Advice on shipping an X

DarkRiver

Low Mileage
Hi everyone,

I am looking for a way to ship my X, short of renting a U haul truck and trailer and towing it myself. I am not exactly on a main shipping route, I need to go from Arcata, Ca to Auburn or Sacramento.

I know the new and used car dealerships probably have ways of shipping vehicles from here to there, has anyone got any experience in this field?

TIA!
 
You can fill out the online form for shipping a car...

Hold on though you will get many replies to your query. I did this not long ago and got some good quotes for a 400 mile move($374). Is the car running? You will probably be able to get a good price... all about the logistics and cars move all over all the time so these companies just want to move a full truck so you win and they win when they can squeeze you on their trip...your time is worth something and once you factor that and rental for equipment having auto transport company move it is good value. If it is not running or nobody on the other end can help load it you probably would do better moving it yourself. I moved my X about that far and I got the dolly on Saturday for one day and the rental place was closed Sunday so as long as I got it back before opening Monday I was charged one day or $50. Don't know which companies work where but I am thinking they work all over the country... Passage Auto transport was best quote but many would price match to get the move. You want to do an "on call" type move or something like that... you give a time in the future you want car moved and they can get it when they have truck passing through... good luck
Regards
 
Also see if there are any car action yards (Brashers,Co-part, IAA) and check into who they use (Yes I know co-part and IAA are mostly for crashed cars and they do not have the best record for using the best towers) But I do know around here there are still some good towers who work for them and might have a truck moving car's the directions you need
 
have you looked at UShip?

My brothers mentioned this to me: check out uship.com. Its somewhat like eBay but for shipping big stuff, especially using the 'start an auction' function. Apparently shippers, some that are already "going that way" can bid on your shipment.

I haven't tried it yet, but looks promising.
 
I used Uship to transport an 85 X I bought from SoCal to Austin TX. It is a "reverse auction" site where truckers who are interested in your job constantly "bid down" against each other. You have the right to select the one you want at the price you find most attractive.

The bidding on my job started at $1369 - I finally chose a shipper for $610 who did a fine job.

Ed
 
So then I assume, oh Dark One... this car does not run.

Its a 6 hour drive, 330 miles or a tank of gas on a running X1/9... which would equate to no mo' than $50 bucks... or about $100 round trip.

Renting a trailer or better (IMHO) a tow dolly... and returning it the next day might be your best bet. Almost any Sedan can pull the weight of a dolly and an X1/9 with no problem. Its when you rent a full blown trailer that probably weighs MORE than an X1/9 that the Renters want to see you hooking it to a decent size truck. Some will refuse to even hook you up, but you can also use a friend's truck to rent the dolly or trailer, then swap it to what you intend to tow it with.

Otherwise, try USHIP.COM and let the bidding wars begin. They may not even want the work for such a short distance. Looking at what Ed just wrote, whereas LA to Austin is about 1200 miles... he had quotes from about 50 cents to $1.00 a mile. If that is a given, then you could expect to pay $150 to $300 bucks to ship it to Auburn.

Using U-Haul's rate thing online, renting a dolly OR a trailer is within a $20 difference, or $90 to $109 bucks.

Sooooo... even at $300 bucks or a buck-a-mile its looking better to hire a reputable firm.

Good luck with your decision.
 
I wound up going the U haul route. Cost was a little over three hundred bucks, they set me up with a smaller box van and a dual axle trailer.

It was a pretty sketchy tow! The box van had a 4.8l V8 and was pretty maxed out but I bounced all the way across hwy 299 and made it where I needed to go!
 
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