Let’s say I find a vehicle I like, but it’s in Hackensack, NJ (I’m in Springfield, IL). I’m not in any kind of a mood to fly to Hackensack and drive the car home, nor am I in a position to bum a ride to Hackensack so I can drive it home.
Can I hire a trucking company to rig it up to one of those vehicle-moving rigs I see moving down the highway and bring it to me? Any idea who to contact, and/or what this would cost?
http://www.cartransportquotes.com/
Not sure what they charge or the logistics of it, but that should get you started.
There are also services that will drive your car, found by similar googling.
I’ve used both a car carrier service and a drive service with good results. They were both done so long ago that a recommendation would be pretty worthless now.
Those websites provided in Post #2 all want contact information and/or specific year/make/model and/or city of origin. The problem is I have no idea yet. I’m searching for my next ride from eBay and I’m trying to get a general idea of how far out I can go before the shipping costs get prohibitive.
According to this site the average cost would be $588. You can input any two states and it will generate an average cost for you.
It is significantly cheaper if the car can be driven up onto the car carrier. The car doesn’t have to be legal and have a current inspection or anything like that. It just has to move under its own power.
It’s also significantly cheaper to have the car shipped on an open carrier. The disadvantage of an open carrier is that it is, well, open. Rocks and dirt will be kicked up from the road and hit your car, just as they would if you were driving the car down the highway yourself. No biggie if you are shipping an old beater, but if you buy a show car with a show car paint finish you aren’t going to want the paint to get chipped.
It cost about $400 for me to ship a car from New Jersey to southern Pennsylvania a few years ago. The car was capable of moving under its own power and I used an open carrier.
Prices will vary depending on how many other cars they have to deliver in your area. Springfield is a pretty large area so that works to your advantage. You will likely have to work with the shipping company’s schedule. It may take a week before they get a truck going anywhere near your area. If you want it NOW you’ll have to pay a lot more for that.
Perhaps of little consequence, some (if not most) carriers will commit to a specific day to make the pickup, but not the drop off. This because the truck can be re-routed after making your pickup. Most of the drivers are owner operators. They work through brokers to get the jobs. This is not the case for the high end of the market.
Intercity Lines is best in my opinion. If you care a lot about your car, use Intercity Lines (no connection, just a happy customer). In my experience, you get what you pay for in car shipping. If you have a nice car and want to keep it nice, don’t go with the lowest bidder. (If you have a clunker, or an ordinary car you don’t care about keeping pristine, cheaper options might be the way to go.)
I spent $1,100 shipping my car from ca to nj in 2007. It was less than a year old. Luckily, the car was loaded last, facing backwards, on the lower pallet. The car on the upper pallet was crusted with bugs. Mine was unscathed. If I ever ship my car again I’ll tip the guy to keep the car on the lower pallet.
Rates have probably gone way up as gas is more expensive than when i shipped.
I used a drive service in 1989. It was very economical. The company had been in business for a long time and had a long list of references, and complete replacement insurance.
While I was in CA waiting for my car to arrive I got a call from GMAC leasing that my car had been reported stolen. I told them the car was being shipped, and gave me the number of private detective to call. He had spotters in the CA border areas who called in license plate numbers of nice looking cars with out of state plates. It was just the college student who was driving my car stopping at a motel for the night. My car showed up on time in perfect condition the next day.
A big factor to consider for drive services, gasoline is around $4.00 a gallon now. It was only about $1.25 back then. So you have to count on at least $400 in the cost of gas alone for having it driven.
Seems like a carrier option would split the cost of that gas between more cars, making it a drastically more economical option. Since I’ve never seen those carriers just holding one or two cars, they’re always holding like 10.