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If we’re talking about a James Bond BMW Z3, then we’re referring to the original two-door roadster introduced in 1995 that featured in GoldenEye in 1995. But we aren’t just talking about the very Z3 copy that appeared in the movie. We’re talking about the 100 copies of the Z3 James Bond edition that the German automaker sold through the luxury fashion department-store chain Neiman Marcus catalog.
But those aren’t the principal reasons we’re digging up the Z3 today. We’re here because the Z3 is an exception, a James Bond car you can actually buy and own (of course, we mean maintain) without holding up a bank.
On a normal day, you’d need bucket-loads of cash to snag a James Bond car, be it the Aston Martin DB5 or the BMW Z8, or even the Lotus Esprit that requires a small fortune to maintain. But Bond fans could snag life-sized memorabilia from the GoldenEye movie for just $35,000 in 1996. To that end, the least expensive James Bond car is the BMW Z3, unless you count the Corgi James Bond collection. Now, let’s zero in on a fashion-oriented 007 BMW you can actually buy and maintain without spending a fortune.
The BMW Z3 Development And Launch
The BMW Z3 was, in fact, the first mass-produced BMW Z Series as well as the first BMW model to be solely manufactured outside Germany (Greer, South Carolina precisely). The Z3’s development kicked off in 1991, led by Burkhard Goschel, current President of the Electric and New Energies Championships Commission.
Although the Z3’s body design got completed by mid-1992, the project stalled in 1993. After filing the design patent, first in Germany and then in the US in 1994, the Z3 was finally introduced via video presentation by BMW North America on June 12, 1995, with production kicking off on September 20, that same year.
The Z3 model line is a range of two-seat sports cars, including two-door roadsters with the model code E36/7 and two-door coupes with model code E36/8, that BMW manufactured from 1995 to 2002. As the model codes suggest, BMW based the Z3 on the E36 Series but incorporated the semi-trailing arm suspension design of the older E30 3 Series.
Don’t expect an M-model Z3 if you are gunning for the James Bond edition, since the M versions didn’t arrive until 1998. They featured the S50 (BMW M50), S52 (M52), or S54 (BMW M54) inline-six engines tied to a five-speed manual transmission, depending on the market and model year.
The BMW E85 Z4 replaced the Z3 from 2003 to 2008. Notably, BMW engineers worked on the Z3 coupe model outside of work in their own time. It shared the same platform as the E36/7 roadster, but featured a chassis-stiffening hatch area that was 2.7 times stiffer compared to the roadster.
A Closer Look At The Neiman Marcus Z3 James Bond Edition
A fairly used BMW Z3 isn’t in short supply, with the average price hovering around $10,000. Even so, anything older than the 2000 model has that scary word “rare” swirling around it, which probably explains why a 1996 model currently on offer (as of the time of writing this article) at Auto Showcase of Bel Air has a $24,500 price tag attached to it.
Our point is, while you can easily find and buy a Z3 today, the James Bond edition (which BMW sold through the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog) is significantly rare to find since just 100 units of them were available. A private seller who listed his copy of the Neiman Marcus James Bond edition Z3 for sale on ClassicCars in 2021 described it as “very rare and hard to find.” His copy was 34 out of 100 with the five-speed manual transmission (half of the 100 were automatics).
Needless to say, the Z3 James Bond edition is not technically superior to the regular Z3 for that model year. It’s just that fans got them with a 007 dash plaque, 007-floor mats, commemorative wheels, chrome exterior trim around the windshield, door handles, and various interior bits. Above all, they came in the “Atlanta blue” color matching Pierce Brosnan’s Z3 in the GoldenEye movie, complete with the beige leather interior. So, the romance is just as valid for any 1995/6 BMW Z3 as any of the 100 James Bond editions sold through Neiman Marcus.
Having said all that, the 1995-1998 BMW Z3 model years produced 114-horsepower from a 1.8-liter M43B18 straight-four making 5,500 rpm and 124 lb-ft of torque at 3,900 rpm with a single tailpipe. These model years also had an optional 1.9-liter M44B19 inline-four making 198 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 133 lb-ft of torque at 4,300 rpm. You should expect the later power plant in your Neiman Marcus 007 BMW Z3.
The dual tailpipes came with the 6-cylinder models introduced for the 1999 and 2000 model years, featuring the 2.0-liter M52TUB20 engine. The James Bond edition was actually one of three Special Edition Z3s, with the rest including the 1999 V12 Prototype and the M Coupe Safety Car produced by the BMW M division for MotoGP and used in the 2000 Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing season.
Back to the 1996 James Bond special edition BMW Z3 — the German marque and the department-store powerhouse initially set a 20-unit sales target, but high demand raised the figure to a hundred units. A fan who called the very day it featured on the NBC Today Show got told they were fielding more than 2,000 calls that day.
Our advice? Buy the 1996 BMW Z3, not because it appeared in GoldenEye, but because it is a totally reliable car that only needs regular servicing and, of course, gas. Plus, it’s an affordable BMW. The private seller we mentioned asked for just $19,500 for the 007 Neiman Marcus edition.
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