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Should I Ship My Car or Sell it and Buy a New One?

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Home  |  Auto Shipping • Car Carriers • Car News • Car Shipping   |   Should I Ship My Car or Sell it and Buy a New One?

When you are moving across the country, you may be wondering how to get your car there without having to drive it. Better yet, you may be wondering if it’s more convenient and cost-effective just to sell it and buy a new one. While there are pros and cons to both options, it ultimately comes down to a few important factors. Here we will take a closer look at your options as well as specific factors that may determine which decision is right for you.

Option #1: Shipping Your Car

Moving across the country is stressful enough, and thinking about the logistics of getting your car there can make things all the more overwhelming. The good news is that auto shipping is a convenient, simple, and safe option for transporting your car thousands of miles. If you choose to ship your car, you can easily schedule the pickup and delivery of your car and you can rest easy knowing that your car will be safely delivered to your new home. That said, you may be wondering if it’s worth the cost to ship your car. In most cases, shipping a car is significantly cheaper than buying a new one. There are several factors that will determine the exact price but the average cost to ship a sedan across the country is around $1200-$1500. When you consider the cost of purchasing a new car, it’s easy to see that shipping is far more cost-effective.

Option #2: Sell Your Car and Buy a New One

Your second option is to avoid the hassle of shipping your car altogether and selling it instead. Then, you can buy a new car when you arrive at your new location. In some circumstances, this might make sense if you were planning to upgrade your car anyway. This might also be a feasible option if you are in need of cash right away to help with moving expenses. Keep in mind, however, that you will need to figure out transportation until you purchase a new car.

Things to Consider:

Personal Plans for the Car: Is your current car older and in need of several repairs? If so, you might feel like the time is right to simply sell that car and purchase a new one. After all, it won’t make much sense to pay shipping costs for a car that you plan to turn around and sell in a couple of months anyway.

Convenience: There is no doubt that shipping a car is an easy and convenient way to transport your car across the country. Once you do your research and find a reputable shipping company, you simply call to schedule your pickup and delivery. You can even arrange to have your car picked up and delivered right to your door. This can be a much more convenient option than fussing with finding a buyer.

Cost: There is no doubt that shipping will be more cost-effective than selling your car and buying a new one. Given that the average cost to ship a car across the country is around $1500, you are almost certainly going to pay much more to buy a new one.

Current Availability: Given the current market conditions for new and used cars, you might have a very hard time finding a car. Inventory for both new and used cars is at an all-time low and prices are on the rise as a result. For this reason, it appears that shipping your car will be your best option.

The bottom line is that shipping or selling your car really depends on whether or not you have plans to upgrade your vehicle. Despite the cost to ship your car, you will still be saving money and you can make the process easier and more convenient by shipping your car. Unless your car is nearing the end of its life or you simply want to upgrade your vehicle, it almost always makes more sense to ship your car.

Frequently Asked Questions

Honest Answers to Your Car Shipping Questions

Yes, we always ask for your specific pickup and delivery addresses, if the carrier can get right to the addresses you provide, they will. If the addresses that you give us are not safely accessible for a Multi-car carrier, however, you will need to make arrangements with the driver to meet at a nearby location where the carrier can safely get in and out.

People do it all the time (rarely for free) but the official answer is no.

Not what you wanted to hear, we know, but that is the honest answer.

We are not licensed to broker the shipment of household goods and, likewise, no car carrier that operates in the USA is licensed to transport them from state to state either. Despite what you might be being told by other car shipping companies you may speak with.

Remember, at the end of the day we're all salespeople, and the true answer to this question is not a great selling point.

You will hear a lot of companies tell you that you can put up to 100 pounds of items in the trunk, but that is not entirely true. That fact is that items of that amount are fairly common and the department of transportation is probably not going to split hairs and fine the trucker over items of that amount, provided they are not over their weight limit. They could fine them, however, if they see a vehicle stuffed full of personal items so the car carrier will most likely try to negotiate something with you to cover themselves against any costs they could incur. It's not something we can build into your contract though.

We have a short and helpful video on this topic in our user videos.

Only in rare cases and car carriers will usually charge a premium to make it happen.

All dates given by car carriers are typically estimates and projections.

For this reason (and to keep your cost down) we ask that you build in some flexibility and give us the earliest possible date you would be WILLING to release the vehicle, even though it may not be your preferred date.

We'll put you in direct contact with your car carrier and the driver will also typically call you the afternoon or evening before your pick up and delivery (they won't just show up unannounced, and if they do we want to hear about it). However, car carriers are out on the road battling traffic, weather and any number of other factors that can and do throw them off of their pickup and delivery projections from time to time.

If the projected dates we give you come and you are unable to make contact with your carrier, please call our office immediately so that we may help resolve the situation.

The average transit time from pick up to delivery on any vehicle going coast to coast will average 7 to 10 days. From there you can figure your transit time based on how far your vehicle is traveling, i.e. from either coast to the Midwest might average 3-7 days.

Yes!

Even better, we do not even ask for payment until we have you confirmed for pickup by a safe, reliable, fully insured, direct car carrier. If for any reason you do not ship your car with the carrier that we arrange for you, there is no fee.

The fees paid directly to the carrier however, (in most cases, their fees are not paid until your vehicle is delivered) are not directly controlled by us, so any requests for a refund of the carrier's portion would need to be addressed with the carrier directly.

Of course! And you are always backed by our Damage Free Guarantee policy.

Part of what you pay us for is to verify that the car carrier that we put you on is covered by the proper amount of insurance and that everything is up to date.

There is never any additional cost to you for this coverage, and their insurance is always primary.

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