Stop any car transport guy they some times drive down this way with a load and have to return empty they will do it for cheap since they are just going back home. Or they may know of some one going that way or even a closed big rig will do it if you find a high flat place to load at on both ends ie., an open dock just a sugestion.

 

I drove to Rochester, NY and then in May I will be driving back to the Bay and then back here again in August and if things go right, back to the bay in May 05.

 

I was just looking at shipping a rallycar from the NE to here last month, so I did a bunch of research into shipping rates. I considered flying out there and driving it back, but there were a variety of reasons why I decided that it was cheaper to ship it - it was an car that was in good shape but unknown to me mechanically, it is the middle of winter and weather is unpredictable in parts of the country, it had no street tires so I would've had to buy some, and it would've likely been uncomfortable to drive for hours on end. I considered driving out there with a rig and towing it back, but after figuring in fuel and lodging expenses, and considering the possibility of having to tow a car through an ice storm, that turned out to be prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, after a bunch of web searches and looking at recommendations and so on, it seemed like DAS (Dependable Auto Shippers) had the best reputation. A lot of the other shippers had really horrible ones.

DAS has a variety of options. The cheapest was a depot-to-depot ship, which means you drop it off at one of their depots, and sometime later they call and tell you it's arrived at the destination one and you go pick it up. That was something like $650. You can also do point-to-depot, depot-to-point, and point-to-point, where they will pick it up, drop it off, or do both to a location of your choosing. The rates are adjusted based on how far your point is from their depot. In my case, a point-to-point shipment raised the rate to almost $1200.

There're also other options you can add. A top-load means that your car gets put on the top deck of the carrier, and reduces the chances that another car might drip on it. That added about $100. Expediting delivery added another $100. Having it shipped in an enclosed trailer was about another $300.

The shippers are required to carry insurance against damage, but there is a base deductable for it. I think it was something like $500. For another couple of hundred, you can get a lower deductable.

It's recommended that you take pictures of the car at the time it's dropped off, and then take an other set at the time you pick it up so if you find any damage you can prove that it was done by the shippers.

By law, you're not allowed to ship anything with the car. It has to be completely empty. This is a DOT regulation. In addition, the trucks have be careful about their weight, so they ask you to have only a 1/4 tank of gas in the car.

In my case, the cheapest rate was about $650, and a full-on white gloves treatment went all the way up to around $2200. Since it was just a rallycar, I opted for the cheapest rate, but the deal for the car fell through so I can't tell you anything about the actual shipping experience.

If you have to move a bunch of stuff yourself across country, it might be cheaper to rent a big diesel truck and tow the car. I once helped a friend move from San Jose to Denver, and he ended up renting a big 24' diesel truck and hauling his car behind on a dolly. You can't do that with an AWD car, but a full trailer will be just fine. At any rate, that setup resulted in a nice 12mpg or so, even over the Rockies. It wasn't exactly speedy, but we had the thing fully-loaded and it never complained. This was about 10 years ago, and I think he paid around $1000 for the rental of the truck + dolly, and another couple of hundred in diesel fuel.

If shipping your personal belongings is not an issue, I'd say just drive it. It's a car you know, is comfortable, and will handle almost any adverse conditions, assuming you have the right tires. 3000 miles isn't much for those engines.

FWIW.

hoche

 

have it shipped by boat. =)

 

How many opportunities do you have to drive accross country?

It's one helluva trip, I have done it 5 times myself.

The scenary is amazing, there is so much to do, and so much to see that your kind of wasting your money getting the car shipped.

It's a once in a life time opportunity, especially if it's paid for by the company.

 

When I decided to move to Massachussets, I looked into renting a truck with a trailer. To get all the way to NEw England, the rental was going to codt over $4000! and that doesn't even include the price of gas on the 8mpg hog of a moving truck.

The absolutely cheapest way to get your car across the country is to drive it. Also, you get to see the country! If you have the time, I say do it.