Not an option, hence why I'm having it shipped.
As T eluded to, since you are not available to drive it yourself, your best bet is to hire one of your local Kansas relatives/friends to do the job. Flying a family member/friend one way, paying for one or two nights in a hotel, plus food allowance is much cheaper than hiring an auto transport company.
I thought about asking my dad, but the flight would have been from AZ-->FL, drive to KS, fly back to AZ. Would have made it nice for him because his brother lives less than an hour away from where the new car is. But in the long run, it would have been just as expensive as shipping it, so it didn't make much sense to put the miles on the car.
Sorry for all that; tried to warn ya. These companies have little old lady trolls who will continue calling you until you have depleted 3 bottles of xanax. The good news is, you will soon start to receive "I can take $75 off of our lowest price if you call today" phone calls and emails. You will be receiving these faster than you can delete them. My earlier message and point #1 still stand. My only other piece of advise is to take the lowest bid and route it to the highest quality rated company to see if they will match it. Problem is, who you are dealing with is NOT who is doing the transport. You are dealing with auto transport brokers who then go out and find hungry drivers who may have space on a trailer to move your car. The less hungry they are, (ie: their truck is nearly full; or if the weather looks horrendous during that week of transport) the more money the drivers want to move your car. Good luck to you.SlammedNiss wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 12:01 pm ho-lee-crap. Made the mistake of entering my (throwaway) email and phone # on a website, and within a minute I was bombarded with calls, texts, and emails. Prices as low as $650 and as much as $1250. This is anxiety inducing. Where is my Xanax?!?
Yea, it was literally a few seconds I had my 1st call. While on that call, I kept getting numerous other calls/texts and made it nearly impossible to hear the person I was already talking to. I basically told everybody I talked to to just email me the quote, and I would go over them. Didn't end up going with the cheapest, but definitely not the most expensive. Supposedly no hidden fees, so we shall see. Got the ball rolling and told them to move forward. So hopefully in the next day or so I'll have a delivery date.Caretaker wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:13 amSorry for all that; tried to warn ya. These companies have little old lady trolls who will continue calling you until you have depleted 3 bottles of xanax. The good news is, you will soon start to receive "I can take $75 off of our lowest price if you call today" phone calls and emails. You will be receiving these faster than you can delete them. My earlier message and point #1 still stand. My only other piece of advise is to take the lowest bid and route it to the highest quality rated company to see if they will match it. Problem is, who you are dealing with is NOT who is doing the transport. You are dealing with auto transport brokers who then go out and find hungry drivers who may have space on a trailer to move your car. The less hungry they are, (ie: their truck is nearly full; or if the weather looks horrendous during that week of transport) the more money the drivers want to move your car. Good luck to you.
and just like clockwork, the broker called me today and told me he had a driver that could pick the car up tomorrow, but... the driver wanted $50 more. Told him no, that wasn't the agreed upon price. As a former business owner, the quote I gave to a customer was the quote I honored. If they want to start playing that game, I will have my uncle pick up the car (he lives less than 1 hr from the dealer) and I'll find a way to go get it myself in the next couple of months.Caretaker wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:42 pm I do hope the broker keeps to the quote provided. Once they find a willing driver, sometimes that driver will balk at the price you set with the broker. The broker will then come back to you and ask for $50-$100 more. The worst part was when they delivered my car 2 days before I even got on a plane to my new home. They had the exact date drilled into their heads multiple times; as in : don't get the car there before XX, XX, XXXX because I won't be there to receive it. Unfortunately their heads are filled with holes.
Yea. I ended up firing the 1st broker the 1st week of January. After I turned down his initial offer of paying $50 over the quoted price, he failed to find anybody else. Tried calling him to get an update one time, and he didn't answer his phone. So I hired a new broker. Told the 2nd broker the issues I had with #1 and why I fired him to let him know I wasn't interested in getting screwed over. #2 called within a few days y with an offer of $80 over quote and I told him no. A few weeks went by and I called to get an update and find out why he was having a problem finding a driver. He told me that it's just not a very common route (which I understand because I live in the middle of KS) and nobody was interested at the quoted price. Told him to raise the price to $750 but not to call me with ANYTHING over that amount. A week or so went by and on the 29th he called early in the morning to let me know he had a driver at that price and we went from there.
Yea. I ended up firing the 1st broker the 1st week of January. After I turned down his initial offer of paying $50 over the quoted price, he failed to find anybody else. Tried calling him to get an update one time, and he didn't answer his phone. So I hired a new broker. Told the 2nd broker the issues I had with #1 and why I fired him to let him know I wasn't interested in getting screwed over. #2 called within a few days y with an offer of $80 over quote and I told him no. A few weeks went by and I called to get an update and find out why he was having a problem finding a driver. He told me that it's just not a very common route (which I understand because I live in the middle of KS) and nobody was interested at the quoted price. Told him to raise the price to $750 but not to call me with ANYTHING over that amount. A week or so went by and on the 29th he called early in the morning to let me know he had a driver at that price and we went from there.
See.....wasn't that a fun experience?? The next time, I'll just push my car over a cliff, take the insurance money and buy a one way plane ticket, and then buy another car at the other end. Much easier.
Honestly, I would have loved to go get the car myself. For that to happen would require me to remove my hand controls from my current car, ship everything to Florida, then find somebody to reinstall those controls into my new car. The whole time I would be without anything to drive at home. Luckily I keep my vehicles longer than the average person. Hopefully by the next time I'm in the market for a new car I'll have relocated myself to the Phoenix metro area and will have a much broader selection to choose from.
No IG access? Do you live in China? Lol. But regarding my Rav4, yea, it actually faired pretty good. Due to it being positioned directly behind the semi, it was hardly even dirty. My only complaint was the Honda directly above mine must have been leaking motor oil, as there was some oil stains on the rear pillar/hatch area that took some light 3M rubbing compound to get it off. Other than that, pretty clean for the journey from Floriduh to Kansas.Caretaker wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 1:50 pm sorry; no instagram access for me. I do like one of your early photos of (presumably) your Rav 4. If that was the picture as it was delivered, picture mine as having gone through (figuratively) two tornados, a dip in Bugs Bunny's la brea tarpits, and then a trip through a chicken coupe. I had to run the VIN number just to make sure it was my car. And of course the key was no help as the driver LOST IT !!!! These transport companies are a joke.