Auto Transport Reviews (see p. 31 for companies we endorse)

[abhi1277]

Anyone has any experience with amerifreight and corporate auto transport?getting $650 quotes from them and reviews on transportreviews.com look good.

[MusicMom]

I hate to say it, but I think you're being lured in by lowball offers. If a direct carrier with a good reputation has quoted around a thousand, and brokers (who take a cut and oass on the rest to the carrier who does the actual work) are quoting $650 (meaning the carrier will be earning about $500), I really worry that you're going to either find yourself forced to pay a larger bill at delivery, or you're going to be stuck without a carrier because the broker won't find anyone to haul for half price.

Please take each company's MC license number and check them out on www.protectyourmove.gov. Don't rely on any one website for all your information, this one included.

[abhi1277]

Completely get ur point,i am doing this for the first time,so need ur advice.the only direct carrier that does our route is DAS ($928-terminal) and $1028(door to door),all others (quotes from 25-30) are brokers with average price being $650.we bought this car in 2008- its toyota camry 2001 with 135k miles for 5k.do u think its worth paying one grand for transporting it?thanks again.

[MusicMom]

I would say it is definitely worth spending a thousand on your car. A Toyota with 135k still has a lot of life left. I sold a Corolla with over 200k and it was still running great, and my Sienna has been just about maintenence-free for 140k now. You would have to spend around $4,000 to replace it with something similar if you sold it now.

Then again, we paid $800 in 2003 to ship a beat up Impreza, so you can tell I don't give up on old cars.

Are you able to get to the terminal to save a hundred dollars?

[abhi1277]

I would say it is definitely worth spending a thousand on your car. A Toyota with 135k still has a lot of life left. I sold a Corolla with over 200k and it was still running great, and my Sienna has been just about maintenence-free for 140k now. You would have to spend around $4,000 to replace it with something similar if you sold it now.

Then again, we paid $800 in 2003 to ship a beat up Impreza, so you can tell I don't give up on old cars.

Are you able to get to the terminal to save a hundred dollars?

Yes I think it still has some more years left in it. I can try to make it to the terminal to save some more. thanks for your advice.

[Movinghelper]

That'a funny. My newest car is a 2004 and now has 185K. Chrysler Sebring. My other car is slightly older 2004 also and has 279K miles. It is a ford tauras. So there are a lot of years left on that car. As long as it is looking good and you change the oil it will last a long time.

[sunsettoqueens]

We are moving from SF to NY at the end of June. I've been getting quotes from auto transport companies, and am a little baffled by the spread.

DAS quoted just under $1000, door-to-door
ProStar and TnT quoted $1550 and $1700 for door-to-door
I also contacted Golden Key but their dates don't work for us.

How is DAS's quote so much lower than the other two? Is the main difference just that DAS doesn't guarantee delivery (i.e., it could take much longer), and customer service is better for the other two? Or am I missing something else?

We will be borrowing a car from family on the NY end so delivery time doesn't matter that much to us.

Thanks for any insights!

[sunsettoqueens]

RE: my previous post above... Just read through the first 34 pages of this thread and I think I know why DAS is so much lower than the rest!

Wish Golden Key's dates worked better for us... but will probably go with ProStar. Will try to remember to post a review post move.

[jrebeiro]

Hello everyone!

I'm back.. and moving back to the west coast. My company is paying for my household goods shipment but I wasn't planning on moving the cars so I traded the shipment for other services. I was planning on selling my car here in NJ and buying something when I got out to CA... but I got into a little fender bender and the damage is going to cost ~$2k to fix. Rather than take the hit on selling it, I may as well ship the car and save some money. The damage doesn't actually look that bad, and it's a commuter car (though it's a nice one) so I don't really care.

I got a quote from DAS and OH MY the prices jumped up! Back when I started this thread my car cost $650 to ship.. now it's $1200!!! I guess the reason is fuel prices and inflation?

I'll probably use DAS again because of my previous experience.. but I'll keep you all up to date on the new move! I'll try to work through this thread to see if any newcomers can save me some money.

[bree]

Has anyone used Lucky Star Auto Transport? (http://luckystarautotransport.com/)

It looks like the owner/driver is a former driver at Golden Key, which many people on this forum have mentioned. Seems like a similar setup to Golden Key and so I was wondering what kinds of experiences people have had.

[sunsettoqueens]

Hi, Just wanted to post an update on our move experience. We ended up going with All American Trucking & Transport Co. (located in Burlingame, CA) and had a great experience all around. They quoted (and charged) $1300 from San Francisco (we dropped off at their office) to Northern Virginia. (We ended up living in Manhattan so decided to leave the car at a relative's).

Communication was great. The car arrived when they said it would (9 days). The driver was friendly and the car was in good shape when it arrived.

We decided to go with All American over ProStar (which also seemed great from our email communication) for the following reasons:

1. They were in our area. ProStar said they would have shipped the car from SF to Southern California and then to the East Coast.

2. All American offered a shuttle service to SFO, which was really convenient for us, as we were able to keep our car through the weekend and up until the day we were flying out (with all of the other companies I talked to (DAS, ProStar, Golden Key), the car would have been picked up or we would have had to drop it off the week before we left, since we left on a Monday).

3. (This was just a bonus)-- They let us put up to 75 lbs of HHG in the car, which was great since we ended up having some "overflow" that didn't make it into the Smart Vault.

Hope this helps someone as much as the other reviews helped us!

[MusicMom]

Thank you for coming back to write your review. I hope there's another one for the SmartVaults!

[downsouthtraveler]

Hello All. I have done some due diligence including reading reviews and going to BBB and plan to use All America Transport out of Bethesda, MD to ship my car. I am moving from Mobile, AL to Lynchburg, VA. Has anyone had a good experience with this company or can recommend another broker? Their price was right in the middle of all the quotes I have received. I checked ProStar and Golden Key but they did not service my route. Any guidance is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Erica

[MusicMom]

I just want to check that this is the company you're dealing with, as it's a fairly generic name.

If so, that company has been in operation for decades and has no complaints listed at the FMCSA. However, as a broker, you still want to do a check of the carrier. Ask AAAT to give you that information, including their MC license number, as soon as a carrier has been assigned.

Normally we recommend to avoid brokers for household goods, but for auto shipping a lot of the carriers are single truck operations which rely on the brokers to get the cars onto their trucks. The carrier is still the one responsible and you need to make sure they are licensed, insured, and do not have complaints. If you do find something hinky in your check of the carrier at www.protectyourmove.gov then you ask for a different carrier.

[stevehecht]

I wanted to thank movingscam.com for turning me on to Golden Key Express for auto transport. I couldn't have been more pleased with their service. Harold (the owner) transported three cars for us from eastern Massachusetts to Santa Fe. Because we were moving at the same time we were able to take all three cars to a local towing service and just leave them there for Harold to pick up. That made our lives and our move SO much easier. There was a charge of $50 per car for this service, but it was well worth it. That way we could use our cars until just before we moved. We rented a car for a few days and then hopped on the plane. The cars arrived in the condition we left them and Harold could not have been more friendly. Misty, his office manager, was always available to answer questions and concerns. Harold stayed in constant communication about his location and arrival time. Harold and I worked out a good place in Santa Fe to drop the cars and we were done. We paid Harold a very reasonable fee and could not recommend Golden Key Express more highly. The cars were picked up promptly and actually arrive a bit earlier than the estimated time.