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We are planning on shipping our car to New York and looking for recommendations from people who have had positive experiences with shippers who do this. Thanks
Hello - My family is planning a move overseas (North Africa) in the next 6 months. We want to ship our car along with some small furniture items. Does anyone have experience in doing this? You can ship goods with your car, right? I have been looking online and it seems all the ships would leave from Southern California - are there any more local? What is a general cost and the length of time needed? Any compnay that you used that you really were happy with? If anyone could offer any advice/experience, we would appreciate it highly. We are thinking we need to get moving on this pertty soon......thanks, Jill Jill
You don't mention whether you have experience living in Africa. I lived in Zimbabwe for 2 years, and found it much better to store my car here and buy another there, to sell before I returned (same as purchase price, 2 yrs later). A few reasons for this: (1) the country you live in may not be able to get spare parts for your car, even if it's something common like Mercedes or Volvo, as they will require expensive, time consuming, and hassle-laden importing. In Zim the import duty was 100% of the retail purchase price. (2) The mechanic may NOT be able to work on your car, but they will know the local vehicles. (3) you can easily purchase both pricey (Merc, Range Rover) and cheap, dependable cars (mine was Toyota station wagon), both new and used. No matter what country, there will be a community of embassy types and US accounting firm people who import, buy, and sell these cars. (4) After being in country for a while, you may find you need a different type of car than the one you own (my station wagon was useful for hauling chickens and goats and washing machines, without being a shiny target for carjackers), for example a Land Cruiser which is easily repaired in the bush and has 4WD. (5) Security may be quite different in country than here in US--write me and I can tell you more about this if you like. Basically, risk is much higher and police may be useless.
All this plus the cost and time of shipping (my shipment from Zim here took six months) made local purchase very practical. Happy to talk more by email if you like. All these concerns aside, you will have such special memories from this, and your kids will build special pieces of their personalities while you are there that will serve them well. Safe travels! Lisa
I am looking for a car mover - someone who will drive a car from NH to CA, instead of having it shipped. I can't find anything online - does anyone know of how to find such a thing? Thanks JY
Can anyone recommend a reliable auto shipper? The most recent recommendation on the website is from 1999. Thanks! Katie
We are planning to move from the Bay Area to Massachusetts this spring and are looking into shipping our Subaru (since we will be driving another vehicle.) I know that there's an archive about car movers on this network, but has anyone used the ship by rail method? I checked the instant quote and it was $695 for S.F. to Silver Spring MD which seems competitive with the truckers and possibly less likely to damage the car. Anyone have experience with this or have any recent experience good or bad with car moving? cross country mover
We're moving from Oakland to Virginia in June, and we're shipping our car. Both Mayflower and United moving companies recommended A. Anthony's (800-606-2006), which will do it for $895. (United said they'd charge $1400 or $1500 to do it themselves.) I haven't used them yet, so I don't know how it will work out, but this is the result of my research so far. Good luck!
We found it cost roughly the same (if you figure driving your car costs at least $.35 a mile) and was a lot less nerve-wracking to have our Honda sedan shipped from Boston to San Francisco. We used Delancey Street, and it was $600 or $700. There are gobs of companies that ship cars. Just make sure they're insured as you need
We had good luck with Dependable Auto Shippers, who shipped our '69 Squareback from Phoenix to Detroit about a year and a half ago. We experienced good customer service over the phone as we made the arrangements; much more professional than the twelve or twenty other outfits we called. We'll use them again this summer to ship our Squareback & our Bus to Berkeley. Here's the contact information:
http://www.dasautoshippers.com/
West Coast: (800) 826-1083 Fax (310) 719-9643
East Coast: (800) 626-2505 Fax (908) 474-8027
Postal address: 9208 Forney Rd., Dallas, TX 75227
We had a terrible experience shipping our car cross-country. We contracted with a company after carefully checking with several options. We took photos of the car as it was being loaded on the truck, did everything a prudent person would do. Then the vehicle took off. One thing that we hadn't realized was when the vehicle was delivered at the other end (Washington D.C.) the company contracted out with a local towing company to "deliver" the car to my husband. My husband was first suspicious when the local guy drove up "IN" our pathfinder - not towing it behind his truck. Then, the local delivery guy wouldn't take the cashier's check per the prior arrangements. When my husband refused to give the guy cold hard cash, the man took off driving our pathfinder - never to be seen again!!! The local towing company filed a police report for a stolen vehicle and then later tried to retract the report. They wanted my husband to file the police report so that they wouldn't be involved. My husband refused since the vehicle had never been returned to his possession. It was all miserable and difficult. p Our insurance company was great - and did pay us off after 30 days. But, fighting with both the primary delivery company and the local towing company was awful. Lots of letters flying around trying to cast blame elsewhere. Later when talking to a colleague here on campus I learned that her partner's entire law practice dealt with claims against cross-country car shipping companies!!!
The company's name is AAA Driveaway Truck and Transport. A piece of their letterhead also states that they are "Agents for A-1 Auto Movers." I guess I would avoid both companies.
Last updated: Oct 15, 2006
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