Autos July 26, 2006, 2:40PM EST

Hard Core Z4

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If you want to spend more, major options include an $1,800 navigation system; a $2,500 premium package that includes automatic dimming mirrors, cruise control, power seats, and other amenities; extra interior leather for $1,800, and heated seats for $500.

But the bottom line is that you'll pay less for the BMW with options than for a bare-bones Porsche Cayman S.

BEHIND THE WHEEL.

The Z4 Coupe is basically an old-fashioned sports car, with all the driving thrills and the inconveniences that implies. This car seems tailored to tastes in Germany, with its strong driving culture, rather than to U.S. tastes. It holds the highway equally well at 70 mph or 110 mph. In fact, I regularly found the speedometer was creeping up toward the 100-mph mark.

As noted above, the Z4 is very fast off the mark, and the shifting intervals are shorter than in the Cayman in the lower gears. As you'd expect from a performance sports car, the ride is hard. And if you want an even sportier ride, you can put the car into sport mode at the push of a button, which makes the throttle more responsive and reduces the power steering's boost. Either way, the steering is very precise. Point the car into a curve at high speed and it goes exactly where you expect it to.

The car's interior is functional, not fancy. The steering wheel is small. The seats are supportive and well-bolstered, but they position you way down close to the pavement, so it's not an easy car to get into and out of.

The onboard computer and navigation system operate via a relatively simple menu system. You choose from options on a small screen that pops up in the middle of the dash by pushing a knob on the dash. The menus and directions in the nav system are in functional gray tones, though the map is in color.

For me, the biggest negative about this car is its feng shui while you're driving. Maybe it's my bad back, but after a while I felt as if I were sitting in a bucket. And I couldn't see well enough to feel entirely safe in traffic. Even by sports car standards, there's a major blind spot over your right shoulder. The rear window is small and narrow, the side windows are also narrow, and the big side mirrors obscure your view.

While the Cayman's hood slopes down out of sight, the Z4's hood stretches way out, and cuts into your visibility. There's also a lot of road noise at highway speed. And the exhaust note during hard acceleration is raspy. For me, at least, it has none of the appeal of a Corvette's howl, or the cat-like snarl of the Nissan 350Z (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/06, "Z as in Zoom").

Then there are the Z4 Coupe's cupholders, which pop out of either corner of the dash—the one on the driver's side is positioned just over your left leg, and when I was drinking coffee one evening every bump in the road caused hot Seattle's Best to slosh onto my left knee. That's partly because putting the Z4 in sport mode makes the throttle jumpy. The clutch is touchy too, so it's hard to keep the car from chugging at low speeds in stop-and-go driving. I felt a lot more comfortable in the Cayman.

Of course, many driving enthusiasts will consider these negatives mere idiosyncrasies that add to the BMW's appeal. The Z4 M Coupe is fast, nimble, handles very well, and costs less than a Porsche, which is all most enthusiasts need to know about it. I make the niggling criticisms above for everyone else.

BUY IT OR BAG IT?

You have a lot of choices in this segment, including General Motors' (GM) Chevrolet Corvette, the Nissan (NSANY) 350Z, and the Cayman, as well as the Mercedes-Benz SLK55 from DaimlerChrysler (DCX). Whether you choose the BMW over the others will depend on several factors.

Do you want a performance car, or just a nice-looking sports car for tooling around town? The Z4 M Coupe is a performance car. How do you respond to the Z4 Coupe's unusual styling? And do you believe a convertible should be more expensive than a hardtop? The Z4 Roadster costs more than the Coupe, which is the usual way of doing things, while Porsche has priced the Cayman about $4,000 above the Boxster S ragtop. If that rankles you, chalk up extra points for the BMW.

Also, keep in mind that if you're not the type of person who pours over Car & Driver and Motor Trend every month, you don't have to go with the high-performance M version of the Z4. The basic Z4 Coupe costs about ten grand less and is plenty quick for most people, even though it has a less powerful engine than the M.

A big selling point for many buyers is that the basic Z4 coupe can be had with an optional Steptronic automatic transmission for an extra $1,275. Truth be told, BMW's automatic (like Porsche's) has a clutchless manual shifting function with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters that's almost as much fun to drive as a stick shift.