2025 BMW Z4 Manual Tested: Enjoy This Stick-Shift Roadster While It Lasts

If your love for BMW burns as strong as your passion for three-pedal drop-top roadsters, stop reading and get your finances in order before these disappear, because sadly, the days of shift-’em-yourself sports cars, or any automobile, are fading. This means the manual-transmission 2024 BMW Z4 M40i won’t be around forever.

Let’s take an empirical look at how the three-pedal Z4 compares to its automatic counterpart, its drop-top stick-shift competition, and other sporty manual two-seaters.

What’s Different

Power still comes from the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six to the tune of 382 horses and 369 lb-ft of torque—the same as the automatic BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra. The M40i-exclusive Handschalter (German for “hand switch”) package brings the Z4 to life and puts control of the transmission back into your right hand and left foot. Though the ZF-sourced gearbox is shared between the Supra and Z4, the German convertible gets unique shift linkages, a stiffer anti-roll bar, and BMW-specific (read: sportier) calibrations on its steering and adaptive dampers. The Z4 also benefits from a burlier rear differential also found in the M240i, as well as a staggered wheel setup with 20-inchers in the back and 19s up front.

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Living With the Z4

Although you shouldn’t eye the Z4 for its grocery-toting abilities, its utility does extend beyond spirited Sunday drives in the hills. There’s plenty of adjustability in the Cognac Vernasca leather seats for getting situated behind the wheel, and the willingness of the trunk to gobble up a handful of weekend luggage items is noteworthy. Our largest gripe about the cabin is having to part the console flaps in order to access the cupholders.

There’s nothing stellar about the comfort experience, and that’s just fine. It means fewer massaging seats, wall-to-wall screens, and perfume dispensers to distract you from the driving experience. We’ll also praise the refreshing number of tactile buttons to complement the infotainment screen. 

On the Track

Launch control is all old-school in the Z4, and our best work was done at 3,200 rpm—enough to chirp the tires without the rear getting loose. Holding the pedal to 3,500 rpm made more noise and smoke than forward progress. We noted long throws and vague gates, as we (more than a few times) hit a knuckle rather than a slot, especially on the 3–2 shift. Clutch engagement is at the top of the pedal stroke, and those who wade through the menus to override the auto rev-matching should find the pedals nicely spaced for heel-toe maneuvers.

Stopping the Z4 was a nonevent with a firm pedal, short travel, and no side-to-side action. ABS kept its distance until it was necessary and intervened without buzzing or rattling the driver. The Z4 also dissipated braking heat well during our series of seven 60–0-mph panic stops, staying within 2 feet of its best 103-foot performance.

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Trail-braking into hard turns squashed most of the understeer worries, at least until the tires heated up. Throttling out of turns produced gentle oversteer but nothing unexpected. The Z4 is a sports car, and it behaves as such, rewarding someone who knows what they’re doing. (Yes, it’ll drift.) Luckily, it also doesn't punish those who are merely exploring the car’s limits.

Comparing the automatic and manual transmission BMW Z4 convertibles shows that opting for the manual reduces curb weight by 164 pounds, increases the 0–60 time from 3.9 seconds to 4.1, and shortens the 60–0 stopping distance by a foot (103 feet to the auto’s 104). The auto Z4 also holds the road better than the manual (1.06 g versus 1.00 in the manual).

The six-speed Supra stops 3 feet shorter than the closest Z4 (100 feet to the Z4 manual’s 103), is 120 pounds lighter, and grips the pavement more than either of the Z4s (1.07 g versus the Z4 auto’s 1.06). The Supra manual falls behind on sprint speed (4.3 seconds to 60 mph) and offers no option for drop-top convertible freedom.

True competition in the German performance manual-transmission convertible category is between the manual Z4 and the Porsche 718 Boxster. Legendary handling aside, the Boxster bests the Supra and both flavors of Z4 in power, stopping distance, and locating the engine behind the driver. Both Z4s were quicker in the 0–60 sprint than the Boxter 718’s 4.2 seconds and it sustained 1.07 g before breaking traction, the same as the Supra.

In the narrow field of manual-transmission German convertibles we found the Z4’s 0-60 sprint time to be as quick or quicker than every manual 718 Boxster we’ve tested.

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Is the Manual Z4 Worth It?

This is a transmission story. The manual Z4 remains (for now) one of the few stick-shift sports cars on the road, and it happens to also check the “convertible” box. If your loyalty lies more with the retractable top than it does the third pedal, there are other roadsters that give just about the same performance. If shift-it-yourself isn’t a dealbreaker and you want big-displacement V-8 power, yes, there’s the Corvette.

However, if you’re still reading this, just check yes next to the $3,500 Handschalter package on your Z4’s build sheet and drive this iconic roadster off into the sunset while you still can.

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