Hi everyone! So my friend goes to school in St. Louis, Missouri, but is coming back to Los Angeles for the summer. He wants to bring back his car too, and hopefully we can do some autocross/track days.

Problem is though, that he doesn't know which company to use to ship his car back because he has to fly back for whatever reason. Does anyone have any recommendations? I assume he just wants it to be competitively priced but also be reliable, as in he wants to get his car back in good condition.

 

my dad shipped his '00 Accord from here in San Antonio, TX, to my brother out by Atlanta, GA. I can ask him what service he used, but I think it was just the basic multi-car trailer service.

are you looking for something more specific, like a covered trailer or something? I've seen some of those that people use for Benz's and BMW's and things higher than that, but I'm sure it's a good deal more.

 

The car transport company doesnt matter all that much. 95% or more of car transport companies are brokers, so they have very little to do with the actual shipping of your car. (They make it seem as if they are actually shipping the car for you but aren't) The exception to this is mostly higher end companies who have their own fleet of covered trailers that will be much more costly to use.

My advice would be to get quotes from four of five different brokers and go with one of the cheaper ones. I recently had my s2000 shipped from Arizona to Maryland for 800 dollars.

For the record the broker i used was Above the Rest Auto. Hope this helped out little bit, and good luck to your friend.

 

it's not like you're shipping some hyper-exotic....

 

Ohhh interesting.. should my friend be concerned at all about whether the car is going to get damaged during the process of shipping it here though?

Thanks for the info

 

I'm not 100%, but I'm sure the shipping company assumes some sort of liability during the transit process. That's something worth looking into when shopping around for rates.

honestly, I can't imagine it being any worse than when the car was shipped to the dealership.

if he's really that paranoid, document the car with photos and time dates. that way, if there's any discrepancy, at least he has proof.

 

The driver will go over the car with you to note damages to the car before loading the car and upon delivery. Just be sure that before you sign give the car a very thorough go-over. If you notice something was damaged the next day its to late, your out of luck.

All carriers have to be insured, so you have no need to be overly worried about damage.

 

I dont know much about moving cars but I do work with a lot of shipping companies for cranes and large equipment pieces.

But from my experience the cheapest brokers are the ones that will never get your car moved in a hurry. They will just wait until they can find a truck to move your car cheap enough to justify a profit for them. Go for the broker 10-20% above the lowest ones, if you ever expect your car to get moved.

This site may help as well:

http://www.transportreviews.com/

 

Alright thanks for all the info. I'll be sure to let my friend know

 

I've used this company, no complaints. They offer several different modes of transporting your car, each are priced accordingly.


http://www.reliable-carriers.com/default.cfm