2005 BMW Z4 Review (continued)
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Walkaround

Might as well dive right into the debate. The styling is sculpted for the sake of sculpting, and you either like it or you don't. BMW's chief designer, American Chris Bangel, has gained notoriety for the edgy direction he's taken BMW, but there can be no arguing that BMW's styling was long overdue for an overhaul. The cars had lost any distinctive look they might have had, but now they have it back. The new BMWs are dynamically freshened, if nothing else, and the Z4 might be the most dynamic. Because it doesn't have a roofline to rely on, it has to make its statement with its nose, tail and sides.

The hood is stylishly long; the deck is notably short and chopped and uplifted, with a lip; and the sides look like a cake created by a pastry chef who got carried away with his icing spatula. It's convex playing off concave," according to BMW.

The nose is quite attractive, unfortunately ruined by the license plate mounting smack-dab in the middle of it all; imagine the designers' dismay! The front air dam offers very little ground clearance, not even enough to clear a standard sidewalk curb, so be careful when head-in parking. The grille, softened at its eight chrome-ringed corners and having dark vertical bars, and the exotic headlamps work well together. If you want your Z4 to make you feel good, turn on the parking lights in the dark and stand back; sharp arcing slivers of amber follow the bottom lines of the headlamps, creating distinction at a standstill. It smiles at you, flirting with its eyes in the dark. We'd hate to encourage people to drive around using just their parking lots as evening comes on, but your Z4 would look especially cool if you did.

The fenders are smoothly bulged, and our Sport Package 17-inch silver alloy 20-spoke wheels looked terrific. The 18-inch five-spoke wheels aren't nearly as stylish, but they're 8.5 inches in the rear, and with big wide rear tires the Z4 would lose some of its grace while marking its owner as a closet muscle-car guy. Of course if you had those wheels you'd probably also want the aerodynamic kit and weird rear spoiler to make it a fully tarted-up Z4. Next you'll need to find another hundred horsepower so you're not a poser.

The rollover protection is two looped bars behind the front seats, covered by gray plastic, with a seam, which looks unfortunately cheap. The plastic disguises what must be sturdy function; the bars are fixed, not pop-ups like the Z3 used to have, and are strengthened by being attached to a common bulkhead. The Z4 has earned a five-star rollover rating by NHTSA."

Interior Features

We put more than 450 miles on our Z4, including one hard six-hour drive, and felt nary a sore bone thanks to the excellent seats. We did a lot of hard cornering too, and appreciated the pad against the tunnel for that body-contact spot on the outside of the leg below the right knee. We wish there were a similar pad for the left knee against the door, but there's a good dead pedal for support.

The Z4 is a sports car, so there isn't much storage space. There's a decent-sized compartment between the seatbacks, which you can't safely access while you're driving because you need to either swivel in your seat or be double-jointed, but at least it's there. There are small door pockets, and also four tight nets for maps and papers, which require an option package to get. Coins and maybe a pen can be held in the scoop under the emergency brake handle, between the seats.

The aluminum spoke steering wheel is nice, an appropriate size for spirited cornering, and contains buttons for the sound system and optional cruise control. Our test 2.5i had leather with brushed aluminum trim in a darkish graphite shade and it looked clean. The matching silvery instrument needles are some of the most delicately shaped we've ever seen, teardrop stiletto splinters dancing up and down the faces of the speedometer and tachometer. The optional on-board computer provided information through a digital readout, your choice between temperature, fuel mileage or average speed since the last setting, or miles to empty. The latter is the only one that means much.

Our 2.5i had the optional Harman Kardon premium sound system with 10 speakers and two subwoofers, but we weren't impressed. Believe it or not we couldn't get it loud enough, and we'd like to think we're not extremists. We wanted to hear Bonnie Raitt rocking at 80 miles per hour with the top down, but she was overpowered by the noise of the wind. Maybe the $185 wind deflector is the answer, although we weren't particularly bothered by buffeting even with all the high-speed top-down driving we did.

The standard halogen low-beam headlights seemed shockingly dim, so we'd recommend getting the $700 bi-xenon headlamps.