How Much Does It Actually Cost To Ship a Car When You Move States?
Somewhere in the middle of planning a cross-country move, the question of what to do with your car comes up, and shipping it starts to look appealing once you picture several days behind the wheel instead. Whether it’s actually worth the cost depends on more than the sticker price of the shipping quote.
In a nutshell
Car shipping costs typically scale with distance, the type of transport (open versus enclosed), the vehicle’s size, and how flexible your pickup and delivery window is, and a shipped car generally costs more upfront than the fuel for driving it yourself. The comparison only makes sense once you also count the cost of driving, including fuel, lodging, meals, and the time taken off work or life to make the trip.
What drives the shipping cost
- Distance. Longer routes cost more in total but often cost less per mile, since fixed costs like loading and unloading get spread across more miles.
- Transport type. Open-air transport, where a car rides exposed on a multi-car carrier, is typically the cheaper option, while enclosed transport, which protects against weather and road debris, costs more.
- Vehicle size and weight. Larger vehicles, like trucks and SUVs, generally cost more to ship than compact cars.
- Route popularity and timing. Heavily traveled corridors tend to have more competition among carriers, which can bring costs down, while remote or unusual routes can cost more due to lower demand for that particular route.
- Flexibility on pickup and delivery dates. A rigid, exact-date requirement tends to cost more than a flexible window, since carriers can consolidate flexible shipments more efficiently.
What driving it yourself actually costs
Driving the car yourself avoids the shipping fee entirely, but it isn’t free. Fuel is the most obvious cost, and it scales with distance and the vehicle’s efficiency, but a realistic estimate also needs to include lodging for overnight stops on longer routes, meals, and wear and tear on the vehicle itself. There’s also a less tangible cost: the time spent driving is time not spent working, unpacking, or settling into the new city, and for some moves that time has real value, especially if the cost of living is jumping significantly and every extra day of overlapping expenses adds up.
A simple way to compare
Add up fuel, lodging, meals, and any extra wear-and-tear consideration for driving the car yourself, and compare that total against a shipping quote for the same route. For shorter interstate moves, driving is often the cheaper option since the trip doesn’t require overnight stops. For longer cross-country moves, the totals can land much closer together, and the deciding factor often becomes convenience, timing, and whether a second driver is available to help split the trip.
Other factors worth weighing
Shipping a car also removes mileage and wear from the vehicle, which some people value if the car is newer or has other value tied to condition. On the other hand, driving yourself means having the car immediately on arrival rather than waiting for a delivery window, which can matter if you’re managing how much cash you’ll need on move-in day or coordinating other logistics like insurance on a rented moving truck that are happening around the same time. It’s also worth considering whether moving during the off-season affects overall costs, since shipping demand and pricing can shift seasonally along with everything else related to moving.
The bottom line
There’s no single answer to whether shipping a car is cheaper than driving it, because the comparison depends on distance, the value placed on time, and the actual cost of a road trip once lodging and meals are counted. Running both totals side by side for the specific route and situation is the only reliable way to see which option actually costs less.