Driving Your Own Car Versus Shipping Your Own Car
Posted in Auto Transport Tips on January 29th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment
A question that is often raised by customers is a matter of cost to ship a vehicle versus driving it themselves. We try to explain that shipping your car is more affordable than driving it, but there is nothing quite like numbers.
Fuel Costs
I found this handy gas calculator online, AAA Fuel Costs Calculator. Our supposed trip will be from Miami, Florida to Los Angeles, California, for a total of 2,736 miles — mostly highway driving too.
In a 2002 Ford Focus, the one way price, for just fuel is approximately $250 dollars.
Hotel Costs
Hotels are also vital in terms of expenses when doing a cross country trip. If the average driver goes 70 mph, for 9 hours (straight), that is a distance of approximately 600 miles. So a 2,700 miles trip takes approximately 5 days, which is 4 over night stays.
Even the cheapest of hotels are about $50 per night, so that is an additional $200 dollars.
Travel Costs
Unless you’re the best of packers, you probably won’t be packing enough food for a 5 day trip and will end up eating on the road. For a family of 3 (parents and one child), over the course of 15 meals, with approximately $8 per person, per meal, the total costs end up being an additional $360.
Your Comfort
The total price is already over $800 for the trip, that almost matches the price of having your vehicle shipped. But, don’t forget to take into account piece of mind, and comfort. Unless you’re a road warrior, most people would not enjoy a 4 day trip cross country – unless if it were site seeing. Additionally, take into account the wear and tear on your vehicle that you’ll be saving as well.
With all things considered, the question isn’t if shipping your car is a wise decision, but why would anyone NOT ship their car. Financially, piece of mind, comfort, and ease shows why this is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. That alone should make your decision easy to make, and we hope that you choose AM Express Auto Transport to be your transport provider.
