In the latest episode of Fifth Gear, Jason Plato set out to find what car is the best buy within the £5,000 ($7,000) budget. Here's what he came up with.
The 3 choices from which he had to pick were the Porsche Boxster S, the BMW E85 Z4 and the Mazda RX-8. The BMW Z4 had the 3-liter petrol engine with 231 HP and 300 Nm of torque and was still as good as in day one, even though the car had 80,000 miles on the odometer.
Out of the 3, the Z4 was picked as the best car for daily use. The interior is way better than the other 2 and, even though the engine is a 3-liter compared to RX-8's 1.3-liter rotary engine, the fuel consumption is way better.
So, if you're looking to get one of those Z4s, here's what you have to look for: first of all listen out for a small rattling sound coming from the upper valve train assembly. If there you hear such a noise it means that the VANOS system needs replacing or fixing. VANOS Seal & Rattle kits are available to address these shortcomings from aftermarket suppliers (but not from BMW—BMW's solution when VANOS units fail is to remove the entire VANOS unit and replace it with a new one and that will set you back around $1,500).
Another thing you should check is the electric hood because replacing one of those will set you back more than $4,500 (that's a lot). Overall the BMW was picked as the most practical and rational decision one could make within this budged and it is one of our recommendations too.
Google News