[TrampGeo]

My new Z4 is on a ship that was waiting in Colon, Panama in order, I thought, to transit the Panama Canal. Wrong. This is the new path of the ship as reported by the Maritime Traffic website. I guess the drought related restrictions at the canal are very real. I'm guessing this may add 20 days to the voyage. The shown ETA of 3/28/2024 is the previous ETA through the canal and has not been updated yet. The destination MX LZC is Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico.

So this is something to watch out for if your car is destined for the west coast, US.

In my previous post I mentioned I preferred 18" tires. The rear 275/40 R18 tire is not now available in the Michelin PS4S. For the new PS5, the front tire 275/40 R18 is not available, while the front and rear R19 tires are also not available for the PS5. Both the Conti Extreme Contact tires are available in R18 and R19. Also my 18" tires are a little harder to find at Discount Tire and Tire Rack. Thinking back on it I probably should have ordered 19" tires.

[Argo]

Originally Posted by TrampGeo

My new Z4 is on a ship that was waiting in Colon, Panama in order, I thought, to transit the Panama Canal. Wrong. This is the new path of the ship as reported by the Maritime Traffic website. I guess the drought related restrictions at the canal are very real. I'm guessing this may add 20 days to the voyage. The shown ETA of 3/28/2024 is the previous ETA through the canal and has not been updated yet. The destination MX LZC is Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico.

Oh wow, that's a huge detour. Was this ship scheduled to stop in LZC anyways? (about a fifth or so of them do).

Originally Posted by TrampGeo

Also my 18" tires are a little harder to find at Discount Tire and Tire Rack. Thinking back on it I probably should have ordered 19" tires.

As someone who got the 18s, I did see the PS4S was not available in the rear size, however given the ExtremeContact Sport 02 is, I figured that'd be fine since that's what I would have picked anyway. One extra plus is that you'll likely get PSS from the factory instead of the SportContact 6 that is shipping with the 19" cars.

Also, I can tell you they look pretty good IRL. Definitely would go this route again given the choice (see attached photo).

Originally Posted by TrampGeo

while the front and rear R19 tires are also not available for the PS5

Still a new-ish tire, so I imagine they will introduce more sizes over the following months. Note that this is not the 5S, that one hasn't been launched yet.

[TrampGeo]

My ship ship turned around and headed back through the canal again. Looks like I will get my Z4 before the extreme heat in Arizona after all. Was this only a problem with the path predicting software from MarineTraffic.com?

[FrostyWinters]

Originally Posted by TrampGeo

My ship ship turned around and headed back through the canal again. Looks like I will get my Z4 before the extreme heat in Arizona after all. Was this only a problem with the path predicting software from MarineTraffic.com?

Or the shipping company decided it's still cheaper to pay for the canal toll than pay for extra 20 days' of bunker fuel, crew salary and provisions.

[Argo]

Maybe it was just the next waypoint being out into the system skipping the ones in the canal.

Anyway, nice to see it's moving to the Pacific the short way round.