Moving to LA! Car Shipping Questions

[jdoublehcubed]

I'm moving to LA! I accepted a new job last week, and I'm moving to LA (Glendale area) in about 2 weeks. Looking forward to leaving the winter behind.

I've got quotes from a handful of enclosed car shippers, and I was hoping people could chime in with their experiences. If anyone has used these shippers, let me know how it went. If there are any other companies I should be talking to, let me know that to. I'm shipping the M and a Mini Cooper (gf) from Philadelphia to LA. I want the car to be 100% safe, with a solid shipped, but I don't want to use an unnecessarily expensive company if I can get the same-ish level of service from one with a lower cost.

Quotes so far:

Enclosed vehicle transport: $4190
Intercity Lines: $4389 out of the running. no availability until November
Horseless Carriage: $4700
Passport: $4414

Waggoners: No longer ships cars


Looking forward to year round convertible weather!

[v3.2mc]

check with your local BMW dealer... they may be able to broker a better price for you if they've already got a vehicle going that way. while mine wasn't enclosed, the dealer got my car from LA to me in Iowa for ~ $800.

have fun in LA!


.

[jdoublehcubed]

Originally Posted by v3.2mc

check with your local BMW dealer... they may be able to broker a better price for you if they've already got a vehicle going that way. while mine wasn't enclosed, the dealer got my car from LA to me in Iowa for ~ $800.

have fun in LA!


.

Great suggestion, I will give them a call later today.

[itdnwiwbp]

This has been covered a couple times in the last year. Good luck and welcome to SoCal.

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...ight=transport

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...ight=transport

[StickMon]

Welcome to the neighborhood.
Hope you don't mind spiders.
I was just out spraying for Argentine ants around the house and I've got at least 200 Black Widows out there.

[Nate4641]

That is way too expensive! I didn't pay half that to ship the other direction. I think I payed 1500 to go from CA to MD

[The HACK]

Glendaaaaaaaaaale!

I've used horseless. Probably the most meticulous car transport driver ever. Documented every spec of dirt on the car before he even started moving it. In the same transport was a 7 figure hotrod.

It was $1,700 to move an E36 M3 from LA to MD back when gas was less than $3.00 a gallon.

Frankly, for that $$$? I'd make a fun cross-country trip with it. But that's just me.

[Pheonix]

Originally Posted by Nate4641

That is way too expensive! I didn't pay half that to ship the other direction. I think I payed 1500 to go from CA to MD

I don't think that is way too expensive for 2 cars in an enclosed truck. Anyhow, I used Intercity Lines to transported my Coupe from CT to NorCal. I think it was around $2200. I received excellent service. The same drivers (husband and wife team) picked up and delivered my car. I believe my car was never moved until it got to NorCal. Be careful with some of the so call brokers; sometime they will have your cars at warehouse/terminal and wait until the truck is fully loaded before they leave for the destinations.
Good luck with the move! Welcome to the People Republic of California. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in traffics

[Nate4641]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

I don't think that is way too expensive for 2 cars in an enclosed truck. Anyhow, I used Intercity Lines to transported my Coupe from CT to NorCal. I think it was around $2200. I received excellent service. The same drivers (husband and wife team) picked up and delivered my car. I believe my car was never moved until it got to NorCal. Be careful with some of the so call brokers; sometime they will have your cars at warehouse/terminal and wait until the truck is fully loaded before they leave for the destinations.
Good luck with the move! Welcome to the People Republic of California. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in traffics

For 2 cars, maybe not too expensive (didnt see the 2 cars part at first), but even then I would think the company would give a slight discount for an additional car.

You're right about the warehouse/storage issue. When I moved my Roadster from Cali to MD it sat in Cali for a little longer than I wanted after it had been picked up. This also wasn't a practice that was disclosed to me and didn't happen when I moved my 3000gt from MD to CA or CA back to MD.

[jdoublehcubed]

Originally Posted by The HACK

Glendaaaaaaaaaale!

I've used horseless. Probably the most meticulous car transport driver ever. Documented every spec of dirt on the car before he even started moving it. In the same transport was a 7 figure hotrod.

It was $1,700 to move an E36 M3 from LA to MD back when gas was less than $3.00 a gallon.

Frankly, for that $$$? I'd make a fun cross-country trip with it. But that's just me.

I would probably drive the mini if we had more time, but my start date at the new company is the 27th, so we're really pressed for time. And the M is at the body shop right now getting an almost complete paint job, so I really don't want to trash the paint on a cross country drive right off the bat.

[jdoublehcubed]

Thought I would go with Intercity lines but they can't schedule me until November.

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by jdoublehcubed

I would probably drive the mini if we had more time, but my start date at the new company is the 27th, so we're really pressed for time. And the M is at the body shop right now getting an almost complete paint job, so I really don't want to trash the paint on a cross country drive right off the bat.

Blue painter's tape the whole car.

You can drive to L.A. with the GF to make the start date, store the M at a friend/relative's house, then go back over one of the up-coming breaks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year...etc) and drive the M back.

[David70]

Originally Posted by v3.2mc

check with your local BMW dealer... they may be able to broker a better price for you if they've already got a vehicle going that way. while mine wasn't enclosed, the dealer got my car from LA to me in Iowa for ~ $800.

have fun in LA!
.

Agree. In May I bought a Cadillac ATS (CPO) from a dealer in Phoenix, he shipped it to Cincinnati for $1k.

Considering daily driver that I will put a lot of miles on I wasn't concerned about getting an enclosed trailer. I do wonder if it is worth the money to go enclosed, car on a carrier seems a lot less likely to get damaged compared to driving it and if you care you could cover the front with painters tape. Not sure one way or the other.

One issue can be either it taking a while to pick up or dealing with them taking it somewhere and storing it until they can put a full trailer together. I preferred it sitting at the dealer for a couple of weeks as I didn't need it immediately and thought the chance of damage was less this way.

[jdoublehcubed]

Contract signed and sent in for Enclosed Vehicle Transport.

I've driven cross country before, it gets old really fast, especially when you're on a tight schedule. Last time I drove from NY to Seattle for an internship; my clutch went out on the way (not the M) and I lose 2.5 days. Ended up driving 23 hours straight the last morning, got in at 4 AM on the day I had to be at work for orientation.

When the GPS says "Stay on this road for 1205 miles" and you know you actually have to finish that day, it is not a good feeling.