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Sticky Column Problem
Hello All,
This is my first post. I'm looking to purchase an inexpensive sports car, and the BMW Z4 seems to fit what I'm looking for in one. I've been looking at 2003 t0 2004 year models since to seem to fall into the price range that I can afford. however, now I'm reading about the engineering problem with the steering columns in these year models. I've test driven a couple of these year models (a 2003 2.5 and a 2004 3.0) before I heard about this problem. Didn't notice this issue in either, however, from what I've been reading the sticky column problem doesn't show up until after the car has warmed up for about a half hour or so, or on a really hot day. Since this would be strictly a summer car up here in the Northeast, this is a major concern. I'm guessing that since this is an engineering defect then all these Z4 model years would be affected with this problem. The fix, so I've been reading, is to have the column replaced to the tune of about $3800.
So, here's my questions:
1. If one was to go for the $3800 column replacement, would that be a newly engineered column, minus the old defect?
2. Would I be better off adding that $3800 to my purchase budget and buy a latter model year that doesn't have the column defect? If that's the answer, then does anyone know which Z4 model year did BMW start putting in the corrected columns?
Thanks in advance,
Manual Shifter
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