Some recent developments...
My brother came to visit. He was previously driving an '04 325ic convertible, automatic. I had driven it a couple of times and remembered thinking that I liked the way it handled better than my SC430. Anyway, he recently had a bout of mechanical problems, and because he had also put a lot of mileage on it, after the most recent issue he decided to trade it in instead of fixing the last issue. He ended up with an '11 135 convertible (auto again, but w/paddle shifters). Finally got to see it today and took it for a test drive...
Very sweet acceleration, handling, and feel of the road. My only complaints would be that the steering felt like it had more power assist than I like (but probably a bit better than my SC430) and the auto trans (I very briefly tried the paddle shifters but it felt odd to me - I'd have to give it a better chance, I guess, to give a worthwhile opinion).
I also tested out having my wife sit in the passenger seat and daughter behind her, and they were able to pull that off semi-comfortably. I think I'd still prefer losing the back seat and going with a Z4, though.
One other thing that I'd like your help on...When we got back to the house I noticed he had a bulge on the side of one of his runflat tires. He has to drive back from CT to PA (about a 4 hour drive) tomorrow. Is it safe for him to drive on this tire?