Which vehicle shipping company to use?
 

I am thinking about buying a complete but currently not running 90 miata. He is in Oregon and I need to have it shipped to Southern California. I don't care if it is covered or not, but need to have them pick it up at his house and drop it off at mine. Any suggestions? It is a 16 hour drive too so if anyone in LA has a trailer I could borrow that would be great too.

What about one of the two wheel u-haul rental dolly trailers? Do you have (or have access to) a truck? If you want a service, it will be about $500 for that distance, based on what I have seen on the other forum. This is actually one of those times that it would be good to ask miata.net. They always have cars moving all around the country.

Ok, I will see what that comes up with.

Check dasautoshippers.com online. They have the easiest quote feature to use and won't hound you with follow up phone calls and emails. My car shipped from Oregon to BEGI in texas was $660 with me dropping the car at their depot and BEGI picking it up. This wasn't door to door but it was pretty reasonable. They do have door to door service too.

I used DAS also from Cali to MD (port to port which saves some bucks) and it was like $650. Prices have probably gone up since gas prices are so high.

Frank

I was gonna post a similiar thread last night. My wife accepted a job in Charlotte and I really don't feel comfortable having her drive her Miata the 10 hours from South Florida. I was looking at renting a u-haul auto transport and towing the Miata with my truck but U-haul wants 550 for a one-way rental! :eek5: I might be able to borrow a trailer from a buddy of mine but I'll check out dasautoshippers to see what quote they get me.

You have to ask yourself if it is worth your time, this goes to SeanE as well, the co. may want 2-300 more than Uhaul would cost to do yourself, but you are free of any liability and they are insured, plus with price of gas, it will cost you a good bit of money. Also, it is a big hassel to tow a car that distance, I have done it and will choose to have someone else do it next time around. my .02

Damn, I paid $900 door-2-door 3 years ago Cali-Virginia. Looks like I'll be doing a depot ship next time.

Damn, I paid $1200 from NorCal to Potomac MD a few years back... but I also shipped 2 cars! :)

A couple of things to keep in mind... summer time is more costly than any other time of the year for auto shipping. Fuel, traffic, and volume of transport goes up by 50%+; so try to go before summer or after... Another tidbit is the time it takes, if you can afford to wait a while the price goes down for adding weeks to x-country shipping. (I dunno about shorter distances) Oh, and finally... check with the carrier about moving a non-running car. They will charge extra for this since it really slows down their process. So let them know up front...or they will fine you for the attempted jumpstarts and whatnot.

Cheers,
Prospero

Request bids on shipping the car over at uship.com

I've moved two Miatas with shippers I found through that site. Saved a ton- MA to Buffalo for like $340, and a non-running one from CA to Buffalo for $1100. As a comparison, DAS wanted something like $1800 for the latter move.

I have a feeling this is going to cost me more than it is worth. I checked with DAS shipping and here is what I got from them. Normal shipping was $330. Door to door doubles that and since it is a convertible, it has to ride on top (+$150). However, since it is non-running, I have to call to get a real estimate as they will have to use a specialized tow vehicle.

Hmm, If you can get the car started and if it runs for even a short amount of time then you should'nt have any issues. I bought a 4runner some time back and shipped it through DAS. It had a bad crank and broken rod but could still move under its own power and It shipped fine... Just a thought.

Port to port is a lot cheaper. A "port" isn't necessarily at the water somewhere. Mine was a car dealership lot in Baltimore. Only about 15 miles from my house.

Frank