can anyone recommend a good car shipping firm?

I can recommend:

Cars UK
Classic Automotive Relocation Services
The Old Airfield Site
Bury Road
Chedburgh
Suffolk
IP29 4UQ
Great Britain
Tel.: +44 (0) 1284850950
[email protected]

Worked perfect the other way around from the USA to Germany.

Regards Matthias

 

Phil- so just what are you bringing back to the states? You have me curious!!

 

very cool & fast--u dont see many of them here. You can bring it to the next New Canaan Motorsports event (no excuses either)!!

 

When I imported my Fiat Abarth from Germany to California in 2007 I used a dealer in Holland to get the car by land to the port, then a European agent arranged for it to be put into a container and brought by ship to New York, where Homeland Security charged me like $2K to make sure it wasn't packed with explosives or something. The container then came by truck to California, where I picked the car up at a warehouse after they had taken it out of the container. Container or no, it was slightly damaged.

Everyone who touched it took money from me-- total was $5.5K and considerable headaches.

If I were to do it again I would either

1) call Fantasy Junction or a similar dealer near you and ask them who they use. In 2007 there was an outfit in San Francisco that shipped a lot of high line cars and quoted me about $7K IIRC "plus Homeland Security fees" for container shipping. Expensive but they have the headaches, not you.

2) get an agent to ship it by RoRo (drive the car onto a ship, drive it off)-- should be much cheaper and as I said, my car suffered some damage in the container anyway.

If you do go for container shipping but not with a company that ships cars frequently, get your own 20ft container. Mine was a shared 40ft and that's probably why I had to pay HS $1200 to open and inspect the contents of the container. If I had had my own it would have cost me about $1K more up front but I probably would not have had the $1.2K special inspection fee.

 

yes, they are experts in that business

 

There really are no regulations for cars of that age, if that's what you mean.
IIRC the Federal government / DOT does not care what you import if it is over 25 years old.

The only question would be if your state has pollution control laws that might apply-- but even California excludes cars 1974 and earlier, so you're probably fine in NY.

 

used them in 2001 to bring my dino spider from sicily to us. Penbroke marine services in Linden NJ. 908 862 2262. http://www.penbrokecartainer.com/rates_rollonoff.asp
they were great. my recommendation is to do roro and arrange for your own customs broker or get one from them. you can get it shipped to NJ, drive across the river to your customs broker, pay them the duty and modest fee and drive home (that assumes your car is driveable). I've done it more than once, but the last time was 10 years ago. good luck. enjoy your new ride.

 

I use American Auto Transport to ship WITHIN the US ONLY. Don't know of any international shippers tho oO