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EXPERT RATING
7.5

Likes

Exterior styling
Engine sound
Top-down joy

Dislikes

Cheap touches in interior
Overly firm ride
Not as involving as you’d hope
Photo of Stephen Corby
Stephen Corby

Contributing Journalist

1 min read

Move beyond the middle child in the Z4 range, and you hit the wild-child variant, the range-topping M40i, which scores the more traditional, straight-six-cylinder engine, albeit a very modern, turbocharged version.

That means extra power and torque, and lots of it, at 250kW and 500Nm, which adds up to this being one very quick roadster, with a 0 to 100km/h time of 4.5 seconds and a Nurburgring time even faster than the properly sporty BMW M2.

It’s certainly an exciting, loud and proud version of the Z4, and it’s an easy car to drive quickly along a challenging bit of road, but the ride is still brutally hard, and there’s something just not quite as perfect, or weighty, as you’d like about the steering, too.

Spec wise, you get everything the other two, cheaper Z4 options provide, plus M Performance engine and suspension tuning and an M Sport Differential, to help you get all that power to the wheel where it’s needed, plus lumbar support in the seats, ambient lighting for the cabin and a harman/kardon Surround Sound System with 12 speakers.

Read the full 2019 BMW Z Models review

BMW Z4 2019: Sdrive 20I M-Sport

Engine Type Turbo 4, 2.0L
Fuel Type Premium Unleaded Petrol
Fuel Efficiency 6.5L/100km (combined)
Seating 2
Price From $50,160 - $57,640
Photo of Stephen Corby
Stephen Corby

Contributing Journalist

Stephen Corby stumbled into writing about cars after being knocked off the motorcycle he’d been writing about by a mob of angry and malicious kangaroos. Or that’s what he says, anyway. Back in the early 1990s, Stephen was working at The Canberra Times, writing about everything from politics to exciting Canberra night life, but for fun he wrote about motorcycles. After crashing a bike he’d borrowed, he made up a colourful series of excuses, which got the attention of the motoring editor, who went on to encourage him to write about cars instead. The rest, as they say, is his story. Reviewing and occasionally poo-pooing cars has taken him around the world and into such unexpected jobs as editing TopGear Australia magazine and then the very venerable Wheels magazine, albeit briefly. When that mag moved to Melbourne and Stephen refused to leave Sydney he became a freelancer, and has stayed that way ever since, which allows him to contribute, happily, to CarsGuide. Note: The author, Stephen Corby, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
About Author
Disclaimer: The pricing information shown in the editorial content (Review Prices) is to be used as a guide only and is based on information provided to Carsguide Autotrader Media Solutions Pty Ltd (Carsguide) both by third party sources and the car manufacturer at the time of publication. The Review Prices were correct at the time of publication. Carsguide does not warrant or represent that the information is accurate, reliable, complete, current or suitable for any particular purpose. You should not use or rely upon this information without conducting an independent assessment and valuation of the vehicle.

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