Anyone ever ship a car?

[Wayne Hendrix]

In June I will be moving from Salt Lake City to Milwaukee to start residency. The easiest and cheapest way we have found for us to move is going to be rent a large truck and tow one of our two cars behind it, but, I need to get the other car there. We want to ship it. When I search for auto shipping I find a ton of options and after requesting a quote from one website got hit with phone calls and emails from about 6 different companies for a week. They could have been great companies but I have no idea.

So, does anyone have any experience shipping cars and could offer me some advice? I am shipping a 2004 Dodge Intrepid so I am not looking for one of the high end, enclosed transports, just plain open truck but I don't want to get fleeced and at the same time I want a reputable company.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Find a friend, buy him or her meals, motels and then a return airline ticket to SLC?

[Mike Lassiter]

Wayne I did this in the early 80's moving from Lexington,TN to Oklahoma City. Rented a 1 ton Uhaul, filled it full then pulled a Pontiac Grandville (full sized 4 door car) also filled full behind it with a tow dolly. My wife followed behind in our 73 Pinto. Packed all week, left after dark and drove all night without sleep.
If you have wife or someone else going with you, I would suggest that person driving behind you. It is a good thing to have eyes behind you while pulling something a long way. You could get a flat tire that you might not be able to see in side mirrors on car, tow dolly or trailer. It means driving alone for the trip but especially if any night driving is involved it could save destroying a rim and possible damage from tire beating the vehicle up without your knowledge.

[David Masters]

I shipped a 1953 Chevy Bel Air from El Paso to St. Louis in 2012 and my experience was good. I used Dependable Auto Shippers (DAS). As I remember, the cost was around $800 and the price went up or down depending on options I chose. I saved $150 by picking up the car at an area yard once the car arrived in St. Louis, but they would send it directly to your home.

I believe it took about five days for my car to arrive in the St. Louis area. DAS kept me informed of the car's progress during the shipping process. The route they take is generally not direct. It depends on locations of other vehicles they need to pickup and drop off. I remember my car spent the night in Lincoln, NE, which is hardly in line between El Paso and St. Louis.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Yes, I have shipped a car, in fact I have shipped a number of them both by land and sea. I bought a dune buggy in Kansas and had it shipped to St. Thomas, which meant contracting someone sight-unseen to truck it to Jacksonville, FL, then contracting Crowley to ship it by sea. The land leg cost me $650, which I felt was a bargain. The trick is you have to be able to wait for it to get there, and then you can get a better deal by letting someone pick it up that is going that way. Seems you already have started by getting quotes online, and that is what I did, which is nerve-wracking. Just make sure you check out the company really good, and read all the fine print. If you just contract someone to go from point A to point B, you'll pay anywhere from $0.25 to 0.75 per mile. If you shop around, and make sure they know you can take your time, then they can offer you a better rate.

I also shipped a Karmann Ghia from Miami to the Tropical Shipping dock about an hour north of Miami. This one was funny- I bought the car on eBay, flew to Miami (I go there on business a lot) to meet the guy and sign the papers. I had to drop him off at his house after we sealed the deal, and on the way there the darned car caught on fire!!!! Fortunately I know VW's like the back of my hand and it was a fuel leak. I went and got fuel line and wiring, and ran new lines and rewired all the wires that fried, and did it all on the side of the road! So now I didn't have time to drive it up to the shipping dock, and I just started calling places. I found one that said if I didn't have a set time he could take the car for me, and that was fine. Sorry, I don't remember what I paid that guy, but it was pretty cheap per mile, and again the point of the story is to be willing to wait so that they can schedule other pickups near you and be more profitable, thus saving you money. Oh, and by the way, I am no longer allowed to buy cars sight-unseen on eBay, which I can hardly argue with.

Oh, and as for the dune buggy, it turned out that guy never got the title in his name, so it showed up at the shipping dock without paperwork, and they wouldn't ship it offshore without that. I decided to cut my losses, as a plane ticket to straighten out the mess was almost as much as the cost of the dune buggy, and also now they wanted to charge me a storage fee. I just left it there. Almost exactly a year later, I get a call from Crowley saying my dune buggy had arrived on island!!! Seems they got sick of it sitting there and decided to just ship it to me.

Also I shipped two vehicles from Tennessee to St. Thomas, which again required me to do land and sea. In this case it was actually cheaper overall to put them in a container and ship them. You may consider that, and just ship both vehicles. I have towed vehicles with a UHaul trailer before and it is no fun. LOTS of gas as well. You might just ship both of them and save gas money in the long haul.

And then there is another VW that I bought (I love VW's) and in this case I actually found someone that was willing to drive it down. In a case like this, you want to be darned sure you have good insurance in case they wreck, but you might find a college student that just happens to need to get to where you are going from where you are now, and would be thrilled to drive it just for the cost of fuel, lodging, and meals. When I suggest this, I am assuming this would be someone that you at least know through a friend or family, and not just blindly let someone off Craigslist drive your car! :-)

Shipping cars is something I have become quite good at!

[Matt Meiser]

North American Van Lines used to do this in the late 80s/early 90's My dad used them a couple times to buy cars that weren't anything particularly special from states where they don't use road salt and it was pretty reasonable back then.

[Wayne Hendrix]

Find a friend, buy him or her meals, motels and then a return airline ticket to SLC?

This was our first thought, but given the planned trip is 3 days of driving we wanted two people, one in the car with my wife and one with me so we could alternate drivers. We have a 16 month old and are trying to limit the time in the car each day to 8 hrs for our sanity. The cost of two extra people on the trip is the same as shipping the car. Also to keep the cost of air travel down we would want to buy their tickets now but haven't been able to find a couple people who can for sure commit to the time right now. Most of our friends are also moving for the same reason at that time and family all has other commitments. We may still do this but shipping it allows us to not have to rely on anyone else.

... It is a good thing to have eyes behind you while pulling something a long way. You could get a flat tire that you might not be able to see in side mirrors on car, tow dolly or trailer. It means driving alone for the trip but especially if any night driving is involved it could save destroying a rim and possible damage from tire beating the vehicle up without your knowledge.

I am planning on wiring a temporary rear view camera on the back of the truck to keep an eye on things back there.

I shipped a 1953 Chevy Bel Air from El Paso to St. Louis in 2012 and my experience was good. I used Dependable Auto Shippers (DAS). As I remember, the cost was around $800 and the price went up or down depending on options I chose. I saved $150 by picking up the car at an area yard once the car arrived in St. Louis, but they would send it directly to your home.

I believe it took about five days for my car to arrive in the St. Louis area. DAS kept me informed of the car's progress during the shipping process. The route they take is generally not direct. It depends on locations of other vehicles they need to pickup and drop off. I remember my car spent the night in Lincoln, NE, which is hardly in line between El Paso and St. Louis.

DAS is one of the companies I was looking at. I will go back and look at them again.

... The trick is you have to be able to wait for it to get there, and then you can get a better deal by letting someone pick it up that is going that way. Seems you already have started by getting quotes online, and that is what I did, which is nerve-wracking. Just make sure you check out the company really good, and read all the fine print. If you just contract someone to go from point A to point B, you'll pay anywhere from $0.25 to 0.75 per mile. If you shop around, and make sure they know you can take your time, then they can offer you a better rate.

... In this case it was actually cheaper overall to put them in a container and ship them. You may consider that, and just ship both vehicles. I have towed vehicles with a UHaul trailer before and it is no fun. LOTS of gas as well. You might just ship both of them and save gas money in the long haul. ...

Fortunately, I have a fairly flexible time frame for the shipped vehicle to be picked up and delivered and I am booking way in advance, both of which seem to be working in my favor as far as pricing goes. I need to have one vehicle with me as soon as I arrive so shipping both is not an option. I have towed cars behind a U-Haul before also and I agree its not fun, but it will be less gas and easier towing it rather than driving the vehicle and the truck separately.

[Dan Hintz]

I shipped my S2000 from Boston down to south Florida back in 2003(ish). Open carrier, but no issues. I do not recall the cost, but I also do not remember it being unreasonable (and I was out of work at the time, so cost was a major factor). They came and picked the car up with the carrier outside of my house, then dropped it off when they said they would. I don't have much else to add as all of the above will depend upon who you get, but don't be afraid to ask questions.

[Dale Coons]

We're coming up on the end of a semester--I'd bet there is a BYU or UofU student from the Milwaukee area that would love to save some scratch by driving your car home to Milwaukee. Quite a number of people have done this around here (michigan). Usually you cover the cost of the gas.

[Chris Padilla]

We're coming up on the end of a semester--I'd bet there is a BYU or UofU student from the Milwaukee area that would love to save some scratch by driving your car home to Milwaukee. Quite a number of people have done this around here (michigan). Usually you cover the cost of the gas.

This could work if you trust the person driving your car but Craigslist has people advertising things like this all the time. College towns are well-known for these things. However, I shipped a BMW from CA to NY back in 2005...it was under a grand for a covered coach. Prices are up since then, however. Now it would be around $1.3k. If you've got 6 companies calling you, you should have a good idea of prices and online searching will usually find you some good ratings. Yelp is a good place to check.

[Wayne Hendrix]

We're coming up on the end of a semester--I'd bet there is a BYU or UofU student from the Milwaukee area that would love to save some scratch by driving your car home to Milwaukee. Quite a number of people have done this around here (michigan). Usually you cover the cost of the gas.

That's something I hadn't considered. I will see if the schools have a rideshare board. I know they used to, I remember using the BYU one a couple times.

[Ole Anderson]

I haven't, but this time of year I see open car carriers lined upon the FL islands to return cars to owners who fly home, usually on the east coast.

[Rich Riddle]

If you are shipping a 2004 Dodge Intrepid it would prove far cheaper to sell the car in Utah and purchase another similar car in Chicago/Milwaukee. My wife did that when she moved for her residency in anesthesia. Considering the cost of shipping you could upgrade. The military used to ship our cars via rail if that doesn't appeal to you. Some "travelers" perform the task you want but would not be held to the timeline you want to use. They tend to drive long distances.

[Matt Day]

When we moved from VA to SLC (my wife did her sports medicine fellowship at the U) in 2010, I drove a big moving truck and towed one of our cars. We had everything setup and confirmed to have my wife's car picked up and shipped and after we got to Utah we get a call saying they aren't going to be able to get a driver and cancelled our contract. Something about that the route wasn't very popular because it was hard on trucks (Appalacian and Rockies). Totally bogus. Anyway, i had to fly back to VA and drive solo back to Utah.
A college kid or friend sounds like the best route to me.

[Wayne Hendrix]

If you are shipping a 2004 Dodge Intrepid it would prove far cheaper to sell the car in Utah and purchase another similar car in Chicago/Milwaukee. My wife did that when she moved for her residency in anesthesia. Considering the cost of shipping you could upgrade. The military used to ship our cars via rail if that doesn't appeal to you. Some "travelers" perform the task you want but would not be held to the timeline you want to use. They tend to drive long distances.

Selling was actually the initial plan but we decided to keep it because it is actually a fairly reliable car that I can do almost all the work on. However, once I start factoring in the cost and hassle to get it back there I think this might be the best idea.

I am starting anesthesia at Medical College of Wisconsin.