BMW Z Models vs Aston Martin Vanquish

What's the difference?

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.

The definition of luxury is having something you want, rather than something you need. And the Vanquish is definitely something you don’t need, but will desperately want once you’ve experienced it. It’s opulence on wheels, the kind of car you buy mostly because you can. Because owning a V8-powered Aston Martin wouldn’t cut it in your circle of friends. Or because you just want the very best things in life, cost be damned.

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.

While the engine is the unique heart of the Vanquish, the design is the first element that grabs your attention. Even for a brand renowned for its GT cars with imposingly long bonnets, the Vanquish stands out.

That’s because the designers deliberately added 80mm of space between the front axle and the A-pillar (the front windscreen pillar) to elongate the bonnet even more for what it calls a “rakish and indulgent” profile. 

The lines flow across the length of the Vanquish, from its trademark grille to its Kamm Tail, giving it a look that is somehow simultaneously classically Aston Martin - with elements of its multiple generations of GT cars - while also being contemporary. 

Some of the modern touches are derived from Formula One, as the brand looks to leverage its racing team, with bonnet louvres to help cool the engine without unsettling the air-flow too much.

Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman calls the Vanquish “an iconic halo model” and explained the design was deliberately pushing “beyond the expected, rational, and thoughtful.” Which sums up this dramatic piece of automotive art quite nicely.

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.

Despite measuring nearly five metres long, the Vanquish is a surprisingly small car from a practicality perspective. Because the added wheelbase is ahead of the cabin, it remains strictly a two-seater, with no room for rear passengers.

There’s limited small item storage, too, aside from a couple of cupholders and a lidded console box. Although, on the plus side, the lack of rear seats creates room for some small shelves in case you need to store some loose items.  

It also has a surprisingly small 248-litre boot, which means limited storage for anything, including luggage, for a road trip in what would otherwise be a great road trip car.

As for the multimedia system, while not at the cutting edge (although Aston Martin will debut Apple CarPlay Ultra in its DBX model) the system works well for this type of car.

It’s unlikely too many under 25s will be grabbing this $700K luxury GT, so the fact the media system has a touchscreen and an array of physical buttons is a welcome detail.

As for the 1170-watt, 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system, it performs incredibly well, as you would probably expect. Like the car it has loads of power but excellent attention-to-detail with fantastic clarity, too.

The Vanquish sits at the top of the range for now, at least until the new Valhalla supercar arrives in Australia, and has an eye-watering starting price of $737,000.

Not only does that not include on-road costs, which will likely push the price closer to seven-figures, there’s also the plethora of options and customisation you can choose from that will add to the amount you pay.

Not that the standard specification is bad. For $700K you do get 21-inch alloy wheels, carbon ceramic brakes, 16-way adjustable sports seats, keyless ignition, a 10.2-inch touchscreen multimedia display, Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth, wireless phone charging and a 1170-watt 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system.

Of course, on top of all that you get a bespoke chassis and a unique twin-turbo V12 engine, that puts the Vanquish in the same class as the Ferrari 12Cilindri, which starts at $803,500 - making the Aston Martin look competitive. 

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.

The engine is undoubtedly the star attraction of the Vanquish, with the twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 being the last of its kind in the British brand’s line-up now that the DB12 has switched to an AMG-sourced twin-turbo V8. 

While that engine is arguably better with its excellent performance, smaller dimensions and lighter weight, the fact remains that for many of Aston Martin’s long-time buyers, it’s V12 or nothing.

It also helps that the V12 produces an extremely potent 614kW and 1000Nm, which is way ahead of the 611kW/678Nm the Ferrari 12Cilindri makes. So you get bragging rights at the golf club with your Ferrari mates.

The engine features a unique titanium exhaust and is paired with an eight-speed automatic transaxle that drives the rear wheels.

That is enough to propel the Vanquish to a top speed of 345km/h, making it the fastest production car the brand has ever produced, with a 3.3 second 0-100km/h time.

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.

To say the Vanquish isn’t the most fuel frugal vehicle on the market is an obvious statement, but even its claimed 13.7L/100km is best described as optimistic.

That’s not surprising given its size and performance, but with an 82-litre fuel tank that’s a driving range of less than 600km, at best.

In the real world, during our time in the Vanquish, the car’s trip computer was indicating that we stayed in the high teens; although that featured limited freeway/extra-urban driving.

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.

As cars go, few can match what the Vanquish offers. Even in my 20+ years of driving every type of car imaginable, the Vanquish stands out as being something distinct, bold and special.

Sitting behind the wheel, the bonnet looks like it stretches out to the horizon and you feel like you’re sitting on the back axle of the car. And yet, when you start driving, the Vanquish feels like it shrinks around you.

At normal speeds it feels like a classic grand tourer, relaxed, refined and easy to drive. Obviously it's a firmer ride than your average luxury car, but that’s a small price to pay for the breadth of capability this car offers. 

Because once you get out of the urban environment, the Vanquish becomes something else entirely. On a winding road this British beast is surprisingly agile for such a big car.

The steering feels direct and the front end responds with much more precision and poise than you should reasonably expect from a car with such an exaggerated bonnet.

No, it doesn’t have the dynamic aggression the more compact Vantage offers, but it manages to take elements of that car and combine it with the GT nature of the DB12 to give you the best of both Aston Martin’s coupes.

Of course, the catch is it’s much too fast for Australian roads and isn’t really designed to be a track day car, so in Australia - without autobahns or more liberal views on speeding - the Vanquish in many respects doesn’t make sense.

But that is arguably its driving essence, you buy it because you know what it’s capable of, even if you’ll rarely use it, and that is an absolute luxury.

There’s no ANCAP rating given the extreme low-volume nature of the Vanquish. However, it does come with complete airbag coverage for both occupants and a laundry list of safety acronyms.

These include autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning (FCW), adaptive cruise control (ACC), traffic sign recognition (TSR), lane keep assist (LKA), lane departure warning (LDW), blind spot assist (BSA) and rear cross-traffic assist (RCTA).

In addition there’s driver attention assist, to make sure you stay alert in such an expensive machine, and door exit assist, so you don’t open the long doors into a passing car or cyclist.

Importantly, none of these systems are intrusive or annoying, so credit to Aston Martin for integrating them smoothly.

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.

Despite the extraordinary price tag the Vanquish is covered by a very standard three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. It’s a surprising, and some might argue disappointing, short period of coverage for a car that is not only expensive but should have a long life.

However, it does redeem itself in some way by including the first five years of servicing into the cost of the car. Ferrari offers seven for its models, so Aston Martin is still behind the market, but included servicing feels right for a car costing nearly $1 million once you put it in traffic.