The cost to ship a car from Houston to San Francisco is typically $1,525 to $1,675 on an open trailer, and takes between 4 to 6 days in transit time over 1,930 miles. Coming back the other way runs about $100 less. Bigger vehicles, a fixed single pickup day and a delivery address up one of the city's steeper blocks each push toward the top of the range. Enclosed, non-running and oversized vehicles price on their own terms.

Because of what a driver can load once he has dropped your car. A destination with plenty of freight going back out prices well. A quieter one carries a little of the empty return in the outbound price. Los Angeles is the busiest inbound market on the West Coast, so Houston to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Houston come out level. Northern California has less going east, and three separate pairs in our table show the same gap in the same direction.

Usually yes, by a few hundred dollars, because it is 364 miles shorter and the lane prices level in both directions. Whether that helps depends on what you would do with the car once it landed. Los Angeles to San Francisco is a full day's drive. If someone is available to make that drive it can be worth it, and if not it rarely is. Ask for both and decide with the numbers in front of you.

Four to six days on the road once the car is loaded, over 1,930 miles. Before that comes your collection window, six days on standard and three on expedited, counted from the date you name. Federal hours-of-service rules cap how far a driver can legally travel in a day, which sets the floor on a trip this length.

West on I-10 for the first 1,400 miles or so, through San Antonio, the long West Texas stretch, El Paso, Tucson and Phoenix. Then north in Southern California, over the Grapevine and Tejon Pass and straight up the Central Valley past Bakersfield and Fresno before crossing to the Bay. I-10 is the southernmost route across the country, which is most of why this lane holds its schedule.

Hardly at all, and that is one of its real strengths. The single place weather shows up is Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles, which closes occasionally in a storm and can add a day. Everything else is low ground. Set that against the northern lanes crossing Donner Pass or the Wyoming high plains, which can lose two or three days to one storm, and a January booking here is about as dependable as long-haul gets.

Right across it. Katy, Sugar Land, Pearland, Cypress, The Woodlands, Spring, Humble, Missouri City, League City and Baytown were all built with room for a 75-foot trailer to turn and load. The Heights is the one spot worth a word at booking. It grew up as a separately planned town and still has narrow bungalow streets with cars parked both sides, so we load a block or two away at no extra cost. Name your suburb when you ask for the quote. In a metro this size it changes which day the truck reaches you.

Sometimes, and where it cannot, that is the city rather than a problem. There are more than fifty hills inside the city limits and under 47 square miles to fit them in. Much of the older grid leaves a driver nowhere to turn around. So we hand the car over down in the flats or at a nearby lot. That is quicker for you than watching a truck work its way up and back down, and it costs nothing extra. The East Bay, the Peninsula and Marin are all straightforward.

Ten days to two weeks is normally plenty. Houston is one of the biggest freight origins in the country, so pickups here tend to land in the first half of your window. Give three to four weeks through June, July and August, when the whole Texas to California corridor is busiest, and around the turn of the year when people are moving for a January start.

A band of dates rather than an appointment. Six days on standard and three on expedited, counted forward from whichever day you pick. Your car shares a trailer with nine or ten others and one route has to suit all of them. The driver calls the night before with a real time. On a 1,930-mile run the window is the only part of the schedule that can actually move, which is why widening it is the most useful thing you can do.

No. One truck loads it in Houston and the same truck sets it down in the Bay Area. Nothing is dropped in Phoenix or handed to another company along the way. Fewer people touch the car, and the cover runs uninterrupted between the two driveways.

Yes, for every one of the 1,930 miles. The policy is Carrier Cargo Insurance and it sits with the carrier moving the car. Its certificate comes to us the moment a truck takes your order, and you can ask us for it at any point. Checking a carrier independently is easy too. FMCSA SAFER is a free federal lookup: search a USDOT number and it returns operating authority and insurance on file. Ours is 2887232, MC 969368.

Open for almost everything, and it is what every price here is based on. It is the same trailer that delivers new cars to dealerships. Enclosed runs about 80 percent more, because a hard-sided trailer carries two to six cars instead of ten. The Bay Area books more enclosed than most markets, so capacity into it is better than you might expect if you have a classic or an exotic going.

It can be, because of where the time actually sits. The drive is fixed at four to six days and no service level changes that. What expedited does is halve the collection window, six days to three. If your start date in California is set, those three days back are the only ones available to you.

Usually yes, within reason. Most drivers will take a few things as a courtesy. Keep it under about 100 pounds, pack it neatly, and keep it out of sight from outside the car. Think a few boxes in the trunk rather than a carload. The one thing to know is that you are paying to move the vehicle, so the carrier's insurance covers the car itself. Keep anything you would hate to lose with you.

Yes, provided the wheels turn, the steering works and the brakes hold, and provided the trailer has a winch on it. No set surcharge, but budget $200 upward of the running price. Flag it when you ask for the quote so we send a winch truck rather than find out on the driveway.

Wash it, so the driver can see what he is writing down. Run the tank down to about a quarter. Fold the mirrors, take the roof bars off, empty the cabin. He needs one key and nothing else. Take your own photos before he pulls up, which is two minutes well spent. Say at booking if the car sits low or has been modified, which matters on a route with a mountain pass in it.

A deposit goes down at booking and the rest is paid to the driver in California, by cashier's check, money order or cash. Some people would rather settle the lot on a card up front, and that works too. If your plans move, there is nothing to pay while the order is still waiting for a carrier. Once a truck has it, ring us as soon as you know and we will work out where that leaves you.

Yes, as long as they will take the job seriously. A condition report is signed at both ends, and that sheet is what protects you if anything is ever in question. So the person standing there has to walk round the car properly before putting a name to it. A relative, a colleague, a friend, a neighbor, any of them will do. Send us their name and number with the booking and the driver goes to them, not to you.

Both are service areas rather than walk-in offices, worked on the national line, 888-709-9078. California deliveries are handled from our staffed Los Angeles office on Pacific time, which is the practical part if a date needs moving on delivery day. Los Angeles is about 380 miles south of San Francisco, so it is an operations base rather than an office near your delivery, and your car goes nowhere near it.