Ok guys, my time in Okinawa is almost over and the are sending me to North Carolina next.The car is currently in southern WI, and I will be going in early Febuary and would like to know if you think it would be an ok or bad idea to drive the car there in Febuary. To be clear I dont have or plan on buying snow tires. I realize that some of you will automatically say just wait til spring but I would have to wait until June to go back and I have already been without a car for 2 years. I have also considered the option of shipping it which is very likely what I may end up doing so if someone could help me out on finding a quote or a company's name that would be great. Thanks for your help guys!

 

Summer performance tires turn into hockey pucks below about 50deg. So if it's above 50, drive it. (It probably won't be above 50.) In which case it would be extremely dangerous to you, the car, and everyone else on the road to drive it. If there is ANY precipitation the car will be basically undriveable.

I would strongly recommend shipping it. Here is the deal on this (and I had to learn this the VERY hard way, so please listen close) there is basically one database all the shipping companies use to move cars around the country. Most of the trucks/drivers are independent and just pickup whatever is along their route. It's a lot like eBay, the shipper puts your car up for a bid. If the driver takes that bid, you're set. If not, they raise their price until they find a driver willing to pickup the car. So if they shipper quotes you $800, the might list it for $600, bump it to $650, when no one picks it up, then find a driver at $650 and then pocket the $150 for brokering the deal.

So, you might think (like I did) that you could list the car with a few shippers to try to get the best deal. This is WRONG. The problem with this theory is that since they are all using the same database, when the same car is listed twice, the drivers fear that they could get there and someone else might have already picked up the car. They figure there is a 50/50 chance of wasting their time. So they AVOID CARS LISTED MORE THAN ONCE!! This can be a gigantic cluster to sort out. There are websites that put you in touch with multiple shippers. Some of the shady ones will list the car as soon as you ask for a quote. Plus you will get lots of calls, really too many. So this is NOT a good way to go.

My advice is to pick a company from here:

http://www.transportreviews.com/

Get someone with a LOT of positive reviews. You shouldn't need to call them until about 2 weeks before you need to ship the car. They CAN work with less time, and if you are flexible, it will help a lot.

The only option you have is enclosed trailer (more expensive, but the car is more protected and safer) or an open trailer (less expensive, subject to crap, weather, salt, vandalism, etc along the route.) Sometimes you get lucky, bid for an open trailer and get an enclosed trailer anyway because someone is already going your way and would rather make something than nothing.

About 85% of all of the auto shippers are located in Florida for some reason. Normally it's not a big deal, just be aware of the timezone the shipper is in vs. the timezone the CAR is in. It can cost you a day, maybe two in missed communication because someone has gone home for the day. Shouldn't be a HUGE problem since they are only 1 time zone apart, but it's good to keep that in mind. I shipped a car from NM, and the shipper in FL caused me no end of headaches. (It didn't help that there was also a tropical storm in FL which screwed up ALL the shippers there.) I ultimately went with a company out of AZ to broker the deal, since they were easier to reach time zone wise and not affected by the weather in FL.

GL! Enjoy NC, I hope to move there in about a year myself.

 

http://www.transportreviews.com/comp...-transport.asp

This is the company I used (ultimately.) I worked with Felicia. It worked out great for me when I finally went with them, YMMV.

 

I'd echo shipping it that time of year. Using the above method it's probably not costing you a lot more than one way airfare, plus driving costs from Wisconsin to nc.

I've only used Reliable. http://www.reliablecarriers.com/ It was for an expensive-ish car. This is what they tend to do. they are probably more expensive, but i will say, however I was happy.

 

Thanks guys, I think I might just tough it out until may/june and drive it to NC. The only reason I even considered driving it was because the gas would be paid for aswell as food and room. I guess this will give me time to save and maybe be able to have Curt at Dynotuned turbo it.

 

Well, if you can wait... Maybe try April, caravan down to the Dragon with one of the Chicago groups. Get a fun drive in, then head to NC

 

This would absolutely get my vote!

 

well, I'll be taking some leave for April then, but I'm deff going to go home May/June because I want to be home for my 21st birthday! I think a road trip to the dragon would be great so I'll save about a week or two for it AND it's on my way! XD I didn't even realize how close I was going to be to the dragon! So is anyone on here going? It would be nice to roll with some other S2000s to the dragon

 

We normally have a decent sized group from up here going to the dragon. It's a bit early for planning it out just yet, we should have a thread posted about it in January, I'd guess.

 

Well looks like I wont be going til early to mid march. Would it be possible then? Sorry guys its been over 2 years since I've been in the midwest for the winter/spring.