A Review of the BMW Z3 Coupe: A Hands-on Experience with the Iconic Convertible

As I stood in the mechanic's backyard, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and trepidation. The task at hand was to review the BMW Z3 coupe, a car that had been on my radar for quite some time. I assumed that this would be an OK experience, but as we set off, I began to realize just how much I had underestimated the challenge ahead.

We started with the floor mats, which were not spotted by accident. They were indeed factory-fresh and added a touch of elegance to the interior. Next, we took a look at the dog nets that adorned the rear cargo area. While they did provide some sense of security, I couldn't help but feel that they were more of an afterthought than an actual solution for those with pets.

As we moved on to the main event – driving the Z3 – I was struck by the car's quirks and characteristics. The normal z3 coupe was mostly stock, with a 123,000-mile engine that had been well-maintained but still showed signs of wear. The interior was surprisingly practical, with plenty of legroom and amenities for daily use.

But it wasn't just the Z3 that caught my attention – it was also the car that came next, which I assumed would be a Buick. Instead, it turned out to be an M Coupe, a car that had been heavily modified by its previous owner. The result was a vehicle that was both familiar and yet, utterly unique.

As we took to the streets, I couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder at the way the M Coupe handled. It was stiff, responsive, and seemed to be begging me to push it harder. But just as I was getting into the zone, we encountered our first issue – a faulty brake pad warning light that flashed ominously on the dashboard.

Despite this minor hiccup, the drive continued without major incident, save for one unexpected surprise: the M Coupe's exhaust system, which seemed to be smoking like mad. It turned out that the previous owner had replaced the valve cover gasket with an aftermarket unit, which was now causing trouble.

As we explored the car further, I stumbled upon a hidden compartment – literally. The mechanic had installed a rock guard on the wheels, which not only added a touch of style but also provided some much-needed protection for the tires. But the pièce de résistance was yet to come – a second, even more mysterious problem that seemed to be affecting the rear differential.

The result was a strange noise that sounded like the bearing was about to go out at any moment. The M Coupe's suspension system, which had been lowered for sporty handling, was somehow contributing to this cacophony of sound. It was as if the car itself was protesting the lowering job.

As we took to the highway, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sheer power and responsiveness of the M Coupe's engine. But just as I was getting into the zone, I spotted my girlfriend's car – a BMW Z3 with an S52 engine that seemed to be pulling away from me.

In the end, it came down to one simple question: would this car be right for you? As someone who loved hot hatches and had always been drawn to the quirky side of life, I was excited to find out. But just as I was about to answer, we hit a roadblock – literally. The M Coupe's rear end seemed to have developed a strange chirping noise that refused to go away.

As I stood there, staring at the car in confusion, I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. It had been a wild ride, and one that would stay with me for years to come.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwho get a balance okay some hefty shoes so I got an email from a guy here in town that says he has a pair of BMW Z coupes a matching pair actually and he was curious if I wanted to do a video about them and it's always nice to find people as weird as me out there especially one that's only a mile away from me as why would you have a pair of these cars famously known as the clown shoe for it's ridiculous shoe like shape and do anything other than stand in your driveway doing exactly this so that ends today's video not not really these coops are weird not just because of their looks but also how they were brought into existence as well as their crazy pricing currently there's one of these M coops like the one on my right my right shoe except it's the newer one with the s54 inline six and they're asking $48,000 for it on autotrader.com which is about a 20,000 dollar premium over a comparable convertible does that make any sense for that kind of money you could buy a certified pre-owned three or four-year-old m3 or stretch your dollars a little bit and get a fantastic brand new m2 I get that classic cars can be worth a lot of money but these things aren't even that old now admittedly the cars that I'm wearing today are the more affordable versions the one being on the left is annoyed right the left I'd wrote different all right okay all right now admittedly the cars that I'm wearing today are the more affordable versions one being a 2000 with the s52 inline six the other being a regular z3 coupe but these things still sell for a huge premium over the convertible versions wait more than a similarly powered 3-series coupe or an m3 and what can you do with these other than stand here like this and I'm already getting a leg cramp oh oh man calves are burning oh so the trick the producers taught me because I used to wear sunglasses all the time but if you just stare at the Sun with your eyes closed which sounds like a really healthy thing to do your eyes adjust alright so the z3 coupe the M coupe whatever you call these things came out after BMW engineers secretly built one without any of the higher-ups knowing the convertibles weren't very stiff initially in the hailing department and I guess the folks at the engineering department liked big butts because this thing has one crazy badonkadonk donk yeah so a big rear-end on these cars and instead of giving it the normal coupe lines they made it into a little hatch although it doesn't gain any useful love things like a back seat and the cargo space is smaller than a Fiat 500 but having our hard roof made this car more rigid and after building it in secret they showed it to their bosses and begged them to build it and somehow that actually works they started making them now they didn't sell too many of them obviously because who would buy this over the m3 but they now have a giant cult status and people freaked out about them freaked out the car in my mind that most compares to this is the e-type jag as it has a weird similar roof line with their coupes along with convertibles but unlike these the prettier convertibles are worth way way more so this really is a head scratcher for me as there are so many weird cars out there that depreciate normally but this British inspired car from a German brand that was built in South Carolina is one of the hottest old BMWs to have right now I know this car is rare but that doesn't necessarily make it valuable they made more of these than my 1983 class with LeBaron Woodie convertible and that car is so worthless I buried it in my mechanic's backyard but maybe driving them will change my mind well that's that's what you do in a review you drive the cars I assumed this was OK reluctantly yes I first probably put on my shoes first yes I got to show you this before I Drive Lily's floor mats no they're not spotted Oh bpms still beeping at me they're not spotted by accident it's not stained that's from the factory leopard leopard print floor mats all right let's go you gotta get lower there we go we look at the dog nets up on this thing okay here we go a dog net so even though you have rear cargo room it doesn't mean you have more legroom or you're able to move this back further because it's still the same partition as if there are a soft-top back there it's really I'm practical at all now I'm driving the normal z3 coupe first just because it's mostly stock as the same generic engine found in all the three series of the day and the z3 convertible course one hundred twenty three thousand miles and no lights are on in a while since I've driven a will be in beby with no warning lights and cold air straight turn it down so you're gonna hear me oh wow so it does have a sunroof but all it does is pop up it does not reflect back and forth there's don't wait for it to retract into this roofline because it's curved so weirdly definitely feels tighter than any z3 I'm driven Wow yes he's got a nice little curvy neighborhood you see how you could really enjoy taking this to work every day you'd have to drive a car like this to enjoy life versus going to the dentist's office and angry because people won't floss I can definitely feel the handling difference there's a Buick Breanna some little common z3 characteristic and this thing has it too in the coop are the seat motors they wear out and it jumps a tooth and then you just have a constant jiggle here so I've got about a half inch of play in the seat at its current position other than that this cars really nice now this is really nice I'm just kind of curious how much more am to that damn coupe is smoking valve cover gasket no one likes to chirp yeah I swear I didn't do anything yeah that's a BMW valve cover gasket when it gets to the exhaust manifold seen that a time or two or a hundred oh sorry under the coupe for the M Coupe look at the wheels on this sucker deep-dish donk a donk it's got a old Porsche Turbo rock guard on it did you put that on yeah I put it on it's magnetic she just peels right off huh it's awesome we'll put it back on I'm gonna go drive I want that for all of my cars I swear that wasn't my fault he's generously letting me drive the M coupe now even though the other cars smoking this one has one light on for the brake pad warning these sensors fail left and right on these BMWs I probably have brakes this thing is stiff now the owner told me he bought this car from a crazy man who was selling all his possessions and that it was heavily modified obviously been lowered but I don't really know what else and I place the camera right in my line of sight for driving it's your first time doing this down there okay much better one hundred forty-seven thousand miles it's making a weird noise in the rear end of this thing bearing back there that's about to go or something with the rear differential the m-series stars of this era are so funny they have this two-tone interior this one's the more subtle blue with black but then there's the red one also that ostrich never seen as being too busy three seats with fake ostrich this thing's got some you have taught us to never sell that a clown car suspension on this clown shoe okay I'm hitting the highway on-ramp this thing has the same s 52 is my girlfriend's M free that we are shelling I feel anything different as far as handling I think yeah this definitely it's temper this thing's been lowered so it's really hard to tell how much of this sharper handlings from the chassis were the lowering but obviously totally different car and Emily and Aaron exhaust this thing sounds a lot more mostly manly mainly clowns you I just spent now they're gonna spend oh that was a lot of fun it's making a wild racket in the rear though like wheel bearing or differential or something I barely fit look at that look at rear end oh it chirped again must like me well I'm kind of seeing the line a little bit you just really have to be a guy that loves hot hatches and really likes sir mix-a-lot straightest hit from 1986 maybe thank you for watchingwho get a balance okay some hefty shoes so I got an email from a guy here in town that says he has a pair of BMW Z coupes a matching pair actually and he was curious if I wanted to do a video about them and it's always nice to find people as weird as me out there especially one that's only a mile away from me as why would you have a pair of these cars famously known as the clown shoe for it's ridiculous shoe like shape and do anything other than stand in your driveway doing exactly this so that ends today's video not not really these coops are weird not just because of their looks but also how they were brought into existence as well as their crazy pricing currently there's one of these M coops like the one on my right my right shoe except it's the newer one with the s54 inline six and they're asking $48,000 for it on autotrader.com which is about a 20,000 dollar premium over a comparable convertible does that make any sense for that kind of money you could buy a certified pre-owned three or four-year-old m3 or stretch your dollars a little bit and get a fantastic brand new m2 I get that classic cars can be worth a lot of money but these things aren't even that old now admittedly the cars that I'm wearing today are the more affordable versions the one being on the left is annoyed right the left I'd wrote different all right okay all right now admittedly the cars that I'm wearing today are the more affordable versions one being a 2000 with the s52 inline six the other being a regular z3 coupe but these things still sell for a huge premium over the convertible versions wait more than a similarly powered 3-series coupe or an m3 and what can you do with these other than stand here like this and I'm already getting a leg cramp oh oh man calves are burning oh so the trick the producers taught me because I used to wear sunglasses all the time but if you just stare at the Sun with your eyes closed which sounds like a really healthy thing to do your eyes adjust alright so the z3 coupe the M coupe whatever you call these things came out after BMW engineers secretly built one without any of the higher-ups knowing the convertibles weren't very stiff initially in the hailing department and I guess the folks at the engineering department liked big butts because this thing has one crazy badonkadonk donk yeah so a big rear-end on these cars and instead of giving it the normal coupe lines they made it into a little hatch although it doesn't gain any useful love things like a back seat and the cargo space is smaller than a Fiat 500 but having our hard roof made this car more rigid and after building it in secret they showed it to their bosses and begged them to build it and somehow that actually works they started making them now they didn't sell too many of them obviously because who would buy this over the m3 but they now have a giant cult status and people freaked out about them freaked out the car in my mind that most compares to this is the e-type jag as it has a weird similar roof line with their coupes along with convertibles but unlike these the prettier convertibles are worth way way more so this really is a head scratcher for me as there are so many weird cars out there that depreciate normally but this British inspired car from a German brand that was built in South Carolina is one of the hottest old BMWs to have right now I know this car is rare but that doesn't necessarily make it valuable they made more of these than my 1983 class with LeBaron Woodie convertible and that car is so worthless I buried it in my mechanic's backyard but maybe driving them will change my mind well that's that's what you do in a review you drive the cars I assumed this was OK reluctantly yes I first probably put on my shoes first yes I got to show you this before I Drive Lily's floor mats no they're not spotted Oh bpms still beeping at me they're not spotted by accident it's not stained that's from the factory leopard leopard print floor mats all right let's go you gotta get lower there we go we look at the dog nets up on this thing okay here we go a dog net so even though you have rear cargo room it doesn't mean you have more legroom or you're able to move this back further because it's still the same partition as if there are a soft-top back there it's really I'm practical at all now I'm driving the normal z3 coupe first just because it's mostly stock as the same generic engine found in all the three series of the day and the z3 convertible course one hundred twenty three thousand miles and no lights are on in a while since I've driven a will be in beby with no warning lights and cold air straight turn it down so you're gonna hear me oh wow so it does have a sunroof but all it does is pop up it does not reflect back and forth there's don't wait for it to retract into this roofline because it's curved so weirdly definitely feels tighter than any z3 I'm driven Wow yes he's got a nice little curvy neighborhood you see how you could really enjoy taking this to work every day you'd have to drive a car like this to enjoy life versus going to the dentist's office and angry because people won't floss I can definitely feel the handling difference there's a Buick Breanna some little common z3 characteristic and this thing has it too in the coop are the seat motors they wear out and it jumps a tooth and then you just have a constant jiggle here so I've got about a half inch of play in the seat at its current position other than that this cars really nice now this is really nice I'm just kind of curious how much more am to that damn coupe is smoking valve cover gasket no one likes to chirp yeah I swear I didn't do anything yeah that's a BMW valve cover gasket when it gets to the exhaust manifold seen that a time or two or a hundred oh sorry under the coupe for the M Coupe look at the wheels on this sucker deep-dish donk a donk it's got a old Porsche Turbo rock guard on it did you put that on yeah I put it on it's magnetic she just peels right off huh it's awesome we'll put it back on I'm gonna go drive I want that for all of my cars I swear that wasn't my fault he's generously letting me drive the M coupe now even though the other cars smoking this one has one light on for the brake pad warning these sensors fail left and right on these BMWs I probably have brakes this thing is stiff now the owner told me he bought this car from a crazy man who was selling all his possessions and that it was heavily modified obviously been lowered but I don't really know what else and I place the camera right in my line of sight for driving it's your first time doing this down there okay much better one hundred forty-seven thousand miles it's making a weird noise in the rear end of this thing bearing back there that's about to go or something with the rear differential the m-series stars of this era are so funny they have this two-tone interior this one's the more subtle blue with black but then there's the red one also that ostrich never seen as being too busy three seats with fake ostrich this thing's got some you have taught us to never sell that a clown car suspension on this clown shoe okay I'm hitting the highway on-ramp this thing has the same s 52 is my girlfriend's M free that we are shelling I feel anything different as far as handling I think yeah this definitely it's temper this thing's been lowered so it's really hard to tell how much of this sharper handlings from the chassis were the lowering but obviously totally different car and Emily and Aaron exhaust this thing sounds a lot more mostly manly mainly clowns you I just spent now they're gonna spend oh that was a lot of fun it's making a wild racket in the rear though like wheel bearing or differential or something I barely fit look at that look at rear end oh it chirped again must like me well I'm kind of seeing the line a little bit you just really have to be a guy that loves hot hatches and really likes sir mix-a-lot straightest hit from 1986 maybe thank you for watching\n"