Have you shipped a car before?

I've used individual drive away services for years when I was working. You tell the company where you want the car and they find someone to drive your car there. I've used these services for business and never had any problems. Pricing is based upon distance. The service I used was Auto Driveaway. They're web is Autodriveaway Vehicle Transportation Offices There are other services besides them. These services will also truck your car. They're bonded, insured, etc.

 

I had my first prius shipped to me in 2005. If i remember correctly the cost was $400 for a 1000 mile trip. Lat week I looked into shipping a motorcycle to Florida about 1400 miles. I think the easiest way to go is to get some prices online then call the Toyota dealership ( or other) and see what price they give you. I was told shipping to a business is less expensive than shipping to a residence. Good luck.

 

I never ran into a Driveaway type solution that may be perfect. I'll remember it for future car moves. Thanks.

 

DAS (Dependable Auto Shippers) brought my 2010 to me (Nevada to Cleveland) for about $800. They have an online tracking system so you can see where you're car is at. I've used them several times and had no issues at all.

You can get an online quote, but you sometimes get a better price if you call and talk to a rep.

 

I shipped my wife's used 2010 Blizzard Pearl from a dealership outside Chicago to Las Vegas in November. I used Agape. They were great. Kept me informed of where it was, arrival time etc. Great driver. Not a scratch on it. When I went on-line for a quote received numerous bids/emails. It's competitive. I balanced price/service. It was about $740 for that distance. Well worth it to me. I wanted to avoid flight cost/gasoline/motel/miles on car/time off work.

 

About eight years ago, I had a car shipped via truck from Denver to
Ballamer, IIRC, cost ~$800. Don't remember the company. Car was
driven to the pick-up location. Bunch of paper work, most important
being the inspection to establish the baseline for exterior scratches,
dings, etc. Car was put on one of those open car-carrier 18 wheel rigs.
Truck had multiple delivery locations.

Trip took ~a week. Car was dropped off at a site ~ 10 miles from my
home. No problems, no external damage incurred.

As to shipping a Prius, I would be concerned that when the car was
loaded, somehow despite the personnel having sworn they were
intimately familiar with the idiosyncrasies of thee car, it was not turned
OFF but left in the Ready condition... and after a while the gas was
depleted and in turn the HV battery depleted to where a tow to a
dealership for a recharge was in order.

This remote possibility wouldn't prevent me from shipping a Prius.
But I'd be all over the folks at the pick-up location to alert them to the
possible issue. I'd also put a very clear WARNING and INSTRUCTIONS
to prevent it somewhere in the paperwork. (Yes, in LARGE CAPITAL
LETTERS!) I'd even go to trouble of having it typed up before hand so
that it was well thought out and complete. YMMV.

Good luck.

 

I had the opposite experience with these guys. I'll never use them again, and strongly recommend against using them. On a previous car, they damaged the front bumper and hood--looked like a chain caused the damage. They subcontract pick up and delivery, so your car gets moved from one truck to another, a few times, which is when damage happens.

 

I had a similar experience w/damage to the underside of the front bumper of my 350Z w/DAS. See http://priuschat.com/forums/other-cars/67752-recommend-me-good-car-shipping-company.html. Way after DAS shipped my car, I found out one of my coworkers (at the time) had his car totaled by DAS. The truck got into an accident.

As I posted later in that thread, I went w/Plycar for my most recent car shipment. Them being used to ship $70+K cars was reassuring. Mine was the second least valuable car in Plycar's pickup truck. At dropoff, I think mine was the least valuable.

 

Eddie,

From KC to where? Maybe a fellow PC'er could drive it for you for his or her expenses and a return trip? I have had a vehicle shipped from the east coast Port Canaveral, FL to a west coast port more than likely Long Beach, Ca by truck and then on to Honolulu, HI via ship. It was shipped by the government while I was still in the active Army. I did not have any problems with damage only pilferage, you had to provide keys to anything that locked. I had a truck box with some junk, boots and in-line skates inside. When it got to Hawaii the boots and skates were gone. The boots would not have fit in out here but would have liked not to have had to buy new skates. The moral of my story is if you do decide to ship it don't leave anything in it only the safety items required by the carrier. You might want to also look in to something commonly done between here and the west coast, loading the car in a ISO Intermodal Shipping Container and having it shipped that way? Most moving companies here will do that as long as you have something like one box of household goods in the container, might be something to consider.

 

in Early 07 I shipped a V70R from MA to MN.
I paid $590 for the open carrier option.
It was supposed to take about 12 days, though the drop off was almost a week late, they did get it delivered a day or 2 earlier than quoted.

My complaints are their "live" tracking service was not at the time live. It was still saying my car was 2 states away after i was told it was at the terminal.

When I picked up the car, they did not wash it before i was able to inspect it (like the contract states they should)

There was some paint damage on the drivers door (up by the window) looks like you closed the door with a hand full of keys and scratched it. I could have claimed it on my personal auto insurance, but did not.

I do remember all the quotes i got did state that there should be no personal items in the car. my car was empty because i had just purchased it, and no one thefted the touch-up paint or the Cd changer cartridge from my glovebox.

 

A friend of mine owns Motorcycle Shipping Transport Company - Shippingmasters (motorcycle shipper). Give him a call and he can put you in touch with someone that can help you with your car shipping needs.

He shipped this for me.