Should I keep & ship my car or buy a new one? NEED ANSWER FASTish

Here’s the deal. We’re moving across the second largest country in the world, pretty much from one side to the other. My family has 2 cars, a 2009 Honda Fit and a 2011 Toyota Rav 4. The Toyota we’re keeping, as it’s pretty new and reliable, and has 4WD for going into mountains or whatever.

We’re thinking of shipping the Fit ahead of the move, so that we’ll have it in Vancouver when we arrive, and can just pile in and zip off to our new town with no problem-o. However, my spouse, Imp of the Perverse questioned the assumption that it’s a better deal to ship it. If we’re going to ship it, the window is pretty much next week, hence the need-answer-fastish.

Breaking it down: It will cost $2500 to ship. It will cost $575 to get it to the shipping site. There are few Fits on the road here in Atlantic Canada, I suspect because of the robust weather, so I’m doubtful we’ll get $10,000 for it, the approximate blue/black book price. A new fit costs $15,000 (MSRP) plus another ?1,500 in tags and destination charges. I’m trying to get harder data, but so far no luck.

By NOT selling, we also avoid the hassle of selling and buying cars.

Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

Your price for shipping seems extremely high. You can ship a car across the US for about $800.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to get a tow-behind? Selling it seems extreme. I know the Fit, they’re great little cars and they don’t weigh a whole lot especially if the gas tank’s nearly empty so it shouldn’t have a dramatic effect on the mileage of whatever pulls it.

It’ll cost $3075 to ship, and if you’re lucky, $6500 to sell and buy new, plus hassle.

Are you leaving something out?

Can you hire someone to merely drive it across the country? There are people who’s job is exactly that, and it’s much cheaper than shipping via cargo, though unfortunately I don’t have any available leads or links.

Wait so for at $3500 delta you get a 2014 vs a 2009? If you can afford to sell and rebuy seems the right option.

Also the tag costs are going to be the same for a shipped car or a new car.

I agree, that shipping cost sounds quite high. Three years ago, I shipped one car open-trailer and two specialty cars closed-trailer for about that much. Open transport should be well under $1000, which should make it a no brainer.

Well, the OP is referring to Canada, where things tend to be more expensive than the US. Plus, the extra cost could be due to the longer distance–he’ll be shipping his cars about 5000 miles, while New York to LA is only about 2800 miles.

Attack, you may want to phone around and find out exactly what you can get and how much it will cost. I’ve shipped cars from Toronto to Calgary before; the price quoted may have seemed high, but it included door-to-door shipping, a pre- and post-trip inspection, and travel in a train boxcar, so my cars wouldn’t be sitting out in the open where they could be vandalized. Or I could have gone for a much cheaper option, some of which have been mentioned.

My point is, there are options, and you should explore all of them. You might call a regular moving company–they don’t ship cars, but they know who does. That was how I got in touch with the shipper I used.

Not a bad idea, but it would depend on when the OP is moving the cars. You don’t want to drive across Canada in winter.

Especially this winter, which is particularly brutal, with snow and temperatues like the beginning of January rather than the end of February and the beginning of March.

What’s the heat like in a Fit at -37C, -49 wind chill, like tonight?

If you decide to hire someone to drive the Honda across the country, snow tires/chains may be mandatory in B.C., until the end of April, so you may have to figure that into your expenses.

I’ve seen these signs on the Trans-Canada and — I think — the Coquihalla.

Snow tires are mandatory in Quebec, but I don’t know whether that includes tourists or people driving through.

The shipping cost seems about right to me; we looked into shipping a car in December and the absolute cheapest price I could find (including having someone drive it) was about $1200 from Maine to Missouri, 1500 miles. If it was me, I think I’d sell it and get a new one for the slight premium.

I’d drive it myself. I did that once, and it was a wonderful experience.

It was also in the Spring.

In the US at least there are/were services which mated (somewhat vetted) amateur drivers (college student and such) with vehicles which needed one-way transit. Car rental places had such services in house (from time to time, everybody want to leave Place X and nobody wants to go there, so all those cars needed to get back to X to be rented out again.

I have no idea what such a service would call itself, let alone current availability.

It was great for the foot-loose crowd to get cheap cars, and for the owners to get near-free drivers.
Obviously, the car would need to be in good enough condition to make the trip, and I have no idea what gas/petrol prices are or how they would be split.
To answer the obvious: yes, there were strict “due dates” - nothing like the possibility of having your ride reported stolen to keep one pointed in the right direction and moving at a good pace.

Might be worth looking into.

Assuming you cannot find a cheaper price to ship it, and you get a car that is newer by 5 years for $3500…it sounds like the way to go. 5 years is a significant chunk of a car’s total lifespan. Also, you could shop around. You sure you want another Fit? Maybe there’s a deal on a nicer car.

You didn’t say if you were sending your belongings Mayflower, or if you’re going DIY with U-haul/Penske. If the latter, they have car carriers that hook to the back of the truck and get the whole car off the ground for transport; car is strapped/chained down and you check the strap tension at gas/restroom stops. Other car follows behind (or leads) with wife and kids laughing at Dad up in the truck while they cruise in comfort. If the former, sorry no useful opinion.

You MIGHT be able to find someone on Craigslist to drive the car one-way. Small fee for the driver would be nice.

I did it once, my freshman year of college, to get home for Christmas. It was called Driveaway. FWIW it’s how I learned to drive a stick shift; my driving buddy was a nutty Italian dorm-mate, and although I’d warned him I didn’t drive stick, his response was “but you WILL!” He was a good teacher, and well, the car owners really couldn’t complain - the car was on its last legs and being given by an aunt to a niece so she could learn to drive without ruining a good clutch.

No idea whether such a thing exists in Canada.

ETA: whaddaya know, there is!

Wow. Thanks for all the help. Here’s the further information requested:

  1. It’s Canada, and it’s the full distance, from Newfoundland to BC. Assuming we pick up the car in Vancouver, that’s close on 7000 km. Incidentally, google maps doesn’t seem to believe in the ferry to Nova Scotia.

  2. I’m looking into other shipping options.

  3. It’s a work move, and they want me working asap, so there’s no option for driving and towing, unfortunately. It’s either ship or sell-and-buy. However, due to my job, the date is looking like end of april for me to be on the ground in Vancouver, so a scenario in which a car is there waiting would work out well.

  4. I’ve got a 16 year old and a 13 year old, so keeping the car for them to learn to drive stick is not a bad point.

If it’s a work move, won’t they pick the shipper and pay? I wouldn’t expect this to be your decision.

Sure you can’t drive it yourself? I’d love to do that again.

Even if they won’t, I think employment moving expenses are tax deductible.

Sounds like someone’s volunteering…