[Argo]

Just dropping by to post some images of the Cassiopeia Leader entering the Panama Canal.

[Travelmatte]

Originally Posted by Argo

Just dropping by to post some images of the Cassiopeia Leader entering the Panama Canal.

Fantastic! I did the same thing last night and... we're about to go through the Miraflores in the next few minutes!

https://multimedia.panama-canal.com/...iraflores.html

[Travelmatte]

Paused at Pedro Miguel Locks ahead of our run at the Miraflores. There's your car.

[Travelmatte]

Moving again. Here's a better "keeper" shot for posterity.

[Travelmatte]

Almost to the Pacific...

[Travelmatte]

The boat is docked, the cars are rolling off and I can't wait to see pics of your Week 40 deliveries and I will certainly follow up with one of mine! Cheers.

[Horseman]

NICE! Almost there!

[Argo]

Yeah my boat (Wild Rose Leader) docked last Sunday and the dealership guy said next Monday delivery, however I'm hoping it can happen on the weekend.

[Travelmatte]

Originally Posted by Argo

Yeah my boat (Wild Rose Leader) docked last Sunday and the dealership guy said next Monday delivery, however I'm hoping it can happen on the weekend.

Well, I have no VPC-installed options, not getting anything added at the dealer, so kinda hoping this is a swift delivery.

I'm guessing this thing would be ready for a carrier by the weekend, but not sure if they load and so forth on weekends. My dealer is a big one, so guessing they'll easily fill at least one carrier and we're just up the coast.

Jeeze, I feel like a kid at Christmas! I can barely sit still over here.

Also, my employer gives us all of next week off, so would obviously love some quality time with my Z4 :-)

[Travelmatte]

Kinda looks like we have very similar if not identical builds. And given that you have a Boxster int he garage, I look forward to your insights as to the two cars in comparison! Boxster S was the semi-finalist for me, but as I will be doing a bit of DD (over 17--I commute from Silicon Valley to Capitola and know ALL the alternate crazy mountain routes), I wanted the roominess, value, etc. of the Z4.

Also looks like you're a Bay Area guy--me and one of my colleagues who just got an M240i and is relocating up here to work on my team will be doing some serious SC mountain cruising soon. You ever hit Alice's in Woodside? Such a great organic car scene. My Miata-owning teenager and I are in the hills every weekend.

Im currently in a Giulia, but I needed... something a little more exhilarating... and verbal ;-)

EDIT to add: I meant to address this to @argo

[Golfman]

My Portico Blue/Cognac Z4 is on the same ship, which docked at Port Hueneme, CA this morning (11/16)!

[eclz]

My car was on the Wild Rose Leader and I picked it up today. I've enjoyed monitoring the progress with the rest of you over the past couple of months. Wishing everyone else who's been tracking the ships to California the best with their new Z4s! This is my first BMW in 30 years -- the last one was a 1994 E36 325i.

[Argo]

Originally Posted by eclz

My car was on the Wild Rose Leader and I picked it up today. I've enjoyed monitoring the progress with the rest of you over the past couple of months. Wishing everyone else who's been tracking the ships to California the best with their new Z4s! This is my first BMW in 30 years — the last one was a 1994 E36 325i.

Same ship as me and NorCal as well. I'm calling my guy tomorrow because I see it shows at the dealer now!

[Argo]

Originally Posted by Travelmatte

Kinda looks like we have very similar if not identical builds. And given that you have a Boxster int he garage, I look forward to your insights as to the two cars in comparison! Boxster S was the semi-finalist for me, but as I will be doing a bit of DD (over 17--I commute from Silicon Valley to Capitola and know ALL the alternate crazy mountain routes), I wanted the roominess, value, etc. of the Z4.

EDIT to add: I meant to address this to @argo

Well my current Boxster is an '06, so showing a bit of age at this point. I love it and was very much on the fence about replacing it, but decided it was time. I originally bought it as a second car (had a leased '14 A4 at the time) but decided to daily it after my lease was up (since I was taking the Boxster out on more than just the weekends anyway).

From the test drive:

• The Z4 M40i is substantially faster
• The Z4 rides significantly better
• The Z4 is also much quieter when you want it to be
• The Boxster has substantially better steering feel
• The Boxster feels lighter
• I will miss the manual sometimes, but the ZF8 is nice

I also considered a new 718 Boxster to replace it, but would have really wanted the GTS 4.0 model, and the price hikes, the games Porsche dealers are playing, and the lack of native Android Auto put me off it (though this last one has a reasonable workaround). I wasn't ready to spend 911 money on a car, and IMO the 911 cabriolet is a little awkward looking.

The other two contenders for me were the F-Type and the Corvette. The F-Type was even less of a nimble car (plus I believe the Coupe is the better looking option there, though both are truly beautiful) and ultimately the Z4 is a much better value. The Corvette comes very nicely equipped, but I think the styling is a bit too much, and there's the dealer games as well (multiple dealers straight up told me they don't do test-drives "for their more-powerful V8 models").

Originally Posted by Travelmatte

Also looks like you're a Bay Area guy--me and one of my colleagues who just got an M240i and is relocating up here to work on my team will be doing some serious SC mountain cruising soon. You ever hit Alice's in Woodside? Such a great organic car scene. My Miata-owning teenager and I are in the hills every weekend.

Im currently in a Giulia, but I needed... something a little more exhilarating... and verbal ;-)

Yeah been here for a while now. The M240i was extremely tempting as well TBH, I haven't driven one but I've heard great things. Alice's is actually a fairly short drive from me (though maybe a bit slow right now while 84 still has a lane closed). Skyline in general is a fantastic driving road.

Anyway, maybe we should do a "small BMW" meetup some time.

[Horseman]

Originally Posted by Argo

Same ship as me and NorCal as well. I'm calling my guy tomorrow because I see it shows at the dealer now!

Oh Hell yeah! You mean that your SA didn't send you pics of it on the truck? WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL?!?!

[Wynnsiensheng]

Supposedly mine arrives at the dealer on 23rd Nov and will be ready to pick up on 30th…….except the idiot sales person didn’t order the black lettering I wanted for the back, so those won’t be on there. It’s only been FIVE MONTHS since I ordered it and they still didn’t get the stuff I preordered done. They say the lettering will take 3 months to arrive from Germany?? Oh well, glad to see yours has arrived as ordered.

[Horseman]

Originally Posted by Wynnsiensheng

Supposedly mine arrives at the dealer on 23rd Nov and will be ready to pick up on 30th…….except the idiot sales person didn’t order the black lettering I wanted for the back, so those won’t be on there. It’s only been FIVE MONTHS since I ordered it and they still didn’t get the stuff I preordered done. They say the lettering will take 3 months to arrive from Germany?? Oh well, glad to see yours has arrived as ordered.

Order it from https://ind-distribution.com/product...em-gloss-black and it it in a few days, have them rebadge your car.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by Wynnsiensheng

Supposedly mine arrives at the dealer on 23rd Nov and will be ready to pick up on 30th…….except the idiot sales person didn’t order the black lettering I wanted for the back, so those won’t be on there. It’s only been FIVE MONTHS since I ordered it and they still didn’t get the stuff I preordered done. They say the lettering will take 3 months to arrive from Germany?? Oh well, glad to see yours has arrived as ordered.

I never saw an option on the website where you can order the gloss black rear badges.

[Horseman]

Originally Posted by Westside Guy

I never saw an option on the website where you can order the gloss black rear badges.

Neither did I unless it's something that can be purchased from their accessories store.

I did, however, ask the dealer if they could rebadge the car when it came in and they did say yes. However, I had my auto salon do it when they did the ceramic and PPF instead. (no additional cost)

[Travelmatte]

Originally Posted by Argo

Well my current Boxster is an '06, so showing a bit of age at this point. I love it and was very much on the fence about replacing it, but decided it was time. I originally bought it as a second car (had a leased '14 A4 at the time) but decided to daily it after my lease was up (since I was taking the Boxster out on more than just the weekends anyway).

From the test drive:

• The Z4 M40i is substantially faster
• The Z4 rides significantly better
• The Z4 is also much quieter when you want it to be
• The Boxster has substantially better steering feel
• The Boxster feels lighter
• I will miss the manual sometimes, but the ZF8 is nice

I also considered a new 718 Boxster to replace it, but would have really wanted the GTS 4.0 model, and the price hikes, the games Porsche dealers are playing, and the lack of native Android Auto put me off it (though this last one has a reasonable workaround). I wasn't ready to spend 911 money on a car, and IMO the 911 cabriolet is a little awkward looking.

The other two contenders for me were the F-Type and the Corvette. The F-Type was even less of a nimble car (plus I believe the Coupe is the better looking option there, though both are truly beautiful) and ultimately the Z4 is a much better value. The Corvette comes very nicely equipped, but I think the styling is a bit too much, and there's the dealer games as well (multiple dealers straight up told me they don't do test-drives "for their more-powerful V8 models").



Yeah been here for a while now. The M240i was extremely tempting as well TBH, I haven't driven one but I've heard great things. Alice's is actually a fairly short drive from me (though maybe a bit slow right now while 84 still has a lane closed). Skyline in general is a fantastic driving road.

Anyway, maybe we should do a "small BMW" meetup some time.

I'm almost completely aligned on your impressions and thoughts regarding Boxster. And I feel that Porsche tends to make the elections over-complicated and you can really never feel that your chosen options/model package isn't just one level below what you'd rather have, if that makes any sense. The Z4 was straightforward.

The F-Type was also one of my other contenders, but I did not end up test driving (and youre notes are really interesting on this and the Corvette, which I feel I am almost TOO much of a cliche buyer of, lol). I didn't go much further with the Jag because, in the end, I'm not going to choose a British car over a BMW.

I will definitely post my planned Alices excursions here and I'm also hoping to pull in some other corporate colleagues for small "spirited drives" as a kind of networking and bonding thing. We have several true motoring enthusiasts in our office. One co-worker has several BMWs and does track days.

Thanks for your great and incredibly interesting response!

[Wynnsiensheng]

Originally Posted by Westside Guy

I never saw an option on the website where you can order the gloss black rear badges.

It’s not an option on the website. I got the part details on the accessary thread here and asked the sales person to order them for me, separately to ordering the car.

[Wynnsiensheng]

Originally Posted by Horseman

Order it from https://ind-distribution.com/product...em-gloss-black and it it in a few days, have them rebadge your car.

Many thanks for the suggestion.

I did look into ordering the badges myself previously, but there is no international shipping. So that would have meant setting up a drop box which seemed a bit of a nuisance, compared to just ordering from the dealer here. Incidentally, I had to pay for the badges when I ordered them from the dealer, they just forgot to place the order. And so 5 months later the car arrives, but no badges.