How much does it cost to ship a car?

On published open-carrier figures for a standard sedan: $450–$850 on a short interstate, $700–$1,250 on a mid-haul, $850–$1,600 on a long-haul, $1,100–$2,000 on a coast-to-coast. Enclosed adds roughly 30–60%. Larger and heavier vehicles cost more, but no multiplier is published here because there is no defensible published basis for one; get that priced on the quote.

Can my car travel on the same truck as my furniture?

No. Household goods and vehicles move under different operating authorities on different equipment, so a car ships on a car carrier even when the same company arranges both bookings. Plan for two delivery windows that will not coincide, and do not put anything you need in the car — most auto transporters limit or prohibit personal items in a shipped vehicle, and they are not covered by the vehicle's cargo protection.

Is shipping a car cheaper than driving it?

It depends almost entirely on distance and on what your time is worth. Against the published bands above, the drive costs fuel, nights on the road, wear, and the working days it consumes — on the longest corridor tracked here, California to Florida at 2,650 miles, that is a multi-day commitment. On short interstate hops the drive usually wins; coast to coast it usually does not. The car-shipping cost page works the comparison through properly.

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Auto Transport directory listings

Shipping a car alongside a household move is its own regulated lane: auto transporters hold motor-carrier authority for vehicles, quote by corridor and transport type (open vs enclosed), and deliver on their own schedule, not the van line's. Members here disclose their authority and footprint, and every number is checkable at SAFER before your car goes on a trailer.

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Published open-carrier ranges by distance

Open-carrier ranges for a standard sedan, from the published 2026 figures this site treats as its single source of truth (last verified 2026-07-10). No per-vehicle-size multiplier is published here because there is no defensible basis for one — that part is left to the quote.
Distance band	Open carrier	Typical mid
Short interstate (~500 mi)	$450–$850	about $600
Mid-haul (~1,000 mi)	$700–$1,250	about $900
Long-haul (~1,500 mi)	$850–$1,600	about $1,150
Coast-to-coast (~2,800 mi)	$1,100–$2,000	about $1,450

Auto transport is its own regulated lane and its own booking. Vehicle transporters hold motor-carrier authority for vehicles rather than household-goods authority, quote by corridor and by transport type, and deliver on their own schedule rather than the van line's. Booking a car alongside a household move therefore means two carriers, two delivery windows and two contracts, even when one company arranges both.

The ranges above are published figures rather than a model output, and that distinction matters. This site runs a calibrated cost engine for household moves; it does not run one for vehicles, and rather than invent one it publishes the source bands and interpolates between them where a corridor mileage falls in between. Enclosed transport costs roughly 30–60% more than open on the same corridor — on a coast-to-coast (~2,800 mi) that is roughly $1,885–$2,320 against $1,450 open.

The comparison worth running before you book anything is against driving it yourself. On the corridors tracked here that means weighing the shipping band above against fuel, nights on the road and the days off work — a 2,650-mile drive is a multi-day commitment, and the tracked corridor set runs from 285 miles up to that. The five-page car-shipping cluster works through the whole decision, including which vehicles genuinely justify enclosed and when a terminal beats door-to-door.

Auto transport questions

On published open-carrier figures for a standard sedan: $450–$850 on a short interstate, $700–$1,250 on a mid-haul, $850–$1,600 on a long-haul, $1,100–$2,000 on a coast-to-coast. Enclosed adds roughly 30–60%. Larger and heavier vehicles cost more, but no multiplier is published here because there is no defensible published basis for one; get that priced on the quote.
No. Household goods and vehicles move under different operating authorities on different equipment, so a car ships on a car carrier even when the same company arranges both bookings. Plan for two delivery windows that will not coincide, and do not put anything you need in the car — most auto transporters limit or prohibit personal items in a shipped vehicle, and they are not covered by the vehicle's cargo protection.
It depends almost entirely on distance and on what your time is worth. Against the published bands above, the drive costs fuel, nights on the road, wear, and the working days it consumes — on the longest corridor tracked here, California to Florida at 2,650 miles, that is a multi-day commitment. On short interstate hops the drive usually wins; coast to coast it usually does not. The car-shipping cost page works the comparison through properly.

Keep reading: Cross-country car shipping · How much it costs to ship a car · Open vs. enclosed transport · Door-to-door vs. terminal.