has anyone ever had a car transported. ? can anyone recommend a good one? How much does something like that cost? how long to take to get there. i am thinking about buying a car in texas. but im a little skepital of taking a flight there and driving it back to philly. it is about 24 hr/ 1500mile drive. anyhelp would be appreciated. im trying here first because you guys are experts. thanks

 

Whatever you do, don't request any quotes over the internet. Or if you do, use a throwaway email address. They'll hound you for months.

I flew to Louisville two weeks ago and bought my car from a member here. Couldn't have had a better experience. And you'll still probably come off cheaper than getting it hauled.

 

I have shipped a car from NC to CA and FL. Both times I was the seller. Pricing ranged from about $600 to $875. Neither person had any problems. All i had to do was drop off the car at a local pickup spot and the transport company took care of the rest.

As a buyer I purchased a motorcycle from NH and had it shipped to me here in NC for about $415. That was a door to door service.

I HIGHLY recommend using a site called uShip.com. It's kind of like the eBay of the shipping world. You setup an account, put the details of your shipment in... upload a pic if you want and different shippers bid on your shipment. You can then read the details of each company... pricing, feedback, etc. The shippers only contact you on your uShip account as they do not have any contact info for you until you select a shipper. Then you decide how they get in touch with you. I used this for the motorcycle and it was awesome!! They had my phone number and called me the day before they picked up the bike, when they picked up the bike, when they were half-way, when they were one day out, then again when they were an hour out. Like I said... awesome.

 

thank you guys. how long does something like that take. i have been told anywhere from 15-30 days but that was from people that have never shipped a car.

 

^ The car I shipped to California was about 8-9 days. Florida was 7. The motorcycle to me was 7.

The other thing about uShip is that they estimate the delivery time as well... so if one guy is cheapest, but says it's going to take him 3 weeks, and another guy is a little more but can do it in 8 days, you have options

 

i was going to recommend that site

 

thanks juniorbean, that is awesome advice. i went looking on the web but there is so many companies out there. i am defienetely going to look into uShip. a part of me says drive the car it would be a fun road trip with my wife and its a convertible. but the other part of me says that the car has 18.5K on the odometer and when i get home it will have 20K. i guess i have to weigh the cost of flying my wife and i out there, gas, food, maybe lodging. and see which option would be cheaper.

 

^ I guarantee shipping will be cheaper. Remember, time is money too

 

[quote=juniorbean;10894501]I have shipped a car from NC to CA and FL. Both times I was the seller. Pricing ranged from about $600 to $875. Neither person had any problems. All i had to do was drop off the car at a local pickup spot and the transport company took care of the rest.


My sister had her car shipped back to Cali from Florida it took 6 Days and ran 800.00. It was pretty much door to door service dropped it off up the street from my house at a vacant lot. The driver called me a few hours before he showed up and the when he was a few miles from my off ramp so i can go meet him up the street.

 

Nothing like a 1500 mile trip to verify what you bought works correctly :P

 

s2k i see

 

Just be careful about who you chose. My cousin has a transporting business and see's plenty of people who don't care about the cars they transport. They steal shit, damage cars, etc. Juniobean looks like he has a pretty good transporter

 

you got it. 2002 red/ blk interior. i was going to buy one already modded and FI with a little more miles. Now im going a different route and would rather mod it myself. i plan on keeping it for a long time.

 

thats what i was afraid of. i don't want to trust just anybody with the car.

 

If I was in your place, I would drive back home. You don't get to go for a road trip every other day.

 

I know a few classic car collectors use RELIABLE transportation when transporting their cars between shows, after auctions, etc... Sounds like they are the best in the biz.

 

They are awesome... but unfortunately they only deal with motorcycles... so I couldn't even refer them to drdamian.


That's why I went with uShip. If you just deal with shippers directly, you really do not know what you will get. With uShip, you can read all of the feedback from previous shipments. They are also ranked kind of like on eBay.

Most importantly... you pay through uShip, so you have to verify the shipment is received as expected before uShip gives the shipper their money.

I really is a great system and helps alleviate the fears most have when shipping something long distances...

 

esp when they bid for your business.^

 

Drive it home. It would be a great way to bond with your new car.

 

I'd gladly pay the additional $$ for that experience!

 

If it has problems when it rolls off the truck it's hard to work something out with the seller. I flew and drove home when I got my CL. Glad I did.

If you can get a decent flight on SW the cost isn't that bad and you get a chance to see the car before it comes home.

 

Same here. I've flown to pick-up a car twice now. However, the return drive was never more than 7 hours.

 

Also a thought as I did this with my motorcycle which I found on a forum.... have the seller create a "Buy It Now" auction on eBay. This way if you decide to ship it you are protected if the car arrives to you in different shape then advertised.

 

I thought about that but dosn't ebay take a cut of what the auto sells for?
I have done a lot of thinking. the cost to ship the car is about 600-800$
If i were to fly down there and get it. Its an S2k . so i figure its gonna be filled up about 5X and cost about 160$ in gas.. about 342$ for flight for me and my wife. figure food and tolls and maybe lodging another 100-150$ so grand total is about 600-650..
the bad thing--putting an extra 1500 miles on the car. so it will have 20K when i get it home. still not a lot of miles. im not to concerned about rock chips because im going to bring painters tape with me and wrap the front. Also, i would like to see the car before i plunk 14K on it.
the good thing-- i get to drive semi cross country which i have never done, but people tell me it kinda suck. i also figure that we drive through about 5 states and my wife promises me road head in each one of them.

 

let me say that unless you plan on taking the more scenic route through and up the midwest, and making stops along the way to make a trip out of it, the drive sucks... i did it both ways nonstop going and coming back when i moved to dallas a few years ago... i made it from Dallas to NJ in 28 hrs total driving time with minor breaks for food, restroom and a 2 hr powernap... i will never in my life do that again...

if you are taking the more common route, it should be through arkansas, then tennessee down i-40 east to knoxville, to the west side of NC and VA up i-81 into MD/PA... the mountain view is kind nice this time of year compared to the bare trees in the winter...

if i were to do it again, i prob would have went up north through missouri, spend a day there... then cut east towards chicago and ohio and spend a day or two there...

an alternative is to drive to Florida from Texas... stop in N.O. along the way... drop the car on the autotrain and it will take it up to Virginia with you.. and then drive the rest of the way...

 

Not from you... from the seller. It's $125 to sell a car on eBay. What I did with the motorcycle was split this fee with the guy... $62.50 each. So we both paid a little bit for some protection by having it listed on eBay. No biggie and I was glad to do so. It was actually my idea to split the cost. He likely would have absorbed the entire amount...

 

 

I've done Dallas to DC a few times, figure 23-26 hours driving time. If you fly in and leave the same day probably 3 motel nights. Pretty drive up in the hills of Arkansas and Tenn but watch out for Tenn State Police between Memphis and Nashville!! No tolls unless they are North of DC.

Do it! It's fun-make a second honeymoon out of it.

 

this is the route that i looked at from mapquest. does this sound like a good way to go
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1a=510+...:::::f:EN:M:/e

 

link doesn't work... but it should be i-30 E, to i-40 E to i-81 N...

if you are going to philly, then prob across route 66 in Virginia to get you to 495 to 95 north...

most direct...

 

That's the way I go to Winchester. From there North I dunno. The run from 18 to 24 is some back roads that will be a ball in the S2k. You will also be near Summit Point Raceway if that interests you.

If you go that way shoot me a pm and I'll point out a few things to know.

 

weird , don't know why the link didnt work .. here is a new one. kamlung, it looks like mapquest takes me right past 66 to route 7. would 66 be a better to take and jump on 95 than the way mapquest is taking me. i just realized that i have off on monday for the holiday (totally forgot that there was a holiday). so i'll have another day to play.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1a=510+...od+Dr&2z=19018

 

If I had the time I would totally do the drive. Why buy a car that you don't want to drive? Hope that isn't your home address in the first mapquest link.

Congratulations on the purchase.

 

So, ive decided to go get the car and drive it back. i took a flight to dallas with my wife and drove the car back the 1500 miles. you really don't know what you have until youve driven the ultimate test drive. the weather was kinda crappy when we made it to arkansas. but the sights of western tennesse and virginia were very nice. and the roads were nice and twisty. We had the top down half of the way. The other half was tornado type storms. I never ever want to take that drive again. it was brutal. my butt has bruises on it and i still cant sit right. i will post some pics of the car later in the "official s2000 thread". thank you everyone for your advice. if i were to ever buy a car again, i am going to have it shipped back.

 

Seems like anyone who's ever done a drive like that says the same thing. I had, and that was why I suggested shipping it.

But, sounds like you made the best of it. Glad it all went well. Hope your penis isn't too sore from all of the road head your wife gave you (like she said she would).

Looking forward to pics!!

 

that's a long trip. Glad you made it home fine