Anybody shipped a car recently?
 

Any recommendations? Know a guy?

I need an estimate for shipping a car from a business address in Huntsville, AL to a residential address in Denver, CO.

From a respectable carrier we get quotes at a dollar a mile.

You can use broker websites and they tend to get the best deals. I moved my mini from st louis to houston for $550 using broker sites.

I know a few who have used uship.com with good results...

It was 5/10/2010, but I shipped my Miata from Dallas to Tucson. Cost was $250.....yeah!

the company was Go Green Autotransport.

They are a broker that claims they do business with people that use only biodeseil.

The driver was a hairy sweaty smoker from the Ukraine. It was funny to watch the guy squeeze into the miata.

3 days later car arrived at my door step unharmed.

Sounds like it would generally be cheaper to drive, or get a friend to drive and fly them home... ok maybe not QUITE that second one unless you've got a prius and a REALLY cheap flight, but still.

I might move ~2000 miles in a year or so, and I'm already starting to think about how to get both of my cars out there. The GF might be allowed to drive one, especially since her car won't be worth bothering with, but I generally don't trust her in my cars without me.

I say shipping is cheaper....no worries about being tired. no gas to buy no food to buy. If they wreck it, you got money.

The only problem...are you going to be the one to give and receive the car ?
Then a air ticket is added to the equation.

I would put the car on the truck, and it would no longer be my problem.

It's being sold as a rolling chassis, so driving it is obviously not an option.

I'll check with Go Green, but honestly, being 'green' is more likely to make me NOT want to deal with the retards than vice versa. If they're the cheapest, then they're the cheapest, though.

I just payed about $1200 to ship a car from Chicago to San Jose, CA. It would have been $200 cheaper, but I didn't want to make my parents drive 100 miles round trip to drop the car off. Definitely not the cheapest, but it will be far easier to sell the car in CA.

DO YOURSELF A FUCKING FAVOR and read my shit below!!!

Don't go with the cheapest bid you recieve through email when you use a broker site... and you will email offers LIKE YOU FUCKING READ ABOUT the instant you submit a request.

Coast to coast (CA to VA) is $1000... you will get quotes from $850-$1200. Pick one around $1050 or so and be happy. Twice I've gone with a cheaper quote and ended up getting fucked.

Also... READ THE CONTRACT YOU SIGN!!! When you submit through a broker, you're kinda pulling your pants down and bending over for the guy. The broker essentially gives you a quote based on jack and shit. He won't actually find you a driver until about 3-4 days before pickup. You will pay the broker a flat fee of $XXX... usually $150 or so. You can pay this through CC. You will pay the driver cash.

The fucking bullshit scam assrape fuckfest cocksmear is that once the driver has your car, he has you by the balls... just remember this.

So what happens is this.

#1: You sign a contract with a broker and pay your fee to him. He has quoted you a total price that includes his fee to get your car shipped. Lets say a CA-to-VA of $850 total... that's $150 for him, and $700 for the driver (who you pay cash greenback dolla'billz). He now has to find a driver that will take $700... but the drivers all know that other brokers are asking $1200 for the same trip, taking a $200 cut and leaving them with $1000. GOOD LUCK HAVING A QUALITY EXPERIENCE IF YOU GO WITH THE LOWEST BID YOU RECIEVE. You'll end up with some driver who can't manage their schedule and just happened to have enough room and may or may not be going LA-Reno-Boise-Detroit-Dallas-Philly-Maine-DC-Virginia and you get your car 2 weeks later and it looks like a family of teradactyls shit on it.

#2: When you read the contract, you'll notice that it leaves a lot of wiggle room for the broker not to come through for you. When you read between the lines of the legalese, it basically says "We'll try really hard to find you a driver for the quoted price, but in the end, it may be more... and no, we won't refund your broker fee if we can't meet your dates even though it kinda says we can meet them as part of our agreement."

#3: Be flexible in your pickup and delivery days. If it has to be a specific date on both ends, you'll pay more and you stand more of a chance of being fucked. Give the broker a week to play with on both ends... or maybe a few days.

#4: I always let the broker know that my dropoff and pickup will be at a very trucker-friendly place. If either of your addresses are a 3 hour drive from a major highway down 2-lane twisties, you may pay more. My house in VaBch is a 10minute walk from a major truck-stop in the area and I let the broker know it... no need to drive to my house, I'll meet him at the truck-stop.

#5: Put a thick-ass coat of wax on your car before putting it on the trailer... put 2 coats. That way when you get it back, you can wipe off 5k miles of whatever shit has dripped all over it from whatever shitbox it was parked below.

#6: Put a cover over the drivers seat... an el-cheapo Walmart whatever is fine. The driver may have to move your car on-off the trailer a few times a day over the course of a week... in the pouring rain and smelling like teradactyl shit. Your drivers seat will smell like stanky-ass trucker butt unless you put a cover on it.

#7: It's late. Good-nite.

I guess I am lucky. I went with Go Green because they wre the cheapest.

No price changes, no schedule changes.

I usually get screwed on deals. I really lucked out in my experience.