How much does shipping a car across the country cost

The price is one of the most influential factors when we are making a decision in regards to any possible service. How much is shipping a car across the country? Basically, there is not a very straight answer on this question as everything depends on too many factors to predict the final result. Here we can only check the main of them and compare them with the final result. At least, this information can be very useful in regards to how much a car shipping.

Factors

How much car shipping cost can be defined within the online calculator you can find on the website of almost every transportation company in the modern realities. Despite the fact that such calculators can be pretty different, there are some questions you should find in every case:

• The locations. Obviously, the answer to the question of “How much is shipping a car?” can be given only if the transportation company knows the real distance it will need to cover to deliver your car from point A to point B. And here you can find some essential points. Thus, if the route is pretty common and popular, you can expect your car to be delivered not only cheaper but even faster than if we are talking about exactly the same mileage but between some remote or rural areas. As an example, to ship your car between Los Angeles and Miami you can expect to pay around 900 dollars. And how much does shipping a car cost in case of the two points of Houston and Spokane? In this case we are talking about 1,250 dollars. It’s pretty interesting, and not everybody knows about it, that actually the cost per mile is becoming lower if the overall mileage is raising. Thus, short-distance car’s transportation within 350 miles will cost you about 700 dollars. Here we can see that the answer on how much for shipping a car is around two dollars per mile. Therefore, you can expect that the 1,500 miles trip may cost you around 3,000 dollars which is a really big amount of money. In reality you will pay for this trip less than 1,000 dollars because the quote per mile in this case will already be less than a dollar. But, again, if we are talking about the locations far away from the main cities, it makes sense to consider not a more common and traditional door-to-door service but a terminal-to-terminal one. Of course, you will need to think about how to transport your car to and from these terminals of the transportation company, but at least you can expect to get your car much faster and, what is even more important, with lower costs;
• Parameters of the car. Basically, it can be any other vehicle – modern transportation companies are dealing with various types of the transports including boats, heavy equipment, motorcycles, motorhomes and many others. In regards to how much does car shipping cost, you will need to provide the carrier with the information about the type of the vehicle to be delivered, its makes, model and year. In some cases, you will also have a possibility to add some extra information like the weight and the size of the vehicle, but usually it’s enough to provide very basic information. At least, unless your car was changed or improved and the current measures are varying from the original ones. When you see any advertisements of the car’s delivery, most probably the prices are for the standard sedans and other similar passengers’ cars. You can expect to pay at least 75 dollars extra for the delivery of the SUV while the Full-Size Truck may add to the original price up to 150 dollars;
• Condition of the car. It’s much easier and cheaper to arrange the transportation of the vehicle if it’s in a fully operable condition. It’s not only about the final price but also about the possibility to transport such a car at all. Especially if we are talking about the problems with brakes and steers. And even if you will be lucky enough to find the carrier in a short period of time, you can expect to pay up to 100 dollars more for these problems. The worse situation is if the carrier will need to use some more expensive and complex equipment to load and unload your vehicle to and from the truck. Such a procedure can raise the price up to 500 dollars which is definitely a very big expense. That is why, if you are willing to pay less and anyway are going to send your car for the repairs, you should do it before the shipping process. One more aspect is that you need to make sure the transportation company is aware of any serious troubles with the vehicles to be delivered so the process will go smooth and fast;
• The delivery time. How much is car shipping from state to another part of the country? As soon as you are flexible enough to change the pick-up and the delivery dates, you can expect to save some money. On the other hand, not every car’s owner is ready to wait up to two weeks (especially if the car needs to be transported across the whole country) for that long. In this case they should apply for the expedited, or express delivery service. For example, if we are talking about the SUV’s transportation, the faster delivery may cost you around 75 dollars extra, but it also depends on how much faster you are expecting your vehicle to be delivered. Some transportation companies may have several options. For example, you can pay less just for your car to be in a higher priority for the carrier while a really express transportation will mean that your vehicle will be delivered within one-two days;
• Method of the delivery. This is basically the most essential factor of the final price which can change the price up to 80 percent depending on the particular carrier (especially if we are talking about the carriers for the classic and exotic cars). Open transportation is a good choice if you have a very limited budget and waiting time while the enclosed delivery will provide your car with full protection.

Additionally, we should mention insurance. Of course, the basic one is already included in the quote, but if we are talking about the most expensive cars, you as an owner should carefully think about the necessity to add an extra one. Moreover, some transportation brokers can also provide you with some extra protection.