<p>Hi - </p>
<p>I have decided to take an internship across the country this coming summer (on the W coast, I’m from the E).</p>
<p>I’m looking to ship my car there, I was wondering if any parents had any positive (or negative!) experiences with companies shipping their (or their children’s) cars cross-country, and which companies you found least expensive.</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>I sent a car from NY to CA a few months ago. All of the quotes were within $200, the only difference was between an open and closed carrier. There’s actually sites your find using Google where you enter your info once and get multiple bids. For open shipping you’re looking at about $1200, for closed about $1600. It may be a bit cheaper now with the recession (no new cars to carry) and gas prices down.</p>
<p>Recommending a company doesn’t seem to help as drivers pick up cars from different companies.</p>
<p>When you get quotes, please post them, I’m have more cars to ship.</p>
<p>Or you could just take a road trip and drive… though you’d have to give yourself a few days. You’d have to pay gas + hotel/motel stays and food for the trip (it’d take a few days), as opposed to paying car shipping + plane tickets + car rental.</p>
<p>road trip was my plan, but parents not too keen on it … plus time constraints make it tough (end of one internship - at school, don’t need car, w/in 5 days of start of the one in summer).</p>
<p>Luckily, the internship pays for plane tickets/transportation to the site, so only cost would be shipping costs, which they would also help offset.</p>
<p>Can you rent a car for cheaper than $2400?</p>
<p>My D did an internship near home last summer for 3 months. Her car was clear across the country. However, we were able to rent a car for 3 months with Enterprise for about $1500, much less than shipping the car round trip.The cost of shipping the car across the country round trip plus the inevitable wear and tear doesn’t really seem to justify it.</p>
<p>the only issue with renting seems to be that most places will not rent to somebody under 21, at least not without serious surcharges.</p>
<p>For a lot less than $2400, you can buy a bike.</p>
<p>^^ true, i already have a bike that carried me cross-country (and now has more than 5000 miles on it … i need to upgrade), but there is a certain necessity of a car in order to live in less expensive housing (over 10 weeks, I can save around $2000 living further away than would be a comfortable bike from the internship locale, especially in adverse weather) … so to offset that savings with the cost with having a car would probably be a net gain, since having a car will open up many more opportunities socially and recreationally.</p>
<p>If you have the cash it’s probably cheaper to buy a good used car, use it for the summer and re-sell it at the end of the summer. It will depreciate some with age and mileage but I’ll bet you won’t lose $2400 on the deal.</p>
<p>hmom5 got price right. Paid $1100 and $1300. The higher price was when gas prices highest and car was loaded with all belongings. This was MA to CA</p>
<p>Well, saving $2000 but needing a car because its not close —means you will be spending $1500 to get the car there and maybe back? Not sure the savings will be worth it.</p>
<p>In the past 14 years we’ve shipped cars from coast to coast 6 times (3 relocations, 2 cars per), most recently from WA to NJ in late 2007/early 2008. Cost for the most recent trip was $1,000 for a Camry and $1,200 for a minivan, both in open carriers. Several cautions:</p>
<p>Most of these moves are through brokers, who contract with the actual drivers. The brokers put your move up for bid, and the drivers with trucks bid on the move. So the quality of the move depends on which driver your broker chooses – which is hard to predict.</p>
<p>Get the extra insurance. We didn’t on one move, and one of our cars arrived dead and damaged. The auto shipper said because we didn’t purchase the extra insurance, we were on our own.</p>
<p>While the auto shipper may promise you a delivery window, your car might arrive a week or two later than promised. Their excuse? It took longer than we expected. You could be without your car for 2 of your 10 weeks because of this.</p>
<p>Based on my experience, I think the idea of purchasing a used car and reselling it at the end of the summer makes more sense than spending $2,000+ for shipping a car back and forth across the country, if it’s absolutely impractical to drive the car yourself. (Maybe your parents or a friend would want to go on a road trip with you?)</p>
<p>I am assuming from the discussion that you will want to send the car back at the end of the summer. So better double those figures ($1200-1600 now becomes $2400-3200) Is it still worth it? Where is CA? Perhaps fellow CCers can suggest use of local transportation (although in LA you are probably out of luck 
)</p>
<p>Go to a place like Carmax. Look at what they have and buy just about any reasonable car. No need to be picky or fall in love with it. At the end of the summer take it back to Carmax and sell it back to them. It is quick and easy. You buy it for retail and sell it back wholesale, so it costs you something, but comparable to the costs of shipping and a lot more convenient.</p>
<p>If you buy a used car, don’t forget to factor in the cost of tag, title and insurance. Plus, will the student be able to buy out of his state of residence? I bet buying will cost more, but I have no idea.</p>
<p>Hertz has a special right now where you will not be charged the underage fee, but the rental has to be by the end of March. This will not help you, but might help someone else:
<a href=“Hertz Coupons & Rental Car Discounts | Hertz”>Car Rental: Save More on Rental Cars, Vans & Trucks | Hertz;
<p>I don’t have the link, but if your parents are Hertz members there was an offer a while ago that I had my kids sign up for. It allowed the student to become a Hertz Gold member and also avoid the underage charge. You might call Hertz and see if you can get that, then you can search online for a good promo code for a long term rental.</p>
<p>I don’t have any good suggestions for you. We went through something similar last summer and were lucky that my daughter ended up living within walking distance of her internship and was able to occasionally borrow a car.</p>
<p>I just want to point out how ridiculous it is that we live in a country where this is even a problem. I and my family members have lived all over Europe and Japan very comfortably with no need for a car. Mass transit is how the rest of the world successfully handles this issue.</p>
<p>another option is to find people you know (classmates at school?) who want to take a road trip. You could even pay for a couple plane tickets back to the east coast, or their hotels along the way, or something to sweeten the deal.</p>
<p>Are ZipCars available where you will be interning?</p>
<p>On the West Coast in the summer you’re worried about adverse weather that would prevent you from biking? There isn’t any.</p>