The bros forgot to ask an important question to the woman moving from Chicago to San Francisco and wondering whether or not to take her Honda Civic:“Does it have manual transmission?” If so, don’t take it!
Fix the Honda for $1,500 and then ship it for $1,000? A 2001 Civic? Nope, nope, nope.
Unless the Honda is dangerous to drive, sell it as is and then rent by the week when you get to San Francisco. If you can’t afford a new car within a month, buy the car of your choice that’s within your price range.
Most people buy used anyway, and a 3-4 year old car with 30,000 or so on the clock- and it’s been well cared for- is a much better buy than a new car.
They need to get rid of the car. Regardless of it’s drivability, California’s draconian air quality laws mean that any car coming from any other part of the country will never get a smog certificate and they’ll never be able to register it. Plus they’ll be stuck in California with a car they can’t sell.
Better to get what they can for it now than deal with this nasty surprise later.
I’m sure if you hung around the areas where the illegals are known to frequent, I’m sure they’ll be bound to hit it with their car and drive off.
Here’s a total long-shot: I’m moving from Chicago to Redding, CA (3 or 4 hours NE of San Francisco) the first week of June, driving across the country. I have friends that want to make the road trip, but no room for them. If there’s a way to connect with this family, we would be more than happy to drive a Civic out to SF for infinitely less than $1000. It’d be in good company with my 2001 Avalon.
They should find someone to drive the car for them - there are websites where people list where the car is and where they want it to be. Why didn’t they ask her why she doesn’t want to do that? Yes, it’s a stranger, but we live in a global world and $1,000 to ship a car when it could mean someone else has a nice road trip they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise? Why not?