Should you ship a car or drive it? On cash alone, driving is cheaper for most moves under about 2,000 miles and shipping wins the cross-country ones; if the days behind the wheel cost you work, shipping wins from about 550 miles. Take a 1,500 mile move as the test case. Driving it is three days behind the wheel: about $590 for the car’s gas, wear and the depreciation the miles add, two hotel nights near $345 and about $205 in road meals, roughly $1,140 in all, plus the working days you give up. Shipping it: an ordinary car on an open carrier typically ran about $1,250 in our bookings over the last twelve months, about $1,550 with a one-way flight, and it arrives without the miles. Our 2026 ship-or-drive break-even report runs the same comparison at every distance. Here is the honest comparison for a family weighing both.

You’re picking up stakes and moving. Far away, as in across the country or from one region to another. You’re packing up the house and hiring a moving company for the household goods, and as for the car? “This would be a great time to see the country,” you think. “The family could pile into the ol’ SUV and make some memories.”

HOLD. UP.

Let’s take a close look at driving the car yourself vs. shipping it.

Driving it yourself.

  • The family spends days squeezed into one car (or two, caravanning both vehicles), sleeping in hotels, eating on the road, with all the explosive family exchanges that come from that much proximity and no escape hatch until the next motel.
  • If you’re driving by yourself, you’ll have no one to take over the wheel when you’re tired. Eight-plus hours behind a wheel can take a toll.
  • You definitely will see parts of the country you’ve never seen, especially on the side roads, which add time to the trip.
  • You incur the cost of food on the road and hotel rooms. Friends and family along the route can save money, if your route happens to have them.
  • Do you have enough time? Most moves happen on a job or school clock. Will you arrive in time, or spend the trip rushing past the sights you drove to see?
  • You will incur extra wear and tear on your car, hundreds or thousands of miles of it.
  • One real advantage: precious keepsakes (photo albums, sensitive papers) can travel with you in the car, under your own eye the whole way.

rack car

Shipping the car.

  • The transport company picks the car up at your address and delivers it to your new home door to door; where a big rig genuinely cannot reach, you meet the driver at a wide spot nearby.
  • You can’t pack household goods in the car; carriers are not licensed or insured for them.
  • Depending on budget, the car rides an “open carrier” (exposed to the elements, the value standard) or an “enclosed carrier” for full protection at roughly a third more.
  • Transport companies work around your schedule, with pickup windows planned so the car lands at the new home in a time frame that works.
  • Shipping lets the family fly to the new home and arrive rested, in plenty of time for work and school deadlines.
  • Mileage and wear on your car is essentially zero.
  • You may need a rental car for a few days at the new home before your vehicle arrives, which belongs in the comparison honestly.

Tow Truck Transportation

So, what’s the answer? It depends on YOUR needs/desires/budget.

Distance decides most cases: a few hundred miles, drive it; cross-country, the math flips. Run the numbers for a coast-to-coast move at today’s prices:

In our bookings over the last twelve months, shipping an ordinary car coast to coast by open carrier typically cost about $1,650, or about $1,950 with a one-way flight. Driving the same 2,750 miles costs one driver about $2,350: about $1,080 for gas, tires and maintenance and the depreciation the miles add (AAA’s per-mile figures, repriced to $4.48 gas), five hotel nights near $860, and six days of meals near $410, before a single vacation day is counted.

So on a cross-country move, shipping saves roughly $400 in cash and six days on the road, and the car arrives without 2,750 new miles.

Shipping’s honest extra beyond the plane ticket is a few days of rental car while yours is on the truck, and on shorter moves driving is usually the cheaper choice in cash.

Naturally, our answer is ship the car! Once it leaves the old driveway, it is one less thing to manage in a week full of things to manage. We’ve provided door-to-door transport for more than 50,000 vehicles nationwide, with an A+ rating from the BBB and consistent 5-star customer reviews.

Call us at 866-821-4555 now to speak with one of our expert shipping agents, or price your move in seconds with the instant calculator.