Video: 2009 BMW Z4

We checked out some of its more static elements at the Detroit auto show, be sure to check out that video from earlier on this year. We've been driving it all week now and actually it's surprisingly livable in the everyday sense. It's also a quick little car as well. There's two engines, a three liter inline six is the base one, 255 horsepower. There's also a twin turbo inline six, good for 300 horsepower, that's what we got here in our test car. In this car, it comes with a six-speed manual transmission. Plenty of power from 12, 13, 1500 RPM, nice burly exhaust node as well. (engine revs) The stick shift in particular is far better than the sticks that we've tested out in other BMW's of late. Those tend to have sort of medium longish throws kind of rubbery actions as you're going from one gate to the next. They've really firmed this up a lot more satisfying, shorter throws fits into each gate, much better, definitely thumbs up in that area. BMWS dynamic driver control system standard that goes from normal to sport and then like a sport plus setting that affects a lot of things. Accelerators, sensitivity, levels of power steering assist and whatnot with it in normal mode, The steering wheel is actually surprisingly easy to turn very livable. You don't have that sort of heavy cantankerous steering as you're coming around at low speeds. Still pretty precise though, allows you to kind of, to make those mid-quarter corrections. Get the tail out a little bit and kind of rework it back in very satisfying, actually not a bad setup overall. Ride quality is also surprisingly good. Our car has the optional adaptive suspension and with it, it doesn't beat you up near as much as you think a car like this would over speed bumps and potholes, pretty comfortable actually. You put the two piece hard top up and a road and wind noise. Pretty good as well. Combine that with things like the manual transmission with the easy going clutch, nice satisfying shifter, the steering, and certainly the performance aspect. And this is a car that really kinda occupies a sweet spot between performance and comfort. Surprisingly livable every day kind of puts you between cars like a Porsche Boxster on the firmer side, Mercedes SLK on sort of the looser side. A good spot I think for BMW to be, the Z4 definitely worth checking out. For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog kicking tires.net.