My E9 is finally heading to CA...

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flobloc

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Montway just loaded my car today. Thanks for your referrals on various transport companies. I appreciate it. I learned one hard lesson though - the transport companies WON'T come into New York City. I had to pay a flatbed to collect it and bring it out to Union City, NJ. I will post more pix once she arrives in CA...thanks again!
 

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Open carrier

Didn't know you were going with an open carrier.
Hope you got a really cheap price! Coast to Coast in an enclosed truck runs around $2k, so $1k seems fair for an open transport. The only issue I've had with open is that sometimes the cars arrive incredibly dirty. I did an E3 this way once and it took months to clean all the grime impregnated grease off the car. I don't know if it was due to a leaking car above my E3 or if the truck was just spewing tons of diesel particulate.

Hope your car arrives without damage and reasonably clean.
 
$1,240 door-to-door. Montway talked me into the open carrier, so I went with it. They did offer both options (open vs. enclosed) though. About a $900 difference in price between the two...
 
My coupe traveled half the country and arrived with a fair amount of dirt, but it cleaned up nicely and maybe a light scratch on the trunk lid. My coupe was positioned exactly at the same space on the carrier as yours. I requested a top position, but they can't guarantee that you get a upper spot.
As John has mentioned, sometimes they give you a delivery date, but don't be suprised if they end up delivering early catching you off guard . I got a call a two days before the delivery time and the dispatcher said " He'll be there in half an hour." Fortunately, I happened to barely have the cash in my wallet to pay the driver . Also, I was disappointed that the transport outfit that I chose, was not actually the one who ended up making the final delivery. I have a sneaking feeling that there is a bit of subcontracting in the auto transport biz that is not really upfront. Let us all know how it turns out for you.
 
And don't be surprised if they are late. My transport broke down for a couple days on the way. Get the tel number of the driver so you can get status updates.
 
FYI : I paid $650 for a 1,500 mile trip on open carrier. I signed up with Nations Transport largely because of customer ratings and nice video. I even used a transport agent, but ended up with Five Star ( not as impressive)
 
Ideally, you want a top rack spot, second back from the front if on an open carrier. No need to be leaked on if on the lower rack or be the lead car on top. Those must arrive rather filthy with bugs.:shock:

The challenge with some of the open carriers is that they sometimes swap the cars from truck to truck - the truck your car starts out on might not be the one it gets delivered to you on. Each "swap" is another chance for damage from a hurrying truck driver.

Of the three open carrier deliveries I've done, only one arrived with damage and that was a cracked windshield on an E28 5 series. The coupe came across from CA to MA years ago with no issues, though later than scheduled.

Price wise, you are better off going directly to the trucker rather than going through a broker who will add on 10%+.
 
Exactly...

and this is why I use only 2 companies if it's a critical shipment. IMHO, Intercity is excellent on timing, keeping me informed, and taking care of the car. Cost wise, they're fair to good.

New Age Auto Transport was in someways better because its one guy and his tractor/trailer. He used to be in the vintage car restoration business and is a total car guy. His communication was better than intercity, and he was nice enough to show me a couple of cool things about my xk120 (when he delivered it) that were pretty useful and not in any of the factory or aftermarket manuals. The down side is that his schedule isn't very flexible because it's just one truck.

Anyway, each car and owner has different requirements. I hope the open transport works well this time, but I'd not use it for anything worth more than $15k. YMMV

John
 
You got to understand the reason you can get a vehicle transported for a $1000 less than Intercity, Reliable or other major carriers is job will be budded out, not an enclosed carrier and you vehicle can sit at a transfer station for an extended period of time In most cases the xtra $1000 plus or minus is worth it.
 
I've been through this twice in the past five months. The fastest routes in the US are major east/west interstates and north/south if on either coast. North/south in central US limits you and slows things down tremendously. Passport Transport gives you a code where once loaded, you can track your car in real time. Very cool. They also gave me their driver's cell number, and he always answered the phone and was great to deal with. I was advised on my e9 that if the paint job is in excellent shape to ship enclosed.
 
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