Maybe it’s the fact that the original looked so good already and there was nothing to tweak with teh design, or the fact that being such a small and slim car there’s not enough sheet metal to tack on any fancy updates, like that new fender vent we’ve seen on the 3 GT and the 4 Coupe. But the car you’re looking at is the new E89 Z4 LCI, or as it is more commonly known, a mid-life facelift.
The headlamps have been updated to white corona rings of course, and there are minor changes to the fascia as well as the front fender vent design near where the side badge is as well. There’s a new alloy wheel design too. There’s three new metallic colour choices – Mineral Grey, Glacier Silver, and the new Valencia Orange colour you see here.
On the inside, new interior additions to standard specification include high-gloss black surrounds for the central air vents and the iDrive control system’s folding Control Display. Fineline Anthracite wood has been added to the selection of interior trim strips available as an option for the new BMW Z4.
For the US market, the Z4 will come as a 240 horsepower sDrive28i with a 6-speed manual or 8-speed automatic, or a 300 horsepower sDrive35i with 6-speed manual or 7-speed DCT, or the most powerful 335 horsepower sDrive35is with 7-speed DCT only. The latter two are powered by BMW’s N54 twin-turbo engines, while the sDrive28i is motivated by the four cylinder 2.0 litre turbo.
BMW offers other smaller engine choices out of the US market, thus we expect our market’s sDrive20i motor to continue with the facelift. There’s word of a detuned sDrive18i motor that does just 156 horsepower, all in the interest of lowering emissions I suppose, but what fun is that in a drop top roadster?!
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Was wondering about the 156hp sDrive18i option as well. 156hp would have worked well in a light and small Miata but the E89 is something like 550kg heavier that I doubt they’d be practically gaining any lower emissions.
Honestly I don’t see any difference besides the orange paint .__.
I can answer paul’s question: “…just 156 horsepower,…, but what fun is that in a drop top roadster?!”
mx5 is FUN. very much FUN. Indeed.
merry last x-mas!
Only issue is the miata/mx-5 is 950kg compared to the 1500kg E89 Z4. What is fun in one can be underpowered in the other.
MX5 is light this is not
One word … POSERS :0)
Hasn’t the N54 twin-turbo been replaced by the N55 twin-scroll (single) turbo? Or does the Z4 still get the old mill?
The N54 continues… it hasn’t been replaced with the N55.