A sports car without a manual transmission is kind of like a roadster without a soft top.
Oddly enough, there are two such – each without the one thing the other one comes standard with (or at least, offers).
One’s a Toyota – called Supra. The other’s a BMW, the Z4. And they’re both the same thing, as well as very different.
What It Is
The Z4 is a roadster made by BMW – and so is the Toyota Supra, which is basically a rebodied version of the Z4. Both have identical (BMW-made) engines, including a standard turbocharged four and an optional turbocharged inline six. 
But the BMW comes standard with a power-folding soft-top. The Supra comes only as a hardtop.
On the other hand, the Supra can be purchased with a manual transmission – with the optional six cylinder engine – while the Z4’s six (and four) are paired with an automatic transmission only.
The BMW – being a BMW – also costs more: $52,800 for the sDrive30i – which comes with the turbocharged 2.0 liter four cylinder engine and only with an automatic transmission and $65,300 for the M40i, which has the inline six and the automatic – vs. $44,040 for a Toyota-badged (and styled) Supra with the same 2.0 liter four and the same automatic and $53,000 for the Toyota-badged (and styled) Supra with the inline six and a six speed manual transmission.
Which one suits depends on which you prefer: The wind in your hair or something for your left foot (and right hand) to do.
What’s New for 2023
The previously optional M Sport performance/styling upgrades – including firmer suspension calibrations, aerodynamic body kit and M Sport steering wheel – are now standard. Both the base sDrive30i and the M40i also get a new grill. Purple metallic paint is available as well.
Unfortunately, the manual transmission that’s now available in the Z4’s Toyota-badged sibling will not, apparently, be available in the Z4.
What’s Good
Available in-line six makes all the right sounds – and delivers the right experience.
Wind in your hair is standard (it’s unavailable in the Supra).
Fairly large (9.9 cubic foot) trunk for a roadster makes it more practical than other roadsters like the Mazda Miata (which only has about half the Z4’s trunk space).
What’s Not So Good
Neither the four nor the six is available with a manual, which detracts from the sports car experience.
No hardtop option.
Supra sibling costs $8k less to start – and does offer the manual experience.
Under The Hood
The ’23 Z4 continues to offer two engine choices.
The standard engine in the sDrive30i being a 2.0 liter turbocharged four that makes 255 horsepower and 295 ft.-lbs. of torque at just 1,500 RPM. The M40i comes standard with a turbocharged in-line six displacing 3.0 liters that makes 382 horsepower and 369 ft.-lbs. of torque – output comparable to that of a 5.7 liter V8.
Which accounts for the M40i’s ability to get to 60 in less than 4 seconds.
This is more impressive than it sounds given how surprisingly heavy (3,543 lbs.) this small roadster is. A Toyota Camry – which is a mid-sized, five-passenger family sedan – weighs about 200 pounds less (3,310 lbs). And that’s why it takes the four cylinder-powered Z4 just over six seconds to get to 60 – about the same as the four cylinder-powered but much less powerful (181 horsepower) Mazda Miata roadster, which is some 1,100 lbs. lighter than the Z4 (just 2,341 lbs.).
There is no choice s regards transmissions – at least, insofar as the Z4. Whether you choose the four or the six, you have to accept the standard eight speed automatic transmission.
This is an oddity given what the Z4 is. Sports cars usually come standard with manuals because people who buy sports cars usually prefer to shift for themselves. This has however changed some over the past several years as regards performance cars, which the Z4 also is.
The reason for that being . . . performance.
Modern automatics out-perform manuals, in terms of shifting faster and more accurately than most human drivers can and more consistently than any human can, including professional race car drivers.
They – modern automatics – never miss a shift, at any rate.
People who buy sports cars – cars like the Miata – don’t mind that. And they like being able to shift their own gears, even if they can’t match the perfect timing and faultless transitions between gears that an automatic delivers.
But then, the Miata is not a performance car.
The Z4 is both a performance car and a sports car. It blends the attributes of both and it appeals to a different kind of buyer. It is quick – with the available six – while a car like the Miata requires more effort to go as quickly as it can.
And if you want both quickness and more effort – that is, more involvement – there’s the Supra. Of course, it leans more toward being a performance car in that it’s not a roadster – and there is no such thing as a roadster that’s not by definition a sports car.
Whether you go with the four or the six, you’ll get a 3.15 final drive ratio and almost identical gas mileage. The Z4 with the four rates 25 city, 33 highway; with the six, 23 city, 31 highway. Both engines are designed to deliver their peak power – and economy – using premium unleaded.
“Economy” italicized to emphasize something not commonly understood – which is that an engine designed to burn premium generally won’t deliver on its best-case horsepower and MPG numbers if you use regular. Put another way, you’re not saving money by not using premium in an engine designed to burn premium.
And you’re losing horsepower, too.
On The Road
Even with the standard four, the Z4 sounds like it has a six under its hood. This isn’t imagination.
It is augmentation.
BMW – and it’s not just BMW – knows that people who buy certain kinds of cars like them to sound a certain kind-of-way. So even if the engine doesn’t naturally make those sounds, it can be made to sound as if it did, by discreetly augmenting the sounds it does make – via sound amplification tech – so that it sounds right.
And thus, the Z4’s four does. Deeper and richer than it otherwise would.
But sounds can’t hide what’s not actually there if the car doesn’t perform as people expect it to. That’s not a problem here. The turbo four’s abundant low RPM torque works well with the automatic – and almost makes you forget there isn’t a clutch. And there’s enough performance on tap to make this automatic-only sports car feel . . . sporty.
Of course, it’s being in the breeze that makes this roadster something more than just sporty – and irrespective of its performance.
Even if it were slow, it would still feel good – and that is the main point as regards a car like this and gives it something that its hardtop’d Toyota sibling hasn’t got, even if it does have a clutch. It was smart of BMW – and Toyota – to each offer something the other doesn’t. It makes them more complementary than competitive.
The Z4 with the six is its own reward.
It performs better than some performance cars with V8s – and the sounds it makes are entirely authentic. It also works very well with the automatic – due to having even more torque – with the additional perk of making all that horsepower. There’s so much of both available that it’s easy to steer this thing with the rear wheels.
It’s a drift king, if that’s your thing.
Also – and here I may get into some hot water – the six isn’t the engine that Toyota ought to have been paired with the manual. The four would be more fun with a clutch to play with.
The six is just fun, regardless.
Both versions of the Z4 are agile, as they ought to be. The reflexes belie the weight – and the weight gives this car the heft that you won’t find in flyweight roadsters like the Miata. The latter is one of the most fun cars ever made but when you are on the highway surrounded by massive SUVs and with semis running inches off your bumper at 80 MPH, it can feel like you’re the smallest guy in a dive bar, with a fight about to break out.
Not to be morbid but the truth is that you’re probably likelier to survive a “fight” in the Z4 than in the Miata.
At The Curb
Some cars have big mouths.
Well, they look like they do. YouTuber Scotty Kilmer calls this the Bullfrog Look and – thankfully – the Z4 hasn’t got it.
The new grill is tastefully wide but not wide-open. It looks good – and so does the rest of the Z4. Classic roadster lines. Long hood, wide through the hips and tapering tail. It also has something else that most roadsters lack.
A decent-sized trunk.
Just shy of 10 cubic feet, which is nearly as much trunk as some small sedans have and almost twice as much trunk as a Miata has. Practicality may not be the chief shopping criteria when shopping for a roadster, but it’s nice to find a roadster that’s not as impractical as most. 
This car comes standard with a power-folding top, which has its pros and its cons. The obvious pro being you just push a button if you want to feel the breeze. And get out of the rain. The con is not being able to just throw the thing back while the car is moving (at any speed) and that the electric action takes a little longer to do its thing. But the relevant consideration is that you can drop the top – something you can’t in the Z4’s Supra sibling.
At least, not without a Sawzall.
The main gauge cluster is meant to echo the trapezoidal themes executed elsewhere but the angular tachometer takes a little time to get used to. Of course, it matters less because you’re not doing the shifting. You also get a glovebox and cupholders in the center console storage cubby, both absent in the Miata. 
The sport buckets are bolstered on the sides and have integrated rollbars built into their backsides. A very good ten speaker stereo is standard but you can choose an even better 12 speaker Harman Kardon system.
Surprisingly – given this is a BMW – heated seats and steering wheel aren’t standard. Neither is the wireless phone charger which costs $500 extra. On the other hand, a leather-wrapped M Sport steering wheel, pedal trim and the sport buckets mentioned just above are now standard.
As is the wind in you hair.
The Rest
The Z4 is neatly positioned in that it is much less expensive than the next-closest thing (the $65,500 to start Porsche Boxster) and much more powerful than a similar thing (the Miata) and a very different thing from its Toyota-badged and hardtop-only relation.
It is less involving to drive than the manual-equipped Supra – but driving with the top down is something you cannot do in the Supra.
The Bottom Line
The Z4 is a BMW – literally.
Mechanically as well as cosmetically. You buy it at the BMW dealer – as opposed to buying the mechanically identical thing at a Toyota dealer. This latter may or may not matter to you.
What may matter more to you is the price difference that separate these fraternal twins. That and the presence – or absence – of a roof.
And a clutch.
. . .
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I rented one through Turo for a mountain highway ride in Arizona. It sounds fantastic, incrediblty powerful, gets approval from fellow motorists, no doubt impresses chicks, etc. For me, its too wide, you’re sitting in a bathtub basically, and the automatic kind of kills it. Not for me, I really prefer my manual Crosstrek. But you’re right Eric, in a highway fight this car/tank would likely hold up great.
You keep the soft top, give me the stick & I’ll keep $10k too.
Eric,
I think that you hit on something without realizing it.
The distinction between sports and performance cars and the eventual blurring. Have been pondering this for a while.
I never owned a true sports car outside of a brief stint with a used and when cheap Series II E-type, however many of my regular cars and my 2001 luxury GT were “sporty”. They require skill to do things well even with an automatic trans.
Think of it this way. Athletes play sports. The mind and the body are engaged and refined to interact with the tool. One is involved. In essence a lot of driving was an athletic activity even for my secretary who handles her utilitarian car with grace and ability.
A performance is like watching something, and perhaps this occurs by degree.
Look at people in general. Who does something as opposed to sitting in front of the TV both as actuality and as metaphor? The latest dreams for tech are for things to do activities of all kinds for people including folding clothes.
We are no longer aspiring to the Greek ideal as athletes but to…well you get the idea. We are slobs.
Like the guys with the cars with traction control, launch control, etc. They can have a great performance, but how much can they do? It has always been a battle with cars to not overwhelm the user such as with carbs sized too small to make them drivable. Uncle Tony on YouTube discussed this a while ago.
I noticed it when i was able to be in some very capable and high power Ford product a while back and still turn off nearly everything and outdrive all of the owners under said conditions. With all of this stuff on, they could beat me in matched cars if i did not use it all day long. However who is the athlete?
When a lot of mundane cars got really powerful they had the same problems which Uncle Tony brought up. Front drive cars would be spinning their wheels or wiping out accelerating through curves as people not accustomed to that much power drove like cars were pre-HP everywhere. Thusly, traction control became standard. They can have a performance in a Toyota Camry and have the high HP numbers and amazing 0-60 but not the skill set.
Had we kept the activity to functional drivers without the tech, we would not have all of this excess HP in everything, perhaps instead incredible fuel economy. People would be both scared to own it and to abuse it.
Cars, like a lot of the perpetual fantasy which people live in from TV scifi to video games, are allowing people to have an experience which is not real for them. They are watching themselves in a performance. Closely parallels the whole experience as opposed to owning economy which was promoted as the Millennials came of age. Yes, that long ago.
However, people then do not own any skills for themselves and a sense of weakness and not being capable. It is sad when younger people and a lot of older people see me do something and look in awe, even for rather mundane stuff.
They can feel better by injecting themselves into some fantasy.
Funny how theater and movie productions refer to their work as performances.
The people have been acculturated to passivity through escapism for a longtime i.e. the movie and TV industry. It keeps them from realizing that modern controlled life holds them back from their ability to achieve.
But the 60 yr old fat guy who can afford a Corvette can feel like a road racer when the car performs for him. Same with the younger guy who buys the same or similar performance car. Neither are really good at anything.
Funny to how much this applies.
I’ve owned about three dozen cars in my life. If how much you miss a car when you let it go is any measure, then my Z4 was the best car I ever had.
Hi ft –
I have driven both – the Z4 and the Supra. If the two could be combined… such a shame that you’re forced to pick either not having the open top or not being able to shift gears yourself.
The BMW wins on styling hands down. The Supra looks like the product of drinking bad sake.
3,543 lbs.
I don’t care how well tuned the suspension is, throwing that much weight around is more challenging than 1000 pounds less. As the old saying sort of goes, weight has a quality all its own.
Regarding the trunk space, does the Z4 top no longer fold up in the trunk? If it does, how much space does it take out of that trunk? I assume your figures apply to either the top doesn’t store there, or with the top up.
About 15 years ago, I test drove an ’05 Z4, and didn’t like it at all. Too heavy, and even way back then it had “motor sounds” delivered from the stereo. I kept my ’06 Miata.
‘The main gauge cluster is meant to echo the trapezoidal themes executed elsewhere but the angular tachometer takes a little time to get used to.’ — eric
When one is paying $65,000 for a sports car, little things matter. The Z4’s trapezoidal gauge cluster is just butt ugly. Italian designers (e.g. Ferrari) never would have committed this offense against good taste.
Add in its 8-speed slush box, its 3,500-lb borderline obesity, and its gay purple metallic paint, and it’s easy to say no to this tarted-up little minge wagon. Here’s what the late David E Davis Jr had to say about trick paint on a BMW: “Give it a coat of pearlescent orange paint and surround the pedals with lavender angel hair and it would just naturally die of shame.”
Nope, never will the Z4 inspire a paean like this one to an earlier BMW, with the literary volume cranked to 11, blowing away the guardrails on what auto reviewers were permitted to say:
‘As I sit here, fresh from the elegant embrace of BMW’s new 2002, it occurs to me that something between nine and ten million Americans are going to make a terrible mistake this year. Like dutiful little robots they will march out of their identical split-level boxes and buy the wrong kind of car. Fools, fools!
‘Down at the club, Piggy Tremalion and Bucko Penoyer and all their twit friends buy shrieking little 2-seaters with rag tops and skinny wire wheels, unaware that somewhere, someday, some guy in a BMW 2002 is going to blow them off so bad that they’ll henceforth leave every stoplight in second gear and never drive on a winding road again as long as they live.
‘In its unique ability to blend fun-and-games with no-nonsense virtue, this newest BMW also reflects another traditional American article of faith—our unshakable belief that we can find and marry a pretty girl who will expertly cook, scrub floors, change diapers, keep the books, and still be the greatest thing since the San Francisco Earthquake in bed.
‘It’s a dream to which we cling eternally, in spite of the fact that nobody can recall it ever having come true. But, as if to erase our doubts, along comes an inexpensive little machine from Bavaria that really can perform the automotive equivalent of all those diverse domestic and erotic responsibilities, and hope springs anew.’
‘A final word of advice. The crazy-mad little BMW 2002 is every bit as good as I say it is—maybe better. Now turn your hymnals to Number 2002 and we’ll sing two choruses of Whispering Bomb …’
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15126456/1968-bmw-2002-review/
That was a fun read. Felt very much of that time, like old Playboy articles.
I read it in print, as a schoolboy who rode a bicycle with a banana seat … and never forgot Davis’s ringing “Now turn your hymnals to Number 2002” conclusion.
You know, one thing I’d really like to see from classic car review web sites is the retail price when new. I get page after page of search results that show auction prices, eBay prices, investment prices… nothing about how much a ’72 MG Midget cost on the dealer lot. Only thing I found was:
According to the website Nadaguides.com (dead web site), the 1962 MG Midget is and has always been a relativity budget-friendly ride. Again, this is one of the reasons why it is seen as an “everyman” roadster. Upon release, the base price was just $1,939. This was reasonable for most buyers at the time.
https://www.hotcars.com/how-much-a-1962-mg-midget-costs-today/
Running that through the inflation calculator, that’s about $19,500 in O’Biden bucks. Certainly affordable fun for “middle class” America. Granted, it was no BMW, but I imagine the 2002 from that era probably wasn’t all that much more expensive.
I imagine this part of the reason for the rise of the side-by-side off road vehicle. Cheap to own and operate, fun (in a different way than an open roadster), and probably won’t run afoul of Jonny Law if you’re left foot heavy on some forest service road. Back in the day you would have been riding a motocross bike or modded Jeep, but now they’re priced sky-high too. So you get the dorky plastic OHV and roll yourself off a cliff trying to emulate that YouTube influencer…
“Left foot?”
Need more coffee…
Eric: The Z4 is a roadster made by BMW – and so is the Toyota Supra, which is basically a rebodied version of the Z4.
While I’m not in the market for a Z4, but considering that the underlying chassis may be quite similar; how hard could it be to put the manual tranny from a Supra into it? That might be an interesting swap to consider. Enough shops due swaps and I wonder if the Supra PCM would interchange or with the way vehicle electronics are integrated nowadays if it would just be cheaper to have one of those shops that do convertible conversions do it?
Myself, I’ll just stick with my sporty car with a M20 in it.
Hi Landru,
It’d probably be more trouble than it’s worth – literally. As in terms of the expense – of getting the BMW’s computer to accept a component it was not programmed to accept. It is very challenging to make any kind of major mechanical swap in any modern vehicle, unless you’re willing to gut the thing – and can afford to do that.