The cost to ship a car from Chicago to Seattle is typically $1,250 to $1,450 on an open trailer for an operable mid-size vehicle, and takes between 5 to 7 days in transit time. Tacoma, Lakewood and Olympia sit in the same range. Spokane is cheaper at $1,100 to $1,300, because the truck reaches it 285 miles earlier.

Five to seven days on the road once your car is loaded. That works out to about 295 to 415 miles a day, which is what a driver legally covers under federal hours-of-service rules with stops and other deliveries along the way. Add your pickup window to that for the full door-to-door timeline.

Five to seven. Seven to ten days is the honest figure for a true coast-to-coast run of more than 2,500 miles, like New York to Seattle at 2,850 miles. Chicago to Seattle is about 2,065 miles, which is a different band entirely. We would rather give you the shorter number and hit it than pad the estimate.

About 2,065 miles on Interstate 90. Tacoma and Lakewood are slightly shorter at about 2,030. Olympia is about 2,000 and Vancouver, Washington about 2,010. Spokane, where the truck crosses into Washington, is about 1,780.

We do, and only a few of our lanes can say it. Chicago is one of our four staffed offices and so is Lakewood, Washington, ten miles south of Tacoma. Your car leaves a city where we have people and arrives in a metro where we have people, and you can call either end.

Chicago is at 742 E 87th Pl, Chicago, IL, on 312-300-7773. Lakewood is at 5607 Boston Ave SW, Lakewood, WA 98499, on 253-200-5645. Both are offices rather than storage yards, so your car is collected and delivered at your own addresses rather than at a lot.

Interstate 90 almost the whole way, and it is the most scenic and the most demanding of the transcontinental routes. Chicago to Madison, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Missoula, Coeur d'Alene, Spokane, then over Snoqualmie Pass into the Seattle metro.

Five worth naming, and they come in the last third. Bozeman Pass and Homestake Pass in Montana, Lookout Pass and Fourth of July Pass on the Idaho stretch, then Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades at just over 3,000 feet. Snoqualmie is the one that makes the news, and it is the last one before your car reaches Seattle.

It can, and we would rather set the expectation than pretend otherwise. Snoqualmie Pass closes for a few hours at a time in heavy snow and the Montana stretch of I-90 sees ground blizzards. Drivers stop and wait rather than take a loaded trailer over a pass in a storm, which is exactly what you want them to do. Our 5 to 7 day range already allows for that.

There is, and drivers use it. A truck can run south to the Columbia River Gorge and come up Interstate 5 from Portland instead. It adds roughly 150 miles and often a day, but it keeps the car moving rather than parked at a closure. Your driver will tell you if that is the plan.

May through September, comfortably. The passes are clear, the days are long and the estimate holds without qualification. October through April still runs fine, and January and February are the two months where a pass closure is most likely to add a day. If your dates are flexible, the shoulder months either side of summer are the sweet spot.

Distance and the Cascades. Spokane sits about 285 miles short of Seattle on the same road and on the near side of the mountains, so the truck has already done most of the work by the time it gets there. Chicago to Spokane is $1,100 to $1,300 against $1,250 to $1,450 for Seattle. If your real destination is eastern Washington, do not pay the Seattle figure.

Marginally, and not enough to change your plans. Tacoma and Lakewood are about 35 miles closer and Olympia about 65, so they sit in the same range with Olympia at the bottom of it. Carriers treat the whole Puget Sound corridor as one delivery zone, so pick the address that suits you rather than the one you think prices better.

Across Chicagoland and well beyond. The city itself, plus Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Elgin, Schaumburg, Evanston, Arlington Heights, Orland Park, Oak Brook, Oak Park and Skokie, then Rockford, Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, Springfield and the Quad Cities further out.

In most of Chicagoland, yes, straight to the curb. The tighter spots are the older grids in Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Pilsen and Hyde Park. Cars fill both sides of the street there and some viaducts sit too low for a loaded trailer, so the driver picks a wider street a block or two over.

To your address in most cases. Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Renton, Kent, Everett, Lynnwood, Shoreline, Tacoma, Lakewood and Olympia all have main roads and residential streets a full-size carrier can work. The driver brings the truck as close as it can safely get.

Worth a word ahead of time. Queen Anne, Magnolia, West Seattle, Capitol Hill and parts of Ballard have steep grades and narrow blocks where a 75-foot trailer cannot safely stop. There the driver picks a wide flat lot nearby, often at a shopping center, and meets you there. It costs nothing and takes a few minutes.

Regularly, and our Lakewood office is minutes from the gates. A carrier cannot drive onto the base without credentials, so the handover happens at an agreed spot just outside, which our Lakewood team sets up before the driver leaves Illinois. Tell us it is a base delivery when you book.

Yes, and plenty of customers do. Send it to a friend, a relative, a workplace or a short-term rental while your own travel or closing date catches up. Give us the delivery contact at booking and tell us early if the address changes, so the driver has the right details before dispatch.

The familiar two-level trailer carrying nine or ten cars, and every price on this page is an open price. It moves the large majority of cars on this route and it is the same equipment dealers receive new inventory on. Your car collects road dust over 2,065 miles and arrives wanting a wash, which is the whole of the downside.

Enclosed runs about 80% more than open. Against $1,250 to $1,450, expect somewhere around $2,250 to $2,600. The car travels inside a closed trailer with no weather and no grit, which on a February crossing of I-90 also means no road salt on the underside. It is the right call for a collector car, an exotic, anything low, or fresh paint.

It is a fairer question here than on most routes. I-90 crosses five passes and the states along it salt heavily, so a winter open shipment will arrive with salt spray on the underside. If the car is valuable or freshly restored, enclosed earns its money in January in a way it might not in July. For a daily driver, a wash at the far end covers it.

Yes. It needs a trailer with a winch and a driver equipped to use it, and we have plenty of both. Budget $200 upward on top of the running price. Three answers decide which rig we send, so have them ready: does it roll, does it steer, does it brake.

A mid-size SUV usually adds $75 to $150 over the sedan ranges here. A full-size pickup or a three-row SUV such as a Suburban or an F-250 typically adds $150 to $300. Trailers are limited by height and weight, so a bigger vehicle takes room the driver could otherwise sell.

Yes, and this is a busy lane for them in both directions. Bring it to about half charge, give us the exact model so the weight is right, and switch off anything that wakes the car while it sits. The heavier EVs price a little above a comparable gas car, because weight is what a trailer is limited by.

Our standard pickup window is 6 days from booking. Expedited narrows it to 3 days, which is 72 hours. Chicago is one of the densest freight origins in the country, so collection often happens toward the front of the window rather than at the end of it.

It can be, and here is the arithmetic. Expedited cuts the pickup window from six days to three. It does not speed up the drive, because drivers work to federal hours-of-service limits. Three days off the front of a timeline that is already a week still moves your whole schedule forward by three days, which matters when a lease or a start date is fixed.

Your vehicle moves under the assigned carrier's Carrier Cargo Insurance, live from loading in Illinois to unloading in Washington with nothing uncovered between. We confirm each carrier's coverage is active before dispatch and we will email you the certificate for your specific carrier whenever you ask.

Smart Auto Move operates under USDOT 2887232 and MC 969368. Both are public on the FMCSA SAFER system, and we would rather you checked them than took our word for it. Looking those numbers up is the quickest way to tell a real transport company from a website.

No, and if you are coming from Chicago that is one recurring errand gone. Washington's emission check program ended on January 1, 2020 after 38 years, and owners are no longer required to have emissions tested before renewing a registration. Illinois tests most 1996 and newer gasoline passenger vehicles once they are four years old, on a two-year cycle.

Thirty days. New residents have 30 days to get a Washington driver license and register the vehicle, according to the Washington Department of Licensing. Bring your current title to any vehicle licensing office, and check the odometer before you go in, because the state asks for the reading.

Registration fees plus any use tax owed on a vehicle new to the state, settled at the counter. Washington has no state income tax, which takes some of the sting out of the arrival. Exact figures depend on the vehicle and your county, so the licensing office is the right place to ask.

Someone does, and it need not be you. Any responsible adult will do: a partner, a relative, a neighbor, a building manager, a coworker. They hand over or receive the keys, walk the car with the driver and sign the condition report. Give us their name and a cell number at booking.

Usually yes, within reason. Keep it to around a hundred pounds, in the trunk and below the window line so the driver can see out. Carrier Cargo Insurance covers the vehicle rather than its contents, so anything valuable or hard to replace travels better with you.

Wash it, because dirt hides the marks the condition report should record. Leave about a quarter tank of fuel. Turn the alarm off. Then photograph all four corners, the roof and the wheels in daylight. Five minutes of that makes the handover in Seattle straightforward.

It is the inspection you and the driver both sign at pickup, recording every existing mark on the car, and sign again at delivery. Keep your copy. Compare the car against it in good light before you sign it off in Washington, and take your own photographs again while you are there.

Note it on the condition report before the driver leaves, photograph it, and call us that day. That written note at the curb is what makes a Carrier Cargo Insurance claim straightforward, and we file it with the carrier for you. It is uncommon and it resolves much faster when the paperwork happens on the spot.

Not with us. Whoever loads it in Chicago unloads it in Washington. No second company partway, no night in a storage yard in Montana. Damage in this business clusters at exactly that transfer, so a route without one removes the opportunity rather than insuring against it.

You get the driver's name and direct number once the carrier is assigned, which across 2,065 miles is more useful than a dot on a map. Drivers will tell you roughly where they are and give you a real delivery window about a day out. With offices at both ends, there is also always someone local to call.

Yes, and it usually beats two separate bookings. Two vehicles from one Chicago address to one Seattle address save the driver two stops, and that efficiency shows up on the second car. Ask for both at quote time and we will price them as a pair.

A deposit goes on a card once the carrier is assigned, and the balance is settled with the driver at delivery. That balance is usually cash, a cashier's check or a money order, and your driver confirms which they take when the delivery window is set.

Yes. The price we quote is the price you pay, as long as the vehicle, the route, the condition and the shipping details stay the same. That is the Smart Price Promise. What changes a quote is a change in the facts, so tell us early and we re-price before dispatch rather than after.

Registered business address: 4208 Six Forks Rd Ste 1000, Raleigh, NC 27609. Our four staffed offices are in Lakewood, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Kissimmee, Florida. Two of those four sit on this lane.

Use the form at the top of this page with both ZIP codes, the year, make and model, and whether the car runs. You will have a real figure in minutes rather than a teaser rate that moves later. You can also call Chicago on 312-300-7773 or Lakewood on 253-200-5645.