I bought this car after selling my Lotus Elise. I previously owned a Z3 2.8 so had some idea of what I was getting. The Z3 3.0 is a bit of a bargain at the moment, available for £3-6,000 in the classifieds. The engine delivers 231bhp and performance is outstanding. 60 mph arrives in six seconds, and it will do 155mph, where legal. This should be enough for most people. It will waste any MX5, leaving it rocking in your slipstream as you overtake. In fact few cars will get past a well driven Z3 3.0, certainly not that were bought for under £5,000. The interior is well built, although there are some truly vile interior colours....buyers could choose their colours so you see yellow interiors, purple interiors, and cars that are all red inside including the steering wheel. I looked at one that was all beige inside, including the dash. What were they thinking? Were they colour blind? Anyway, the car drives great. It has traction control and ABS, the brakes are good, steering is good, etc. Gearbox is a bit clunky but positive enough. Aircon became standard later on, not sure you need it in a convertible but when fitted it works well. There is a bit of scuttle shake, but it's no worse than the MX5 I owned a few years ago. Don't be scared of the engine. It looks complex under the bonnet but it's actually the easiest car I have ever owned to service at home. The air filter can be changed in thirty seconds and an oil/filter change takes twenty minutes. Of course people will tell you "Oh, it's a BMW, the bills will be huge if it goes wrong" Well, it's possible you could get stung with a big repair bill, but don't forget this is a serious performance car, and not a Ford Focus 1.6 If you get a good one it should be fine. I've had no issues with my 2.8 or 3.0 Z3 One thing is, everything is still available from BMW, even though they stopped making these in 2002. Even obscure trim parts and bits of plastic. This is unusual, many older cars are not well served by the makers.