Here’s a polarizing article about how the super rich transport their vehicles. The article also gives you an idea of how much it costs to transport these toys. I rolled my eyes and shook my head and I hope you can do that or at least chuckle.
I’ve been doing that for years now… 
Yeah right… I can’t afford to look at those cars much less own one… lol
1 Like
Why do you think it is polarizing?
Snowbirds down here in Florida often ship their cars back and forth to their northern homes. Roughly $1800 and up for open transporters each way! Some of these cars are very ordinary. Not sure why you wouldn’t just buy a second car… but to each his own.
When I worked for GM, we’d air-freight cars overseas fairly often. They’d cost about $10K each way back in the 90s and 2000s. We had import offices handle the papers and post a carnet to make sure we shipped it back to the US. These are engineering development cars we had $250K to more than a million in that we just could not afford to put on a ship for 8 weeks each way. Sometimes we sent a standard US model not available in Europe as a comparison car so that added in another $10K. Made my boss sweat!
The museum I volunteer for ships priceless vintage autos in covered semi trailers for domestic travel. Clearly more expensive than the open carriers. It is a VERY trusted company and driver. If the museum ships 6 vintage Porsches to an event in California in the same trailer, one accident could destroy $100 Million worth of cars. Trust is very important. Overseas cars generally go on ships but not always.
If I could afford a $16M Bugatti, I certainly could easily afford to air-freight my toy with me for $20K a ride. Four trips a year (one each season!) is less than $100K… pocket change!
This concierge shipping industry puts a LOT of money into various economies and employs a lot of people. It is also nearly recession-proof since wealthy people are rarely affected to any degree.
4 Likes
Unfortunately for Chrysler, they cheaped-out with ship transport, and they lost their Norseman concept car as a result.
2 Likes
Several people I know who are snowbirds ship their car via train.
2 Likes
Drive to the train station, load your car up, take a train ride down the east coast. Grab your car when you arrive and continue to your house.
Works pretty well for east-coast residents even if their Florida home is on the Gulf. A bit less convienient for midwestern snowbirds.
That’s $25,000 one way on a “cheaper airline”. The first transporter interviewed said it cost $36,000 one way to ship his Porsche Carrera GT. He also told of clients that would spend millions to transport a fleet of their vehicles to a wedding. It’s could be polarizing because exceedingly rich people can afford to spend millions on a lark while most (all?) of us here would have a hard time justifying the Autotrain.
This is a 0.1% story. Crazy rich people doing crazy things. In other news, water is wet…
2 Likes
Seems like a good way to damage the car.
It’s possible to ship your car over to Europe for a vacation but even by ship that takes time and isn’t cheap. It’s been an option at the factory to have your Porsche GT car or Ferrari shipped by air to get it quicker but for a five or six figure bill.
1 Like
Jealousy is the only reason I can think why that might be polarizing. I have no headspace for that.
1 Like
The Porsche Carrera GT is not your ‘normal’ Porsche. No longer in production, only a few were made, and they now go for $1.3 - $2.0 million. Even though that Fast & Furious star died driving his.
1 Like
Not sure why this is Polarizing . Would I like to be that wealthy , of course . But I am sure at our financial level their are people that wish they could have or do what we do . That is just life .
2 Likes
I wonder if that could be a new business model for America’s railroads? For long trips, say San Jose to Denver, I’d be happy to pay a modest fee to drive my car onto a RR car in San Jose, enjoy the train trip to Denver , then drive it off the RR car in Denver, to use there.
As far as I know thus is only an east coast Amtrak operation with limited capacity. Requires special cars and loading and unloading facilities at both ends. Been a couple years since I looked it up. It’s not like they ship cars all over the place. Starts and ends in two specific locations and includes passenger service. It’s not like shipping a box somewhere.
1 Like
I wonder if they’d let me ride in my car while it sits on the train from San Jose to Denver? Should be some pretty good views. In areas where ferries abound it is a common thing to drive your car onto the ferry. But you have to get out of your car and ride in the passenger part of the ferry for the crossing.
I’m hoping it’s on a flat-bed car. Bathroom requirements might still be a problem … lol …
That is really a Goofy statement even for you .
1 Like
The cost to send our $60K vehicle to FL was $2,400 round-trip. Buying a $30K second car costs $1,500 in lost income each year by having that cash tied up in a car (5% guaranteed these days) + insurance + maintenance + tags + depreciation makes it quite a bit cheaper to ship the car. And, I get to drive a much nicer car. The car functions like a big suitcase so we can pack it full of stuff. But, like you said, to each his own.
1 Like