I recently moved from Texas to New York. I really wanted to
make the drive (1700 miles) in my '67 Imperial, but circumstances
conspired to make me ship it instead. Since I'd never used an
auto transporter before and didn't know what to expect, I decided
to go with one of the big names, Dependable Auto Shippers, better
known as DAS (and not to be confused with Reliable Auto Shippers,
who have
also received praise here recently). They have offices and
terminals in both the Dallas and NYC areas, and people in both
of those cities recommended them to me.
They shipped my Imp in a covered truck, terminal to terminal,
for $820. I saved $200 by waiving the $50,000 insurance that
they normally include with covered transport. I paid another
$200 for door-to-door delivery, i.e. pickup from my old house
and delivery to my new house in car carrier trucks, so the total
was $1020. (I realize that's about half the market value of
the car. Call me a sentimental fool...)
The Imperial arrived with all of its dents and scratches intact,
but no new ones. :-) The delivery drivers in both cities were
friendly and seemed competent, so I tipped each of them $20,
which was probably overly generous. While they were loading and
unloading the car, I made a big show of taking lots of photos,
just in case FOD (Fear of Documentation) might inspire them to
higher levels of carefulness...
One of the drivers complimented my Imp on how smoothly it drove.
He said he's more used to classic show cars that look pretty
but rattle and shake, if you can get them started at all. Heck,
my car ain't no show car, but at least it can make the drive
from a truck onto the street!
The delivery was done in less than a week. At first I was worried
that the car might arrive in New York before I did. But they
said if that happened, they'd store it at their terminal for
up to 48 hours at no extra charge.
I have only two complaints:
(1) The DAS sales guy assured me twice that the 50-mile delivery
from the terminal to my door in New York would be by covered
truck -- but it wasn't. I mentioned this to the delivery driver,
and he was surprised to hear that they'd promised that, since
according to him, they never do residential deliveries in covered
trucks in this area. Since there was no harm done anyway, I've
decided it's not worth my effort to try to get any money back or
anything, but I will mention it on the feedback form they've
sent me, and in the review that I'm about to post to epinions.com.
(2) I have no assurance that the cross-country shipment was done
in a covered truck either. It probably was -- but it would have
been a nice touch for DAS to provide me a photograph of my car
in a covered truck in the Dallas terminal, and another shot of it
in the same truck in the New York terminal.
Those two complaints aside, I'm glad I went with DAS.
Tim Klein
'67 Crown 4DHT
Rye, New York
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