Best way to ship car from SD to Chicago

[PerryChase]

I want to ask the people on this board who are familiar with moving for the best way to ship a car from San Diego to Chicago. My buddy bought my car and I need to ship it to him in Chicago. It’s too far to drive.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[BobbyD]

PerryChase,

I have used Dependable Auto Shippers (http://das.ebay.com/)in the past to ship a car from here to Cleveland, OH. They did a good job, just make sure that your friend inspects the car thoroughly when deliver it before he signs off on it. He should ensure that they did not damage anything in transport especially the undercarriage.

Good luck,

BD

[Anonymous]

Perry – I’ve driven this route twice in the past two years. If your quote is too high, consider the drive. You can make it in two days if you drive from 5am to 9pm and spend the night in Colorado. Southwest has cheap non-stop flights back to San Diego. It’s painful, unless you take a ski vacation in the Rockies!

[PerryChase]

Thanks guys. I used DAS Auto Shippers as recommended. The price is right also — $531 from San Diego to Chicago. Cheaper than driving and didn’t want to get stuck in the snow somewhere.

[BobbyD]

PC,

You are very welcome, glad that it worked out. I will mention it again, just make sure that your friend inspects the car thoroughly when they deliver it to him before he signs off on it. He should ensure that they did not damage anything in transport especially the undercarriage.

Tell him to make sure when they call him to schedule the delivery, he has them deliver it in daylight so he can see everything. Have him start the car and drive it if possible before he signs off. That would be my advice.

Take care,

Bob

[PerryChase]

BobbyD, thanks for the recommendation. Everything worked out perfectly. I shipped two cars, one to Chicago and one back with DASautoshippers.com. Good service. They even have tracking like UPS so you know that status of your car.

[BobbyD]

PC,

Glad that I was able to help and it worked it well for you.

Regards,

Bob

[eagleeye]

I’m going to be shipping 2 vehicles from VA to CA in May, a 2002 Honda Odyssey and a 2003 Mercedes E320. I contacted DAS for a quote. They gave me a price of $1400 for both vehicles with the Mercedes on the top rack (an additional $150 charge). This seems like an excellent price. It is not door to door. I will have to drop off the vehicles at a terminal 100 miles from our house. (Door-to-door service would have cost an additonal $400/vehicle.) Pick up in CA is not far from where we will be living. I will have to pay storage in CA for the vehicles as I will be traveling for 4 weeks from the time I drop them off in VA until I arrive in CA. The storage fee will be $10/day/vehicle for approximately 10 days. $1600 seems like a good price. Do you have any thoughts about the top rack for the Mercedes? Is it necessary? Thanks for the recommendation.

[BobbyD]

EE,

That does sound like a reasonable price, but you may want to get some other qoutes for comparison.

I am not sure what are the benefits of the top rack for the MB. I assume that if it is on the top rack, it is clear of a vehicle not being above it that may leak any fluids on your luxury vehicle.

You may want to Google it and see what you find out from others.

BD

[PerryChase]

This is another company that my brother sucessfully used. 888-362-2807. Roadrunner Auto. He said their rates is pretty good for door-to-door service.

However, I think that DAS has the best rates for drop-off service. Drop off and pickup in San Diego is convenient, right off Mission Gorge in Grantville.

All in all, I think that they are all brokers who shop the services out to independent trucking companies. DAS does provide ship tracking so the truck have some kind of integrated logistics system.

As far as the top rack is concerned, you might like to pay extra if you baby your car. But I think that the top rack might get more road debris as the truck is rolling down the road? Not sure.

[kicksavedave]

Another option may be to simply call some regular moving companies. When I moved to SD from DC in 2001, my moving van showed up it already had someone elses Jeep Cherokee sitting inside it. Since my stuff didn’t fill his entire van, the mover was able to take us both out there (their Jeep and my furniture) on one drive. I asked him how much and I recall him saying something like $700.

May be worth making a few phone calls to see if a moving company can give you a bid.

[BobbyD]

KSD does bring up another good option, I did the same when I moved to SD. They loaded up my two cars in the moving truck and then put in shelving above the cars to load up my furniture. The cars will stay cleaner that way and they picked up at my home in Ohio and delivered to my new home in San Diego. I remember paying approx. $700-$800 per car.

BD

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