Did anyone consider the Elise or Z4 coupe?

I love of all three (Cayman, Elise and Z4 Coupe). All have their pluses and minuses. I am going to decide on one of them within the next couple of months and order one. Whichever one it is, I want to keep it for a long time.

It depends what you want the car for. I recently sold my Elise and placed an order for the Cayman. The Elise is a wonderful car but it was to quirky for my taste. Very fragile, always in for service, etc... I used to drive it maybe twice a month. I will be using the Cayman more regularly therefore that is why I sold the Elise.

thanks for the input. i was so close last weekend in getting one. I was always concerned the elise would not last me +5 years without major work. I mean, arent certian parts of it assembled with glue to keep the weight down? I can only imagine on DC potholes how it would react.

I consider the Elise a car more for track than anything else. As a daily driver, it would be a bit harsh for me, although a co-worker of mine has a lime-green one (really nice looking) and enjoys the car as a daily driver. Oh, it sits so low, the door sill acts as your arm rest. Great car. I'm getting the Cayman for all around daily driver and fun track car. I do this in my A4 and can only imagine how more fun I'll have in the Cayman.

I was considering the elise before ordering the Cayman, but after sitting in the Elise, the choice was easy. Elise is VERY hard to get in and out of. I can see me being frustrated with that very easily. Plus it's far from being a daily driver.

yeah for me its really between the z4 coupe and the cayman. and i feel that for the same price of the base cayman i will be able to get the M Z4 coupe with 321hp! with teh zy you get more storage space- can carry the dog or a suit case. Either way I would not by the cayman for the speed, more for the fine quality and handling.

I love BMWs but my Z4 3.0 with the sport package had one of the most nervous suspensions I have ever driven. As Pete Stout said on another thread, BMW is usually known forits suspensions tuning but they got it wrong with this car. I would drive a Z4 coupe with exactlythe same equipment you are going to order before buying one.

It is dangerous to equate hp with speed, just ask the owners of the 333hp M3's that kept getting dusted by my lowly 280hp Boxster S... /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/tounge_smile.gif

No

thanks for advice. ill see if i can hold off until then. i dont think the z4's will be out until this august. hopefully the base cayman will be out aroudn the same time.

. . . the Lotus Elise is a soft top so out for me and the suspect build quality for a car costing that much which will leak water (probably not an issue if you live Stateside) just doesn't sit well with me. The Lotus Exige S2 would be my weopon of choice if I needed a harsh trackcar but everyday road car it ain't. The BMW isn't built for production yet and although I'm sure the M version will be fantastic in performance and handling the recent spy shots aren't too appealing to me and the coupe roof looks quite stuck on - I'm not a beamer fan to start with so that won't help. Incidently the CaymanS is faster around the Top Gear track than the lastest Exige but you get all the comfort too. Dean

Never thought about either. Elise is just too raw and quirky for my tastes and the Z4.....although I'm warming to it looks......is just amixed bag in the performance circle. Nice engine but a little low on power.....I think the 'M' version will fix that. The suspension needs to be totally redone.

I definitely looked at the elise, but never seriously the Z4 - it was not available. But I think it will compete for some buyers, mostly those that have BMW's but are looking around.

Set aside performance and reliability, which speak well for the Porsche, and just look at these cars. A few years from now, that Z4 is going to look decidedly dated, and the Elise will be seen as a Boy Street Racer car.. Even today, both the Elise and the Z4 are very 'fussy' profiles. The Cayman's smooth lines will endure.

Ubermench- i could not have said it better myself. the cayman is timeless.

I saw the Z4 coupe pictures from the Detroit car show - I did not like how it looked, and in general I like the Z4. On another note, the Audi TT next generation looks even worse ( at least in the pictures I have seen ) - is it me, or does it feel like some cars that used to be nice to look at are going down hill. Speaking of how cars look, how about the difference between the European and the North American versions - everybody seem to say that this is due to the 'American' like in the USA tastes and the European cars would not sell - is this really true or are there some other economic factors at work.

Two problems: 1) Z4 Coupe doesn't exist so what is there to consider? 2) Exige not Elise is the proper comparion. If in NA I don't think the Exige is available.

1) Z4 Coupe is comming VERY soon. An M version at that. Figure ~$52K. And while still ugly (to me) it looks much better than the roadster (to me). 2) Exige is onsale in teh US right now if you want one.

Z4 coupé has been confirmed for production and will be on sale Juneish apparently. According to MSN cars, the Z4M roadster will cost $51995 so the coupé will be a bit more as BMW were planning on copying Porsche's attitude and charging more for the coupé than the roadster

Stongly desire the Elise/Exige (easy to tune Toyota engines) until I realizd they are not legal in Canada

Agreed the lotus may be a tad harsh and not a good comparison. I mentioned them since the price is roughly the same if not less expensive. Regarding the Z4, BMW can only charge more for the coupe if they are faster than the roadster. Porsche charges more for the Cayman than the Boxster, but you are also getting a much faster car. I doubt the current M3 motor can be tuned that much more so i would assume it willbe 343 hp. In this case I really do not see why they would charge more for the coupe. Weight should be less as well. But who knows. HP aside, cayman is better looking IMO.

I personally think the Z4 coupe looks delicious. I really liked the Z3 coupe they made for a while, and almost bought a second hand one after it had been discontinued. Both are the kind of cars that seem to really polarise people's opinions. I'd definitely consider the Z4 version (and it does come out in just a few months time) Well I would... if my Cayman S wasn't arriving next week /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/tounge_smile.gif

Lotus and Z4 aside, anyone consider the 2007 Nissan/Infiniti Skyline GTR?

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr id="quote" noshade="noshade" height="1" /> I personally think the Z4 coupe looks delicious. I really liked the Z3 coupe they made for a while, and almost bought a second hand one after it had been discontinued. Both are the kind of cars that seem to really polarise people's opinions. I'd definitely consider the Z4 version (and it does come out in just a few months time) Well I would... if my Cayman S wasn't arriving next week /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/tounge_smile.gif <hr id="quote" noshade="noshade" height="1" /> If BMW charges more for the Z4 ///M Coupe vs. roadster, it will be ~$1K, not $5K. Still, a Z4 M would not only be over $10K cheaper if similarly equipped, but also less expensive to own given their outstansding free maintenance program. It's still ugly though. </blockquote> Edited by - FC on 01/11/2006 06:53:00 AM

For some reason I love the Z3 coupe (was thinking of buying an M version some years back)......just quirky enough to be 'right' in my mind. The Z4 coupe doesn't do it for me at all though.

This is an easy answer. No. Why? The Z4 or MZ4 or MZ4 Coupe will all be slower than the Cayman. I can say this with confidence as my old Boxster was always faster than M Coupes and M3's at the track. I don't care if BMW stuff 10,000 HP into a Z4M coupe, it will still be slower. As for looks IMHO the Cayman S is a lot better looking than the Z4 Coupe that has been shown. Exige? Hey great track car, wind it up to 9,000 rpm and it really scoots. Try driving it on regular pavement in traffic and you'll get bounced around to death and won't have enough torque to change lanes in a hurry until you again wind it up to 8 grand or more. Creature comforts? Fah-get-about-it. I wanted something that could do dual duty for track and street and neither the Z4 or Exige fell into that category. The Z4 could with extensive mods to suspension, etc. but I'm not sure the Exige could be made into a street liveable car unless I can install a kidney-shock system. /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif