Hi Good Folks, I just bought an '88 M6 and need to have it shipped from Seattle to New York. Opinions range wildly on all the shippers (DAS, Express Auto Transport, etc), so I wanted to see if there was a particular firm that CCA members were happy with. Any feedback is appreciated! Sumanto Banerji
I've been happy with the 'E28 Network' where one of my pals drives a car where I need it or I drive one for one of my pals. Seriously. The car in my avatar ('87 535is)was in Fort Lauderdale. I live in Wisconsin. A cyber-friend (Not any more! Since meeting, we're more like long-lost brothers.) flew to FtL and drove it to his home in Memphis, where I was selling another car, saving me hundreds of dollars and days of travel myself. It cost me about half what a shipper would have charged. Closer to 1/4 what it would have cost to ship both cars where they went - and I got a couple of good friends out of the deal. As 'payback', I flew to Raleigh, NC, to drive a 635CSi to Milwaukee for another cyber-friend. All in, that cost him about $500. Shipping would have been double that and more - and he owes me a favor for 'some day'. Depends on how worried you are about mileage and the capability of the car. I'd be really tempted to drive your E24 across the country for expenses - and I've done it before. Of course, I also wonder why you wouldn't want to have a great 5-day vacation bonding with your new old BMW.
i used EAT to ship my M Roadster from CA to MD and I thought the experience was great. Let it be known that usually for many cross country transports, most companies will contract this work, so its kinda hard to track where the car is (its not like UPS package tracking lol). It actually took more time for EAT to find a contractor going from CA to MD (5 days) than for the actual transport (3 days). I also choose to go the cheaper, uncovered route. When I first got the car, it was filthy, but when I cleaned it up, it had no paint chips or damage of any kind, so I was happy.
Just had 89 535i shipped from Oakland, CA to MA. Process was a nightmare. Initial search engine for auto transport returned @ 20 different brokers promising everything, low price and delivering nothing. Highly recommend Kelly at Door to Door Transport out of Parkland, Florida. 954 639-9411 Kelly stayed with his initial quote and the truck actually showed up on the day the previous owner was called for. I requested to have my BMW stowed on top behind cab on the open transport. Got my wish, no terminals switching drivers and trucks, exact price, daily update as to where she was, and on time delivery. Caution - this was after four other brokers kept raising prices to get a trucker interested.