Some people love the Z4, some hate it. I wasent to keen on them untill I took a 3.0 6speed for a week, fell in love with the car... on to some pictures...
I love the Z4, and when my car gets it's swap underway there will be an Orient Blue Metallic Z4 3.0I with sand leather interior, sand top, 6 speed manual, premium and sport packs taking it's place in the garage.
There really isent a thing I dont like about that car, seating pos. is perfect, the shifter is in the right spot, and the 3.0 sounds sexy nearing redline...mmmmmmmm
Ditto, I'm a huge fan, always have been. The chassis itself is sooo much tighter than the old Z3. The only downfall of the car is the dash, it dosn't give you the feel of being in a cockpit like the Z3 and the E36's did. But that really is minor once you have driven it.
That car is bloody nice. If I was ever to get a BMW though it would be the M Coupe ... I love those things.
They wen't from the "cockpit" feel to the "spartan roadster" feel and basically stripped all the buttons of the dash. I like it, it works well... but doesn't have the "feel" you are talking about.
The Z3 was pretty faggy looking. And had a 20 year old rear suspension design to boot. The Z4 is a masterpiece underneath.
I'll agree with you that the Z3 was faggy looking, raise you the fact that it's structure wasn't much stiffer than a wet towel, but I refuse to blame the rear suspension design for anything other than teaching it's owners a bit of respect. The M coupe (due to the stiffer chassis), ti, and E30 cars (think M3 Evo) could be made to handle quite well and light a fire under many competitors!
Sure it can be made to work, but not as well as the new setup. The newer mulitlink can go through a larger range of motion before it causes severe alignment issues, and are much easier to adjust in stock form. The older ones are pretty much a pita to do any adjustments unless you start cutting and hacking, and even then your range is quite limited.