Faults:

Major leaks in the boot, from somewhere.

Leaked in through the drivers door rubber seal.

Car wandered over the road even with the steering wheel kept still.

Clonk noise from the back axle.

Problems selecting reverse.

General Comments:

I was so upset about this car.

I hoped it would be all that I expected.

It was just awful. The seating position was poor and the offset pedals were very awkward. The gear box was OK, but my wife found reverse too difficult to select at all.

The handling was very wobbly and shaky. It stuck to the road well, but bounced around unbelievably.

I really feel that this is the worse car I have ever had. I am about to sell it and lose a lot of money, but I can't live with the leaks and bad handling any more.

Faults:

The rear screen became too scratched to see out of.

The factory fit alarm failed.

General Comments:

I bought the car new after a 12 month wait. I was initially happy with the power, but found it too uncomfortable over 70mph. The chassis was very poor.

Rear tyres had worn by 4000 miles.

The microwave alarm kept going off with the hood up or down so I disabled it (the dealer couldn't fix it).

The biggest problem with the car was depreciation. Shortly after it arrived, BMW changed the rear arches and boot-lid which hurt financially when I came to sell it.

Faults:

Steering problems.

Windscreen leaked.

Warped and scorched brake disc after a stone flew up and lodged in the disc.

Didn't always start first time.

General Comments:

A big disappointment and I should have brought another Audi. The BMW Z3 may as well have a Skoda badge on it as it's only the BMW name that sells it. My old Audi was far superior on performance and comfort (especially if you are over 6ft) and was more of a sportster than the Z3 could ever hope to be. As a colleague of mine once said, "It's a girls car".

Faults:

Rear suspension mounts needed replacing after 1500 miles - fine since then.

Nothing else.

General Comments:

Beautiful engine and build quality.

Only worry is leaving it parked away from the house. Had it broken into once in a car park - not cheap to repair.

Faults:

Very little, I have had the car for around a year and so far I have had no problems at all with it.

Apart from the unavoidable stone chips around the back wheels arches.

I have heard a lot of rumours of leaking roofs, but myself and two other friends who own similar cars have never experienced any problems with water leaks, even under the heaviest downpour.

General Comments:

Performance is very good, not awesome but bloody quick, BMW quote 0-60 in 6.9 secs but on a dry day, 6.4 seconds is easily achievable.

Handling is corking, traction control gives you the extra confidence in the wet or in Winter conditions that other rear wheeled drive cars lack, but in the Summer by pressing one little button it's rear end out fun, quite controllable and with the hood down an absolute scream.

At my time of buying I test drove rival cars for two days each and the 2.8 Z3 was the best for handling, performance and all round fun.

But just a word of warning, take a large steepish slope, add snow and slush and then take 196bhp driven through the back wheels and the result, not a lot of weight over the back wheels will leave you stranded and unable to get traction. Rather embarrasing!

But that's the price you pay for 50/50 weight distribution.

All in all another excellent roadster from those clever little German bods.