Shipped my car to America, drove it around, shipped it back
Discussion
I have looked into similar with my bike, it really isn't that expensive when you consider it all.
Op says that it is about £3,383.00 there and back for the car.
It is a Porsche so you're not going to be looking at renting a Hyundai, you will be looking at premium vehicles.
Your own car you can go for as long as you like really, take it as a month long road trip for example, that is easily £1700-2000 in rental costs, plus your deposit which could be up to rental costs, which puts rental at £3-4k (yes you get deposit back). It's a lot for a car you wont really like, and you will be on a time limit for returning it.
Take your own car, slightly more expensive, but it is your own car, you don't have to worry about over inflated damage costs, you know the car and it is cool as poo.
I am 100% for doing this, I have looked into with my bike, and that is actually cheaper than bike rental, you can get your bike, stripped down, boxed, along with your gear, all import paper work done, it flies over with you on the same flight, pick it up a day later, shipping company put it back together for you (they take the wheels off to make easy to box and palletise)
Only reason I haven't done this is money, as being an old Ducati on belts and soft tyres, I will probably end up doing a set of belts and may 2-3 tyres whilst out there, also concerned that if it dies, what do you do?
Op awesome trip, it's something I would love to do
Op says that it is about £3,383.00 there and back for the car.
It is a Porsche so you're not going to be looking at renting a Hyundai, you will be looking at premium vehicles.
Your own car you can go for as long as you like really, take it as a month long road trip for example, that is easily £1700-2000 in rental costs, plus your deposit which could be up to rental costs, which puts rental at £3-4k (yes you get deposit back). It's a lot for a car you wont really like, and you will be on a time limit for returning it.
Take your own car, slightly more expensive, but it is your own car, you don't have to worry about over inflated damage costs, you know the car and it is cool as poo.
I am 100% for doing this, I have looked into with my bike, and that is actually cheaper than bike rental, you can get your bike, stripped down, boxed, along with your gear, all import paper work done, it flies over with you on the same flight, pick it up a day later, shipping company put it back together for you (they take the wheels off to make easy to box and palletise)
Only reason I haven't done this is money, as being an old Ducati on belts and soft tyres, I will probably end up doing a set of belts and may 2-3 tyres whilst out there, also concerned that if it dies, what do you do?
Op awesome trip, it's something I would love to do
bad company said:
Maybe I’m missing something obvious but I cannot see the cost of insuring the car while in the USA?
US car insurance for a foreign carThe hardest challenge you will face, and according to a recent conversation with Ben Combes (Pub 2 Pub Ben) who is probably the most knowledgeable and experienced Briton on the planet when it comes to driving his own cars around the world, US insurance is becoming harder to obtain from what he is hearing from others asking for advice. If you’ve not seen Ben’s 27,000 mile story from the northernmost to the southernmost bars on the planet, in a TVR, you can read it on his blog here.
Forget getting your UK broker to cover you. They won’t.
The chances of happening across a US broker at random who has dealt with insuring a British registered car, to a non-US resident with a UK driving licence are slim. It is hardly a common request. Progressive’s website in the US sort of gets close to looking like it can offer cover as it starts off using the car’s VIN as the identifier for the vehicle but there are a lot of assumptions being made given the system is not expecting you to be bringing in a car from outside the US. It is one of those things where you just know if there was an issue there will be a strong argument for the cover being void as they were not aware of the risk. It really needs to be done through a broker who understands what is going on and who is speaking in person to the insurer. To be fair, all the details were a bit woolly with things like the car value being absent from the online quote so it wasn’t a way forward.
Paramount Insurance Services, LLC in Sweetwater Tennessee, and in particular Jeni Seiler the Managing Partner there kindly took the challenge on and after lots of to-and-fro with Progressive managed to agree some very specific requirements including salvage rights and a $98,000 pay out on the car should the worst happen (roughly £75,000) and in line with the most recent documented valuation on the vehicle agreed by the UK insurers. Importantly, Paramount have made Progressive fully aware of the whole situation so they can calculate the risk and cover accordingly. I’m glad I started the ball rolling on this early in the planning as it was some weeks to finalise.
Cover for the three months the the car is in the US starting 17 May though to the departure of the car before the 16 of July worked out at $1242 with some of that amount to be returned when the policy is terminated once the car is shipped back and unused days calculated.
Once the policy is finalised you get an ID card with the Insurance details on to keep in the car. Hopefully the most this will need to be used for is for talking any curious Highway Patrols through this unusual situation.
Edited by S100HP on Monday 19th August 13:26
PSB1 said:
'.....an alien themed gas station in the Arizona desert where you can also shoot guns and eat burgers'
Struggling to work out what else I need in life at present.
Struggling to work out what else I need in life at present.
the oddities depicted, say, in a Tarantino or David Lynch movie... are not limited to the Tarantino or David Lynch movie
unsprung said:
PSB1 said:
'.....an alien themed gas station in the Arizona desert where you can also shoot guns and eat burgers'
Struggling to work out what else I need in life at present.
Struggling to work out what else I need in life at present.
the oddities depicted, say, in a Tarantino or David Lynch movie... are not limited to the Tarantino or David Lynch movie
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