I am looking for advice and suggestions with regards to shipping my MINI from San Francisco to Chicago. If anyone has any recommendations for shipping companies and/or tips for exploring this option (rather than driving), I would greatly appreciate it.

 

14 years ago I shipped a Miata from Miami to San Fran

cost me nearly $900 on an open truck, closed trucks are available but cost more

I just ran a quick quote for you and get $775 (open truck)

http://www.autotransportdirect.com/

it will probably take a couple of weeks .... IME they picked up the car with a small truck and then moved it to a transfer location, once they had cars to fill a truck for the route/destination the car got on the real truck and off it went. I got a call a few days out for delivery details.

You pay cash/money order .... no checks or credit cards . . .

Not worth telling you who I used, it was a long time ago.

Take pictures as they load the car and let them see you do it . . . avoid disputes.

FAQ on the link I gave are spot on IME

 

You might also talk with some household movers in your area. A small car can often be added to a shipment to fill a truck and the cost can be a bit better. I shipped a Lotus Europa from Kansas City to Wash DC that way. It was well padded and inside the truck, and it cost me somewhere around $600.

 

Would you pay someone to drive it? Or maybe that TV show shipping wars? Is it Ubid, the website?

 

Pay someone to drive it.

See the movie "Vanishing Point" first!

 

I bought my car from TX and had it shipped to me in VA, open trailer via TEMO Transportation. The cost was $500 and the dealer paid half.

I received the car VERY dirty and at night but was just so excited I didn't take a close enough look at it. There were a few new scratches on it that the dealer said wasn't their (and they had very good pictures to prove it). The dealer threw me a $150 credit which was nice of them.

Be sure to avoid my mistake and thoroughly review the car upon departure (the transportation company sure will) and receipt.

 

Or, you can go first class. Two that I know of are Reliable and Passport (I've used Reliable for my race cars). Closed trucks, they specialize in cars and the drivers know what they are doing. Expect about $1,500, maybe a little more now.

 

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. It does sound like it's quite costly, and I think if I were to go with this option, I'd want a closed truck, which is even more. I also didn't realize it would take so long (possibly a couple of weeks?). I was considering this option because I will also be moving a cat, but even with that factored into the equation, driving sounds like it might be a better option, both in terms of cost and also for the safety of my MINI! Any tips for driving SF to Chicago are also welcome haha

 

It takes about 40 hours of drive time to go from SF to Chicago. Maybe 43. I have some friends who made the trip several times. I've done it myself, but I was young enough I don't remember it.

The first trip, my friends "powered through". Or tried to--they switched off driving and finally decided they couldn't make it all the way into the Bay Area when they got to Reno and couldn't keep their heads on straight.

The second trip, they stopped in the middle somewhere and slept for the night. No problems at all; 8 hours of sleep and back on their way. They were in much better shape when they arrived that time. And they went back the other way a week and a half later, with no problems, stopping in the middle again.

If you're going solo, plan for it to take longer than two days. Take lots of breaks, and take lots of water with you. The cat won't be thrilled about being cooped up for several days, especially if you keep him/her in a carrier the whole time. For a ~3 hour trip, I let the one cat out of her carrier and let her wander around the car. I had to push her out of the way of my feet a couple of times, but she figured out what was going on pretty quickly. I stopped about every hour to let her out, but I knew she would not go anywhere and would be easily caught. I had a litter box in the car, and some kibble. I think I watered her when we stopped.

It may have been overkill to stop that frequently, but I really liked that cat. And my GF would have killed me if I let anything happen to her cat!