mirror70 Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 I'm looking to ship a vehicle from Boston to either San Francisco or San Diego (haven't decided yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted July 19, 2007 Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 I am assuming you want this trailered rather than driven. Being in the resort community that I am there are a couple of guys that I know who specialize in moving cars with an enclosed van. What kind of car? I can make a couple of inquiries. The one guy goes back east quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted July 19, 2007 Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 There are tons of companies that do this. Are you moving? If so, and the moving company will take the car in the moving truck, that route works best. When I moved from Boston to CA I shipped 3 cars. Two in the moving truck with all our stuff (my company was paying for the move so I didn't really care too much about how much it cost) and one on a car carrier. With the car carrier folks you basically get what you pay for. The more expensive ones may ship it in an enclosed truck and they may actually guarantee a delivery date. The cheaper ones will tell you "approximately 10-14 days" or something like that but basically you have no idea, nor any control over when your car arrives. Also, it will arrive completely filthy and maybe with minor damage. I've never seen my car so dirty as the day it arrived in CA (actually I saw it two days later because I was travelling when it arrived). Speaking of that, you need to be available at both ends for the shipper and once you take delivery, you've basically agreed that there was no damage - inspect it upon arrival very carefully. I can't remember how long it took my car to get here, but I do recall that it was about 3 days longer than they'd said. If I were waiting for the car, I'd have been pissed off. And once they have your car, you have no control whatsoever. I'm not sure its much better to use a drive-away service or post something on Craigslist either. You never know how tidy the person will be who drives the car, nor how sane a driver they might/might not be. If you know of some trustworthy kids who want to do a x-country trip or who are enrolling in Stanford, that might be an option. Sorry if all that sounds horrible. If its a super-fancy car or one you care tremendously about, then one of the enclosed shipping services is probably your best bet. My Honda Accord got here OK and just needed a good wash, but it took a while. I think I paid around $800 and that was in 1999. Oh, take a bunch of pics of the car before you deliver it to them so you can prove damage if they fark it up. If it will be getting to SF before you, my office is close to SFO (the airport), has safe parking and I'm here most of the time. I'd be happy to take delivery for you if that will help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirror70 Posted July 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 Thanks for the info as well as the generous offer. I already have someone lined up at both locations to take delivery, but I do appreciate your offer. Do you have any specific companies which you recommend I use or avoid? I've gotten a number of quotes with prices ranging from around $850 to $1600. I'm not too concerned about covered vs open, as the car is a DD and light-duty track whore, plus I have ways of protecting it somewhat during transit. I'm actually shipping the car across the country so that I can take a road trip. I have a ~5000mi route planned from San Diego up to Vancouver, BC to Whistler, to Jasper, to Banff, out to Montreal via the TransCanada Highway, and then back to Boston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted July 19, 2007 Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 Don't recall specific company names. Sounds like a fun trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C5 Golfer Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 I bought a car on Ebay - sight unseen and used these guys to ship it to me. They were great as far as i could tell. I liked the ability to track the car daily thru the transponder they use and my computer. They also had a superb check in and out proceedure for any damage to the car it by chance it happens -- good record of before and after. http://www.dasautoshippers.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipuppy Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 I used A1 Auto Transport and was very happy (from Sacramento to New York or something like that, maybe Mass). My mom used another company to get her Mercedes from Texas and the company outsourced to two dudes with a truck and trailer who decided to take her car for a spin in Las Vegas (we saw brochures in the car and stuff)....anyway, you may want to get a guarantee that they will actually be the ones shipping your car and won't be outsourcing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKBoarder Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 A fun trip would be just driving it......... NO really I just drove it.........Bellingham, WA to OR, ID, UT, CO, NE, IO, IN, IL, OH, PA, NY, and finally MA. Not bad in Co the rest i could do without. All in 9 days. My fav would be along the rockies and now Mass is pretty nice. Just my .02 Good Luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pebu Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Yeah, same here. To me, the idea of shipping a car is foreign. I could understand if it were overseas or something... Then again I was raised to be a cheap fu**er.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirror70 Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Might I suggest you two read post #4 in this thread from start to finish? I hate to sound like a jerk, but it is generally considered to be a good practice to actually read threads before you reply to them, especially if your potential post isn't relevant to begin with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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