For anyone ever considering auto shipping, I reccommend Autolog. It is much cheaper than any of the companies that I called, and for only $100 more the car can be put on an enclosed train car which is flat, safe, and much quicker. I wish that I would have known this earlier, as I have been dealing with numerous trucking companies who have been horrible and expensive, 2 of which totally dropped the ball. Some "trucking companies" are just offices that TRY to find a truck driver to deliver your vehicle, who mark up the actual trucking cost to a horrific amount, all the while lying and giving horrible customer service. Autolog is very professional and nice. It has now been months since I have bought my MCS, and one of those horrible truck companies finally just hired Autolog to do it for them, so I ended up paying them about $400 to arrange that for me. Too bad they never paid Autolog so my car is now sitting in the terminal waiting for stupid Rockville Auto Transport to get a check to them so that I may finally receive it.

 

sorry about that terrible experience! I'll stick with deliverin my own cars cross country whenever possible. . . the idea of weirdos in possession of my car for long periods of time just doesn't make me feel very good at all!

 

I'm with you, Yucca. Even counting vacation days it cost me about the same to get my car from VA to CA. If you call that vacation, I saved money. In the bargain I got to know my car, see a bit of the country and not have to wonder who had been handed the keys to my car.

 

If we hadn't driven our new Cooper home from Ohio, I would have probably never seen Bone Lick State Park!

 

I shall never forget the "Hooker, OK" sign.

 

I had my 03 MCS shipped from Hawaii to California. It arrived two weeks after I bought it and not a scratch or problem with the delivery.

 

MINI of the Hamptons arranged for my MCS to get to California using Autolog, and I had no complaints. Their operator was always nice when I called for updates, or to talk about the scratches I thought they were going to have to be held responsible for (the scratches buffed out for no charge, so didn't have to go any further with that).

 

Yep, wish I would have known about Autolog first. I asked around and did internet searches but came up with nothing but adds - no reviews or reccommedations. Maybe my problem was that the first company was based in LA (which I didnt realize as I found them on a New York auto shipping page), and the second company was in New York, and well, after this whole experience I don't think I like New York. Come to think of it, the jerk at the LA company was a New Yorker too. I would have to say that besides the seller of the car who was very nice, every New Yorker that I have ever worked with in a commercial setting was very frustrating. Well I am done ranting. I started this thread to let off some steam, but mostly to help out anyone else on the forum looking for auto shipping company recommendations, because when I searched for help I came up with nothing. So there it is...Autolog is good, beware of others as many are shady, unreliable moneypits.

 

You forgot the BIG. It's BIG Bone Lick State Park. I have no idea why it is named that but I am sure there is a story behind it.

There are some reputable companies out there for transport but it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad ones. I hope you get your car soon.

 

Got a pic? If so please post.

 

this reminds me of the experience i had about 8 years ago when I was
working for my previous company. I had 2 air pallets shipping into
LA from Malaysia for a customer's project which got completely wet
damaged due to poor handling.

The freight company that I (we) hired was obviously just contracting
their carriers to bring the freight into the US. I went to the
airport with my freight company to assess the damage in the cargo
hold area... We then saw the agents from Mxxxxxx Airlines who
handled the freight into the US approach us. I was expecting a
'terribly sorry for our handling, we will take care of you right away'
but guess wat happened?

The f-king freight company starts a 'how's it going dood!' kind of
conversation and starts kissing-*** to those agents as if they
appreciated their support to bring the freight in. Nothing about
the damage, nothing about corrective actions/recovery plan.

then you learn very quickly who's going to be handling your next freight.

At the end though, I had the agent personally repackage the cartons
himself as I watched him sweat his butt off in the 90F+ heat.

 

I went with Dependable Auto Shippers to bring my car from NY to CA. They did an alright job but took 3 weeks to get the car to me. What I did like is that I could track what town the transporter was in. What I did not like is that I paid $1734 for enclosed trailer transport and the car arrived very dusty. For that kind of money it should arrive as clean as it was when it was picked up. I agree with you guys about handing over a car to strangers, it was kind of nerve racking when the car was at the terminal in NJ for two weeks. Apart from the dustiness and high price, the car arrived in good conditon with no damage.