$1,600 to $1,800 for an operable mid-size vehicle on an open trailer, over 2,736 miles. The figure is derived from two of our own runs that bracket it, San Diego to Fort Lauderdale at $1,600 and San Francisco to Miami at $1,950, and we show that working on the page rather than presenting it as measured on this exact pair.

May or June, once the seasonal traffic has settled in both directions. Those two months are the friendliest window on the calendar for moving a car between Southern California and South Florida, and if your dates are genuinely open they are worth aiming for.

October through December heading south, and April heading north. A great many cars move in and out of Florida on that annual rhythm, so trailers going the popular direction have all the work they need. Book two to three weeks ahead in those windows and you will do well; leave it to the last week and you are competing with everyone else who left it late.

Often, yes, and it is the nicest piece of news on this page. A driver who has just delivered a full trailer into South Florida in November would far rather head back west with your car than head back empty. If your timing happens to point the unfashionable way, you are the easiest booking of his week.

Seven to eight days on the road once the car is loaded. Before that you have a collection window: six days on standard service, three on expedited, counted forward from the date you pick. So allow a little under two weeks from booking to a car in your Florida driveway.

Not honestly. Federal rules cap a driver's hours at the wheel each day. Now add eight or nine other cars to collect and deliver along the way. That does not fit into five days. If you see five quoted for this distance, ask what happens when it slips. We would rather say eight and arrive on seven.

No. It stays on the trailer it was loaded onto in Los Angeles until it comes off in Florida. What does sometimes happen on a run this long is a planned driver handover partway, which is a normal part of long-haul trucking and involves nobody touching your vehicle. It is not unloaded into a yard in Texas or Alabama.

Almost all of it is I-10, the southernmost coast-to-coast interstate and the lowest overall. East through Phoenix and Tucson, across New Mexico and Texas via El Paso, San Antonio and Houston, then the Gulf Coast through Baton Rouge and Mobile to Tallahassee. It leaves I-10 near Lake City and runs down the peninsula into Miami-Dade.

Because the peninsula is longer than people expect. Getting off I-10 in north Florida still leaves several hundred miles to Miami-Dade, and that stretch is busy road rather than open highway. It is the single most common reason a coast-to-coast Florida estimate comes in optimistic, which is why this page says 7 to 8 rather than a flat 7.

It can move your delivery date by a day or two, and drivers see it coming well in advance. Gulf and Florida weather is tracked as routine in this business. If a named storm is heading for South Florida a driver holds your car safely inland and waits rather than driving into it, then calls you. Shipping carries on through the season; it is the calendar that flexes, not the plan.

Yes, a couple. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole move. Nobody has ever regretted booking a rental two days longer than their best guess, and scrambling for a last-minute extension in South Florida in season costs a great deal more than the two days would have.

In most of the basin, yes, right at the curb. The Valley, the South Bay, Orange County and the Inland Empire give a carrier plenty of room. The exceptions are the steep hillside roads above Hollywood and Silver Lake, the older double-parked blocks of Santa Monica and Venice, and any underground garage, which loses on height. There we pick a wider street close by and charge nothing for it.

We deliver to Miami Beach customers regularly, just not always to the door. The Art Deco blocks south of Lincoln Road were laid out in the 1920s and 30s with narrow one-way streets and no turning room for a 75-foot rig, so we arrange a meeting point on the mainland side. It is agreed before the day and costs nothing extra.

Straightforward, nearly all of it. Doral, Kendall, Hialeah, Aventura, Homestead, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood are flat, modern and built wide, with room to turn and unload. Gated communities just need the driver's name on the visitor list before he arrives.

Our Florida office is in Kissimmee, up near Orlando, which is about three and a half hours north of Miami rather than around the corner. We will not pretend otherwise. What it gives you is someone in your delivery time zone who can see your order if a Florida delivery needs rearranging. Registered business address: 4208 Six Forks Rd Ste 1000, Raleigh, NC 27609.

More people choose enclosed on this lane than on a short one, and the reason is simply eight days of road spray and grit. Open is still right for most cars and is what this page is priced on. Enclosed runs about 80 percent more and earns it on a classic, a low-clearance car, a fresh restoration or a paint job you would hate to touch up.

Readily. Southern California and South Florida both have deep collector-car markets, and enclosed trailers work this corridor as a matter of course rather than occasionally. On a thin lane an enclosed booking can wait a week for the right equipment; here it usually will not.

It can still make the trip, on a truck carrying a winch. No flat fee applies; budget from $200 upward depending on how much the car cooperates. The three things that matter are whether it rolls, steers and brakes. Be straight with us about all three, because the wrong truck arriving costs a day you cannot spare on a schedule this long.

Run the tank down to a quarter. Give it a wash, so the condition report at pickup actually shows something, and take your own photos of any marks. Mirrors in, antenna down, toll tag off. Two extras matter on a haul this long: check the tire pressures, and make sure the parking brake holds. The car gets strapped and shifted several times.

A little, in the trunk, under about 100 pounds, and nothing you would be sorry to lose. The carrier policy covers the car itself, not household contents. Weight counts when nine cars share a trailer, and loose items in the cabin do badly over 2,736 miles.

The carrier hauling it. Every carrier we dispatch to holds Carrier Cargo Insurance, and we confirm the certificate is current before your car is loaded rather than afterward. Ask and we will send you a copy. Your own policy often provides cover during transport too, so it is worth a quick call to your insurer.

Yes. Give us their name and cell number when you book. They need to be an adult who will walk around the car with the driver and sign the delivery report, because that signed report is what any later conversation rests on. On a long trip it is worth briefing them properly.

No. We do not make outbound sales calls. Take your number, think it over, come back when you are ready. There is nothing to pay to get a price and nothing to pay to have the load booked, and our line is open if you would rather talk it through.