Moving Long Distance: Should You Drive Or Ship Your Car?

Posted on: 20 May 2015

When moving long distances, you are bound to run into the question of how you should get your personal vehicle to your new home. Two of the most popular solutions to this problem are to either drive the car yourself or pay a professional auto transporting company to ship the vehicle to your new home. When deciding between these two options, there are several factors that you must consider. You will learn more about each of these factors below.

How Many People Must You Move?

In addition to moving your personal belongings, you will also need to physically move all of the people in your house from one location to the other. While flying or taking a train may be an affordable option when moving one or two people, it may quickly become far less cost effective when moving a family of six. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind the total cost of moving everyone in your household when considering other forms of transportation.

What Will The Depreciation Of Your Vehicle Be?

In addition to the cost of gas and other essentials while on the road, choosing to drive your vehicle long distance will ultimately result in a decrease of your car's resale value. This is because the number of miles on your vehicle will have a direct impact on the fair market value of your vehicle.

In order to find out just how much your car will depreciate if you choose to drive it to your new home, begin by looking up the current resale value of your vehicle based on the number of miles you have right now. Next, simply change your mileage input to reflect the number of miles that will be added by your move. Compare the two values and you will get a much clearer idea of just how much driving will really cost you.

How Long Will A Transport Take?

Many auto transport companies will pick up vehicles from other customers along their route to your new home. This allows them to keep the transporter truck as close to full capacity as possible at all times. Unfortunately, this can also result in a delay between the time your vehicle leaves your existing home and the time it arrives at your new home.

If you will arrive at your new home before your vehicle does, you will need to consider how you will get around until you have access to your car again. Is there public transportation available? Can you afford to rent a car? Do you know someone in the area that can loan you a car until yours arrives? Taking the time to answer these questions can help you to determine whether or not professional auto transporting services are right for you.

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