[BRN_RI_FL]

We used United freight of America last spring to transport my Jeep Wrangler from RI to The Villages. Price was $745 including the $100 Angie’s list discount. Lowest price I could find.

[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

This might be a stupid question, but do you travel with your vehicle while you ride on train? Are there other options where your vehicle is transported on a truck while you fly to Florida? Just wondering how this works? Thanks

Yes you do. You can pay extra for early off load of your car, but mine was unloaded in under 1 hour. Do get a sleeper, well worth the extra money. You can bring your own refreshments, beer, wine, whiskey, etc. Two meals and a nice views included. Reserve a train car towards the rear.

[Dcole]

Hi I live in Fenney. I have a friend who works for United van lines and the name of their auto transport division is called McCollister's Transportation Group. They provide door to door service in an enclosed semi that fits 6 cars. I was able to also load up my car with some stuff from house in Chicago. Since this is an enclosed semi, they let you do this. Other auto transporters use open racks and you can't have anything in the car due to theft possibility overnight. The cost from chicago to Fenney was $1800. Megan Malosh, Client service manager coordinated this for me 609 526-9325 toll free 609 209-0701 mmalosh@mccollisters.com . Once car was picked up, I got it within the week. Driver, Pete, was in contact with me so I knew ETA. They did exactly what they told me and did not contract job to a third party. good luck! - Donna Cole

[eastwestauto]

Hi everyone, my name is Alan Perry, and I'm the owner here at East West Auto Transport. It's really great to see everyone helping each other out with references for transport services. Here at East West Auto Transport, there are a few things that we believe are important differentiators with our services and one of the reasons we operate out of Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco now for so many years:

First, auto transport is a service, and like any service, you most times get what you pay for. We absolutely never come straight out and say "use us, we are cheaper than everyone else", because we are not. I always recommend that our customers who want to check our prices, go right ahead and dig through the Internet and what they will find is we are pretty much right in the middle of the pack. The big difference is our customer service and unmatched professionalism.

If price was the only thing people cared about with services, for example, everyone in the world would tell their wives to forget that hair salon for a cut, color, highlighting, blow dry, and whatever else seems to happen behind those doors, and hey, "honey, just go to supercuts, they are cheaper!" Try that out and see what kind of response you get. Your wife will explain what you probably already know, "quality" is just as important as price, and the overall "value" is what you are looking to maximize.

So whether its an accountant, a house painter, a landscaper, or an auto transporter, this just isn't a television set, where sure, for a TV, find the model number of the perfect TV you want, and spend hours and days digging all over the Internet and local stores for the lowest possible price. Sure, its the same TV, and I would do the same. As long as its the exact same TV and the model number is the same, all other things being equal, you pretty much are dealing with an "object" not a service, so save money if you can.

I don't know anyone, however, that would skip altogether a discussion of the quality of the customer service, availability of access to people on the phone, 7 days a week, delivery updates, and having one of our people 24/7 right at The Villages, and just say, "Sure, toothless Joe and his rickety crickety truck (with expired insurance and lousy safety ratings) is fine with me, cause he is $50 cheaper!

"Cheaper isn't better. It's only cheaper."

In this thread there is a suggestion of going on the Internet and talking to lots of brokers and getting quotes. When you have some time, do a google search on "auto transport broker scams" and see what you find. The problem there is those types of brokers do a few things without telling you:

1. First, they put your car out for bid to "ANY" trucker who comes along and they can subcontract for the lowest possible price. What happens when you deal generally with the lowest bidder? Quality suffers. You end up getting hooked up with some pretty sketchy characters!

2. Second, the biggest broker scam out there is to "low ball" quotes to people that will never actually happen. Take real estate for example. If you wanted to sell your house and its worth about $750k, and you interview 3 real estate "brokers" would you automatically hire the one that says "Hey I'm the best broker in the world and I'm going to LIST your house on the market for $1.5 million!" Everyone knows that the unrealistic LISTING price only scares away the buyers and your house never sells. Eventually what do you have to do? You have to lower the price to get buyers to come. Now, the same happens with 99% of those Internet brokers, especially the ones from South Florida! Our FAQ page from our website suggests if you see an auto transport broker website with a typical Florida area code, 305, 407, 954, etc., "RUN!" The playbook they follow is just like my real estate example. First, get them in the door with what sounds like a fantastic quote, even though its so unrealistic they will never get a contract trucker, then later, give them the good news/bad news story, "Well we have your car being picked up tomorrow, yes!, however, we couldn't find any truckers that would take our original price, so how about THIS price? Come on! You'll have your car picked up tomorrow!"

Now in real estate, you wouldn't think twice. Your house is listed for an "asking" price and someone wants to buy and offers something a little lower. Of course, its customary. But the typical auto transport broker you find on the Internet is doing the same thing, except they won't exactly tell you that with their quote. They might be cute and email you "an estimate", but brokering like that is brokering, no different than real estate. You don't know what a buyer will offer for your house. They don't know if they can pitch your car to a trucker for anywhere close to the price that they gave you!

What they want, is to "get you away from the herd", as they say. To get you to sign up, or G-d forbid, even give them upfront money! Then, at the last possible moment, you get the call and your original quote EVAPORATES!

We will absolutely never do that. For our Villages customers, every single quote is 100% guaranteed. We don't deal with sketchy truckers. Every shipment is as close to a door to door experience as we can physically get a truck. You will be given a direct number right to our people, including the dispatcher (who's like the quarterback for all the drivers).

Many of our customers also, for their luxury, exotic, or classic cars, want to opt for our "white glove" enclosed service. This is our premium inside service, where we frequently transport anywhere in the US or Internationally, all types of very high end vehicles. We very frequently transport classic vehicles from all of the popular classic car auctions you see on TV. We transport exotic vehicles for dealers around the country, valued as much as $500k, to buyers just about anywhere in the world.

It's just me, but I wouldn't remodel my kitchen from a guy off of craigslist. Sure he's cheaper. Try asking him for references, insurance, his brochure, years in business, etc. I also wouldn't trust my car to just anyone either.

One of the posters in my office is a quote I framed from a customer two years ago. It reads, "Alan, this is Steve, and I'm calling you back to place an order to ship my car. I'm going with your company, not because you were the cheapest price, because you weren't. In fact, there were a couple of prices I got that were a little lower. I also got a couple of prices that were higher than yours. But when we spoke the first time, you impressed me so much with your knowledge and recommendations, I felt like I was dealing with a professional service and frankly, most of the other companies that I spoke to made me feel like I was at the "drive through window dealing with a teenager" and I'm not going to trust my car to an outfit like that."

Please give us a call anytime. We have a dedicated line just for residents and friends of The Villages! It's 781-232-7600.

Have a wonderful rest of the season everyone!