Auto Shipping/Transport

Shawn

Shawn

Lexus? Oh shi-
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
13,987
Car(s)
MkVI GTI w/DSG
Can anyone share some experiences regarding auto transport companies? Just generic positive or negative stories on any experiences you might have had.

I'm in SoCal and looking at possibly going back home, but I'm not keen on doing the scenic route again and the quicker route, I5, seems like it might not be a good idea to do this time of year. So I'm reluctantly looking at auto transport as an option, but a few things make me uneasy.

For one, nobody I talked to can ship my car up to Canada - so I have to fly back to BC, sit at home without a car and then whenever the truck gets to Washington trek all the way down on a Greyhound to pick my car up.

Then, it's the fact that all these companies are mere brokers, so they will likely make your deal and then hand you off to some redneck truck driver with whom you have to trust your car and arrange delivery times and such. If they all more or less use the same pool of truck drivers, how can some be trustworthy with my car when others aren't?

Spectre recommended me a local company saying they are very trustworthy, but it doesn't seem like they want my business. Left them numerous messages before the lady called me back, telling me she'd get right back to me with a quote and some info. She never called back, and numerous messages I left her subsequently the following days didn't get a second callback... how can I trust a brand new car to someone who doesn't even pretend to care when they've yet to get my business/money?

Then I contacted another local company myself called AutoZipper, they've got great reviews on transportreviews.com and the guy seemed extremely friendly and knowledgeable. But that actually has me quite worried, he somehow sounded too friendly if you can believe that, and I didn't manage to find any negative reviews of him on the aforementioned site. Even the 4 star (out of 5) reviews left for his company had nothing but positive things to say in the text of the review... almost seems like they are fake or otherwise not entirely honest.

Plus I read somewhere else that minor dings and scratches are to be expected of any auto transport procedure which is a bit worrying too. My car is only three months old, I'd rather be the one who gets the first ding or scratch on the car. :p
 
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FedEx has an auto transport division under their custom critical brand. No personal experience, but if anyone's going to cross the border, it's them - and considering the whole point of the custom critical brand is that you put the shit on the truck and it arrives absolutely unmolested at exactly the moment you damn well tell them to show up, it can't be TOO bad.
 
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EyeMWing said:
FedEx has an auto transport division under their custom critical brand. No personal experience, but if anyone's going to cross the border, it's them - and considering the whole point of the custom critical brand is that you put the shit on the truck and it arrives absolutely unmolested at exactly the moment you damn well tell them to show up, it can't be TOO bad.
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Thanks, this does seem a viable option actually as their site says they do ship to Canada. Not very many reviews for them, but I think that might be a better sign than 1,600 positive reviews.


killpanda said:
They were also quite late if I remember correctly :-D
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It wasn't the delivery people's fault though, was it?

I think they showed it on TV just because they were called OnTime and the GT was delayed numerous times leaving Ford.
 
Why not drive it? it will cost you far less than shipping it.
 
GRtak said:
Why not drive it? it will cost you far less than shipping it.
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Is shipping a strange option? It seems like lots of people do it. :dunno: You gotta factor in the cost of hotels, gas and wear and tear to compare it to the shipping cost.

At any rate, because like I said weather might be a problem this time of year on certain parts of the I5. I don't really feel like taking the coastal route and being on the road for five days by myself... it was cool the first time around, but it was my first experience, and it wasn't winter like it is now.

The FedEx guys are out of the question, they want $1400 since they only offer enclosed trucks, don't ship to Canada despite what their website told me... and worst of all, they aren't able to pick my car up until late January.

This is really turning out to be a headache for me.
 
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Reliable maybe? they always advertise during the Mecum auctions....
 
Wait - five days to drive the coastal route? What, are you a tourist?

That's 2 days - 1 stopover - max.
 
EyeMWing said:
Wait - five days to drive the coastal route? What, are you a tourist?
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Yes, I was a tourist the first time around, that was the point. :p

I took SR-1 coming down the coast in California and I have a hard time seeing how I could do it in less time, maybe could've cut one day off but I didn't want to sleep in the middle of nowhere. SR-1 was really slow at some parts, speeds of 35 or less with slow idiot cars bringing it even lower by a huge margin.

I suppose what I could do is take I5 up to northern California, north of Bay Area or so, and then take the 101 as a detour around Oregon and get back on I5 soon as it passes the treacherous areas of Oregon? I've just heard lots of stories about how the areas near Mt. Shasta and Siskiyou Mountains might be really bad this time of year.
 
How much is the plane ticket and the shipping? It can't be more than taking a few days to drive home and sleep in a few hotels. The only way it would make sense to me is if it were a classic vehicle and you were just worried about general damage. Besides, do you want to have to go through the radiation machine or grope at the airport, not to mention the general hassle of dealing with airports.
 
$800 to ship the car, about $200 to fly home to BC and then I'm guessing about $100 for the bus to go back down to Washington and then the gas to drive it back up to BC.

Driving would definitely be an option, but like I said I'm unsure of the weather situation.
 
If you drive, stick to the Interstate. As long as you don't drive straight into a storm, it'll be passable - particularly so if you know how to drive on snow and ice.
 
EyeMWing said:
If you drive, stick to the Interstate. As long as you don't drive straight into a storm, it'll be passable - particularly so if you know how to drive on snow and ice.
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You don't think I might run into trouble in the aforementioned areas? I'm mostly worried about the Siskiyou Pass... I don't have snow tires or chains, I think in fact the ODOT requires one to have chains in the car regardless of weather this time of year.
 
How much are tire chains for your car? Buy them and even if you open them, you can always sell them.
 
GRtak said:
How much are tire chains for your car? Buy them and even if you open them, you can always sell them.
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I think I paid less than $30.00 for mine a while back. Don't think they're legal in Ohio, but if I think I need them, I'll use them. :p
 
The name Kowalski just popped into my head.

Most of my knowledge about the US is from movies and what I learnt from "Vanishing Point" is that at least in the 70s, there were car delivery agencys where you could hire someone to drive the car to the destination for you. Maybe that would be an option if you want to avoid the hazzle of driving yourself?

(I'd just recommend to drive, but if you don't want to...)
 
lol, yeah

if you pay my travel to the states, i'll drive it home for you :lol:
 
Our family shipped our minivan from the SF Bay Area to the East coast of Saudi Arabia for $1k in 2004, and it came through in excellent condition (before they took the car, they did a very exhaustive inspection of the bodywork in front of us, noting down the tiniest of scratches so they couldn't be blamed for any of them). I'll ask my mother what the name of the company was when I chat with her tomorrow morning.

EDIT: The company is Dependable Auto Shippers.
 
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