z4s are rear-wheel drive, using an eight-speed torque converter automatic. Sorry, no option for a manual this time around.

In a world with rising fuel prices, the efficiency of this decently powered sedan should excite you.

The official combined fuel cycle is 6.5L/100km. Real world testing saw my figure at 7.4L/100km after a mix of open-road and urban driving this week.

I thought that was great for how hard I drove it and for the power, you won’t be wincing when you put your foot down. I would expect it to be higher in an urban setting.

The 320i has a 59L fuel tank and based on the official combined cycle figure, you should get just over 900km of driving range, which is great, especially if you do 'roadies' like me!

It’s claimed that the Z4 will drink just 6.5 litres per 100 kilometres on the official combined cycle test, but I found that sticking my foot in occasionally resulted in a slightly more realistic sounding figure of 8.4L/100km.

That’s still a great fuel consumption number for a car like this, and perhaps one of the strongest benefits of having just four cylinders.

A discerning vehicle, the Z4 will drink nothing less than the best-quality 98RON unleaded to fill its 52-litre tank.

There's a lot that I like about how this performs but a highlight is how eagerly the car responds when you accelerate.

However, it’s not unbridled power. There’s no bucking at the front or shuddering through the steering wheel. It’s controlled but still very fun.

The lower centre of gravity and coupe-like height of this does mean it handles corners well and the bolstered seats hold you firmly into place, meaning you can be free to drive this a little harder than you might normally. Which I did and can confirm it handles itself well.

This has the M Sport suspension, which means it’s stiff, but you feel very connected to the road.

You do get a lot of talk-back from bumps in the road but unless you hit a big pothole, you never feel rattled by them.

But it is a harder ride than other luxury models, which doesn’t bother me as I like the handling, but if you want limo-like comfort, look elsewhere.

The cabin is very nice to spend a lot of time in and relatively quiet, even at higher speeds.

The 11.4m turning circle and sleek dimensions makes it very handy to park, even in tight car parks. The nose is long but the front and rear parking sensors take out any ‘will I make it’ moments and the super clear reversing camera is great. 

A car that looks this good better live up to the promise behind the wheel, right?

For the most part, the 30i does, but it’s a victim of its own performance credentials and luxuriousness.

See, a drop-top should be fun-packed, you should feel close to the road, connected. Sadly, a combination Z4’s excellent suspension and not-so-excellent SUV-like interior separates you too much from the surface below.

An advantage, of course, is the refinement on offer. The Z4 is easily one of the quietest, most refined convertibles I’ve ever driven, but it’s a little too insulated.

I can’t help but feel like it’s all business and no pleasure. It feels a little more like I should be cruising to work on the autobahn and a little less like I should be flinging it around corners on a tight B-road.

It feels almost wrong to drive it in a T-shirt. It’s serious and doesn’t want you to mess around, it wants you to wear a suit and tie.

This grand-tourer style feel is one that will keep a lot of buyers in the premium space happy, but I’m of the opinion that BMW will have that segment well and truly covered by the new 8 Series. If the budget allows.

Regardless, the 30i’s four-cyl engine feels like any six-cylinder would have a few years ago. It’s got a surge to it in the straights that’s quite satisfying, and it responds via the exhaust with an angry tone that makes it feel a little more alive, especially with the roof down.

This feeling was all helped along by our car’s M active differential which simply won’t let the fat tyres at the rear slide unless you’ve got high-speeds and loads of tarmac to play with – for better or worse.

The Z4 also has ‘variable sport steering’ which reacts to the car’s speed and position of the wheels to adjust the input ratio. It’s good when you’re at speed, but the weight and response of the steering can make the Z4 feel bigger than it actually is at lower speeds. 

The suspension is firm, and can be a little bouncy over rough surfaces, but seems well suited to the Z4’s chassis.

Other than those notable characteristics you’ll find that the Z4 is wonderfully tuned in terms of its inputs, everything is slick and smooth, suited perfectly for long meandering drives.

Convertibles and safety don’t often fall in the same sentence, unless its one where a concerned relative is trying to convince you not to buy one.

In any case, the Z4 benefits from four airbags (dual front and dual side), as well as the expected electronic stability controls. That optional M Sport differential will have the added bonus of preventing any unexpected slip and slide at the rear.

On the active side the Z4 gets ‘Driving Assistant’ which includes forward collision warning (FCW), lane departure warning (LDW), rear cross traffic alert (RCTA), and rear collision warning. The 30i grade also gets 'active cruise control with stop & go' which allows for full auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection. Not on the spec sheet, but apparently present in the car I drove was some form of traffic sign recognition (TSR) and lane keep assist (LKAS).

A nice high-res reversing camera displayed on the massive touchscreen is a welcome standard addition.

Considering the meagre safety specification of most convertible cars, the Z4 30i shines with a half-way decent active safety suite. But you can forget ISOFIX child-seat anchor points. There aren't any. 

The 320i comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty, which is standard for this class.

You can choose between a three- or five-year capped-priced servicing plan. The five-year plan costs just $2150, or $430 a year, which is competitive for this class.

Like other BMWs, servicing intervals are condition-based, with the car letting you know when it needs to be serviced.

If recent quotes are anything to go by BMW is set to stick by its lacklustre three-year unlimited kilometre warranty, as it says its customers simply aren’t interested in five years (or longer) when it comes to warranty coverage.

It’s a shame, as even Volkswagen has upped its warranty to five years, and Mercedes has considered a 10-year coverage plan in the past.

In terms of servicing, there are two fixed-price plans available – the suspiciously cheap ‘Basic’ plan which comes at a cost of $1373 for five years (or $274.60 per year) and the more realistic-sounding ‘Plus’ which costs $3934 over five years (or $786.80 per year).

Like every other BMW, the Z4’s computer tells you when its service time: how often it needs maintenance will depend on how often – and how hard – you drive it.