Car shipping: average turnaround time? Anything else to know?

[oguruma]

I'm in the process of purchasing a new GT from a dealer that's about 10ish hours from me.

It's too far of a drive for me and somebody else to drive down without staying overnight at a hotel, and I will be working the next few weekends at least. I've never had a car transported before.

So, I'm getting quotes to have the car delivered. Shipping companies have quoted me in the $650 range in an open trailer, which is reasonable, since the cost of hotel/gas/food would likely be about that much, anyway, nevermind if I have to miss work to do it.

What's the typical turnaround for vehicle delivery? Assuming the vehicle is ready to be picked up today, how long before I could expect it?

Are there any good companies you can recommend on the west coast?

Is there anything about this process I should know.

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[EFI]

Mine took 2 days in transit from 7 hours away.

 

[Johnny Rockit]

I shipped my classic and they said it would go from Boston to the buyer in Texas within 24 hours. And they still had to pick up four more on the way.
The suck with enclosed trailers is that you have to
get in and out NASCAR style.

 

[Virnman]

I’ve shipped 3 vehicles in the last year on the west coast - open trailer. All 3 zero issues. I paid $650 each…
(approx 1k miles from Happy Valley OR to Palm Springs). They took 3 days to arrive after being picked up. I went through a dispatch company who coordinated the transport for me.

 

[DadzMach]

I called January 5th to setup the transport, they called me later that day to ask if they could pick it up the same day. I of course said yes, called the Dealer to inform them and they were fine with it. I had the car the next evening. It was shipped from Florida to Maryland, 816 miles. Cost me under $1k for a single; enclosed trailer. Normally it takes one to two days for pick up and if on an open truck it just depends how many times they have to stop and pickup or drop off other cars. The longest it ever took for me was 6 and that was from Arizona to Florida.
They should be able to give you a time line once they sell the job to a truck.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Can folks list who they used as transport/shippers and any additional info as to if they would use that Business again?

 

[cerbomark]

some are great and some are disasters. my pickup was paid by the buyer so I don t have details.
timeline, again, depends.

 

[cerbomark]

smaller trailer, kinda tight, but very careful.

open trailer, not on a nice vehicle for me.

 

[Tucker80]

Are you buying new or used? If new a local dealership might be able to cover the transit. I just bought a new one in March. Only car that matched my spec's was several hours north, but a local dealer was able to pull it from the other dealers inventory. I paid no shipping or markup for the transportation. Even better was that I had 3 local dealers all trying to sell the same vehicle that none of them had. I had no attachment to any dealer so it was pretty easy to pick the lowest total cost from the 3.

I expected the transit to take a week or so, but ended up only being 3 days

 

[Balr14]

The last car I had shipped was a Porsche from Phillips in Newport Beach, CA. I used the private carrier they recommended, which cost $900. It took two weeks. From past experience with shipping, the time will depend where you live and the season. Carriers aren't going to make a run unless they have a full truck and something to pick up for the return trip. If you live in an area that is out of the way, you are going to wait until they get enough bookings, in your general area, to make the trip worthwhile. On this trip, the carrier had stops in the Northwest area and South Dakota, before getting to Wisconsin.

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