Anyone ever ship a car before?

Kenji4861

Banned
Jan 28, 2001
2,821
0
0
I'm buying a car from a person in Denver, I live in California.

I'm planning to fly there to look at the car.. do paperwork, but I don't want to fly it back.. I want to have it shipped.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any recommended company?

Thanks!
 

Xyclone

Lifer
Aug 24, 2004
10,312
0
76
Originally posted by: Kenji4861
I'm buying a car from a person in Denver, I live in California.

I'm planning to fly there to look at the car.. do paperwork, but I don't want to fly it back.. I want to have it shipped.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any recommended company?

Thanks!

:Q

Can you even do that (without paying a sh1tload of money)?!
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
27,112
930
126
Originally posted by: bum
Why don't you want to drive it back?

USPS will not handle something that heavy, and they don't have boxes that big. ;)

 

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
Originally posted by: compuwiz1
Originally posted by: bum
Why don't you want to drive it back?

USPS will not handle something that heavy, and they don't have boxes that big. ;)

Heck, just slap a label and a bunch of stamps on it and mail it.;)
 

imported_Tango

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
1,623
0
0
Originally posted by: Kenji4861
I'm buying a car from a person in Denver, I live in California.

I'm planning to fly there to look at the car.. do paperwork, but I don't want to fly it back.. I want to have it shipped.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any recommended company?

Thanks!

I moved my cars from Europe to US and Europe to Africa a few times, but never inside the US.

Here's a list of auto movers:

http://www.movecars.com/toc/find/index.htm#national
 

amdskip

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
22,530
13
81
My friends moved their car from Illinois to Alaska, not cheap!

Why don't you just drive it?
 

Black88GTA

Diamond Member
Sep 9, 2003
3,430
0
0
Mapquest shows ~1300 miles. That's 2 days of driving if you're taking it easy, 1 full day if you're hardcore :p

Just fly out on a Friday and spend a weekend driving it back. Could be a fun road trip!
 
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
1
61
1. Yellow Pages
2. Automotive: Movers/Shippers
3. ...
4. Profit!

Seriously. It'll probably cost you $500-900 depending on the distance, size of the car and the company you choose.

Or just drive it. At 100 mph it would only take you 13 hours. :thumbsup:
 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
4,131
0
0
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
1. Yellow Pages
2. Automotive: Movers/Shippers
3. ...
4. Profit!

Seriously. It'll probably cost you $500-900 depending on the distance, size of the car and the company you choose.

Or just drive it. At 100 mph it would only take you 13 hours. :thumbsup:

100mph = speeding ticket.
Drive it with one hotel stop
 

PELarson

Platinum Member
Mar 27, 2001
2,289
0
0
Originally posted by: Kenji4861
I'm buying a car from a person in Denver, I live in California.

I'm planning to fly there to look at the car.. do paperwork, but I don't want to fly it back.. I want to have it shipped.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any recommended company?

Thanks!

Well, my brother once shipped a VW from Iceland to the US when he was in the Air Force. TA car left Iceland and a pancake arrived in the US.
 

AMCRambler

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2001
7,715
31
91
Well I had one shipped and it wasn't cheap. I can't remember the name of the company I hired, but basically they were just outsourcing all the work. They referred to the transport trucks as "our trucks" but they really weren't. The drivers owned the rig, and this company would work with them to give them jobs. It ended up costing me 1200 bucks to get a non running parts car from Oklahoma to New York. I had to pay 400 bucks up front to the company and then I had to pay the driver 800 bucks cash when he arrived. I was a little worried walking around with that much cash needless to say. But they did get the car here. I don't know if it got scratched or dinged or anything when they put it on the truck because it was in pretty rough shape. That was my experience shipping a vehicle.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Here's a helpful website.....mostly for home moving, but I think they have some recommendations on car movers too.
http://www.movingscam.com/

We had to move my wife's car from Denver to Florida. We used Diamond Express movers, based out of Colorado Springs. They were OK. The car got there, and without any damage we could discern. They were also pretty cheap at a little over $800 (compared to everyone else we priced). What wasn't so great was their customer service sucked balls, gave us all kinds of run arounds and arrived late.

Definitely do NOT pay up front regardless of who you go with (we didn't, but our experience solidified that philosophy).

All in all, as other have said, I recommend driving it if you can anyway.....it'll be a fun little road trip.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Well I had one shipped and it wasn't cheap. I can't remember the name of the company I hired, but basically they were just outsourcing all the work. They referred to the transport trucks as "our trucks" but they really weren't. The drivers owned the rig, and this company would work with them to give them jobs. It ended up costing me 1200 bucks to get a non running parts car from Oklahoma to New York. I had to pay 400 bucks up front to the company and then I had to pay the driver 800 bucks cash when he arrived. I was a little worried walking around with that much cash needless to say. But they did get the car here. I don't know if it got scratched or dinged or anything when they put it on the truck because it was in pretty rough shape. That was my experience shipping a vehicle.

Yeah, they all contract out. I couldn't find one company that actually owned their trucks and employed their drivers. At least none that were anywhere near affordable.