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Blog: Drive vs. Ship Your Auto

Posted August 21, 2007 by Arthur

Whether you drive or ship your car great distances it will serve you well to measure the costs and trade-offs before you buckle-up or ship your vehicle. In almost all cases, driving your car across country will save you relatively little money . Whereas shipping your car may end up cost you more money, but will afford you the luxury of saving time, car depreciation, energy and a bad back.

As an example Auto Transporters Online performed a simple comparison test to determine if shipping your car from New York City, NY to Los Angeles, CA is the better option than just driving it yourself. Before we get started, let’s run some hard numbers to get an approximate ship cost.

First, the car we want to move and its stats. We took our stats from www.fueleconomy.gov

Car: 2003 Toyota Camry
Gas tank max: 18.5 gallons
Gas Type: Regular unleaded
MPG (highway): 27, officially 30 but there are town, city and traffic considerations so we calculate a 27 MPG. Actually these numbers are never truly correct and error on the side of wishful thinking of car manufacturers.

Price per Gallon of Gas: $2.78 (The U.S National average price per gallon of regular unleaded gas as of 8/21/2007).
Trip: ~2778 miles NY to LA
Days on road: 5 (approximation)
Hotels: ~$85/night x 4 = $340.00
Meals: ~$20/day x 5 = $100.00

So, If you were to drive your car yourself, your expenses would something like:

Gallons of gas needed: 2778 mi / 27 mpg = ~103 gallons of gas
Total cost of gas: 103 x $2.78 = $286.34

Better yet, let me boil it down for you even more. Needed are:
5 free days
Gas: $286.34
Hotels: $340.00
Meals: $100.00
Total: $726.34 (assuming you travel solo)

Consider also the costs associated with tire wear, brake wear, fluids and filter change, a car wash, mileage depreciation, possible brake-downs and costs of having them fixed. For example how much is your car worth to you each day? If you require a brake job after a New York to Los Angeles trip, you can be sure your car will be on the rack for at least one full day. What does not having your car cost you?

The other side of the coin is having your car shipped.

Before having your car shipped, it will be good to know how car shipping generally operates as a business.

The up-side of having your car shipped.

• You do not have to give up 5 days that could otherwise be spent something more important to you.
• No car depreciation
• No cheap hotels
• No convenience store food
• No backaches
• No Headaches

With Auto Transporters Online, shipping the car would be approximately $1000.00 (with no hidden fees).

If you do not ship you car with Auto Transporters Online, please be aware of the following:

• When considering a car shipper/broker, find out if any grievances have been filed and/or solved with the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• Watch for hidden fees
• No shipping company can make promises. If somebody is promising you a delivery date, etc, they could be trying to take your wallet for a ride.

To learn more, please visit our FAQ page.

So there you have it. Which ever way you ship your car we hope that weighing the cost benefit versus time will help you make the right decision.

Keep your eye on the road,

Arthur