[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by SD ///M4

Z4 M produced in 2006, 2007, 2008 = three-year run.

The bottom had kind of fallen out of the roadster market by the late 2000s, along with the financial crisis in 2007-2008, and the E85 Z4 was at the end of it's 7 year cycle in 2008. Honda discontinued the S2000 in 2009 after sales slid to less than 1,000 cars, down from a peak of ~9700 in both 2001 and 2002. (Little known fact: Honda announced in 1999 that it would only sell the S2000 for three years and 5,000 units, but they obviously dropped that plan, much to my dismay. I had #313. My 2006 Z4 M Roadster is far more rare.)

BMW introduced the E89 Z4 in 2009 but it was pretty much DOA, selling less its best first two years than the E85 except for 2008, and fell off sharply after that. The convertible hard top made it much heavier and many people felt it lost its "sports car" feel, becoming more of a grand tourer. It still had a 7 year production cycle, but production had dropped 80% to around 5,000 units when it was discontinued.

The E46 may scream early 00s to you, but the coupes and convertibles were built into 2006. The E46 M3 shared the S54 engine with the Z4 M and the nav and many of the controls were the same. I equate the E46 with the E85 Z4 and the E89 Z4 with the E9x, as each generation shared similar bits, including Nav. The E9x had iDrive, not available in the E85 Z4 but in the E89 Z4. There were no bits from the E9x that are found in the Z4 AFAIK.

My wife's previous car was am E92 2011 335is Coupe. I bought my 2006 Z4 M Roadster used in 2012 and the two cars definitely felt a generation apart.

Outside of the N52...

Oh, and the manual trans shift knob.