The interior is one area where the new Z4 truly outclasses its rivals.
Increased cabin space – 44mm extra head room, 20mm more shoulder room and 43mm more elbow room – gives a great sense of light and airiness that the Audi TT and Mercedes-Benz SLK can’t match.
Our test car was fitted with a £1550 optional design pack, which includes leather sports seats and wood trim, and although electric leather seats are standard on the 35i, this is one option worth specifying if you plan to cover a lot of miles.
The new iDrive system for cabin controls makes an appearance and still takes some getting used to, but it’s simple to use once you have.
Boot space is good for this class, with 180 litres available with the roof down and 310 litres with it up.
Prices kick off at £28,650, so the Z4 certainly isn’t at the cheap and cheerful end of the roadster spectrum. Our heavily optioned 35i test car weighs in at a serious £46,495, although a fair chunk of that expenditure goes on the sat-nav (£2315) and gearbox (£1810), which are both expensive but desirable items.
On paper, the Z4 has marginally better economy than the SLK350 and Boxster S, but the Mercedes pips it by a single gram in the CO2 rating, which is enough to nudge the SLK a percentage band lower for company car tax.
Although the 26.1mpg we averaged falls short of BMW’s claims, this is still a good result for a sports car that sacrifices no performance for the sake of its environmental conscience.
