Re: Which dealer? Jessel, Park shore? (NT) (archive)

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For as much as I like the Z8, I think that it's absoluetly nuts to pay $500,000 for it. I saw a posting about a week ago stating that someone paid in the $300,000 range which I also think is totally crazy.

My basis for saying this is that on Thursday I was at my dealer getting an oil change on my Z3 and there was the same Z8 (silver/red) as described below. The only slight difference was that they were asking CDN$200,000 for it. By my calculations, that works out to about US$133,000. I guess the one I saw was the "stripped down" version and the "fully loaded" version probably costs $500,000. ;-)

Stopped by my dealer (Beverly Hills BMW) just now to pick up the radio antenna mast they forgot to give me when I picked up my '00 M roadster a few days ago,and pow! There it sat, right in the showroom window on a red carpet surrounded by a red rope. Silver exterior, red interior, with lots of chrome inside.

What can I say? It's a museum-quality thing of beauty. Absolutely gorgeous, as you would expect. I didn't even ask to sit in it, but they did let me inside the red rope to get a close look. Every detail seemed beautifully thought-out. Except one, that still puzzles me:

The instrument cluster housing the speedo and tach is not centered in front of the driver, as you would expect it would be in a car meant to be driven at very high speed, but instead is near the center of the dashboard, canted toward the driver. There are no instruments at all behind the steering wheel in the driver's direct line of sight. The implications are obvious: not only does the driver have to take his or her eyes off the road, they have to turn their head as well to read the tach or speedo. There may be a method to this madness, but as a former military pilot, I can tell you that this is a Very Bad Idea.

The only conclusion I can draw is that the Z8 is meant to be what it looks like: a show car, or an investor's museum piece. I tell you, it made my M roadster look like a "beater", and I didn't think any car could do that!

Further to the above theory, Sales Person told me they're auctioning the car to the highest bidder, with a reserve (floor) of $500,000. Around their neighborhood, they're likely to get it, too.

Anyway, if any of you are in the LA area, get yourselves over there to see it, because I don't think it'll be there long. Oh, it was a 6-speed, by the way.

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