The cost to ship a car from Illinois to New York is typically $750 to $900 to Buffalo and up to $1,050 from downstate Illinois into the city, on an open trailer, and takes between 2 to 5 days in transit time. Chicago to New York City is about 790 miles and runs $850 to $1,000. A larger vehicle, or a pickup date you cannot move, will land you at the upper end. Enclosed, non-running and oversized vehicles price on their own terms.

Because of what a driver can load once he has dropped your car. New York is one of the busiest inbound markets in the country, so a carrier arriving there has plenty heading back out and the eastbound price stays down. Going the other way is a different story: New York to Chicago runs about $1,050 to $1,150 on the same road, roughly $250 more. Leaving New York is expensive in every direction, not only this one.

The anchor is our own Chicago to North Jersey shipping history, which covers the same 790 miles on the same road and is the best-evidenced pair we hold on this corridor. New York City sits about ten miles past it and city delivery costs a little more than a New Jersey suburb, so the city rows carry that step. The upstate rows scale by distance from the same anchor. We would rather say that than present a derived figure as a measured one, and the calculator gives you the live number for your exact pair.

Yes, and by more than most people expect. Buffalo is 540 miles from Chicago against 790 to the city, so it is 250 miles closer and about $100 less. Rochester at 590 and Syracuse at 660 sit in between. If your car could land at either end of New York State, it is genuinely worth pricing both before you decide.

Because the road bends. I-90 runs northeast across Ohio and Pennsylvania and then tracks along the top of the state, so Albany comes in at about 810 miles from Chicago while the city is 790 by the more direct I-80 line. It is a small difference, and it explains why Albany does not price below the city the way Buffalo does.

Two to three days to upstate New York, two to four to the city from the Chicago area, and three to five from downstate Illinois, once the car is loaded. 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.

A truck carrying nine cars is a different animal. Driving hours are capped federally, and there are eight or nine other vehicles being picked up and dropped at stops along the route. The same thing that slows it down is what makes it affordable, because your car is sharing the trip instead of buying it outright. Overnight on this lane means a dedicated trailer, which is a different service at a different price.

Sometimes, and where it cannot, that is the city rather than a problem. Car carriers are not allowed on New York's parkways; the Belt, the Southern State, the Hutchinson and the rest have stone overpasses too low for a loaded transporter, so commercial traffic uses the expressways. Add narrow streets and alternate-side parking in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and Queens, and a nearby lot is the sensible answer. It costs nothing extra. Long Island, Westchester and Staten Island are all straightforward.

All of it. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and the Hudson Valley are regular work, and access up there is easy compared with the city. We keep a Buffalo page with the local detail on it. Our New York service areas are the Bronx and Huntington Station on Long Island, so the drivers working these deliveries know which expressways a loaded carrier can actually use.

Every corner of it. The metro runs from the city out through Aurora, Naperville, Joliet, Elgin, Schaumburg, Evanston and Waukegan. Downstate covers Rockford and the Quad Cities, Peoria, Bloomington-Normal and Champaign, then Springfield, Decatur, Quincy, Belleville and Carbondale. The whole state lands inside about $100 of Chicago on this route, which is a narrower gap than the mileage would suggest.

Across most of the metro, yes. The older North and Northwest Side blocks are where it gets tight, with cars parked both sides and no room to swing a 75-foot trailer that stands 13 and a half feet. There we pick a wider street or a nearby lot, arranged before the day. It is free and costs you roughly ten minutes.

Ten days to two weeks is normally plenty on this lane. Two stretches want three weeks instead. Late August and mid-May, when students move between the Illinois universities and the New York ones. And January into February, when weather across Ohio and Pennsylvania tightens capacity along the whole corridor.

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 is one of nine or ten on a trailer and one route has to suit all of them. You get a call the evening before with a real time. On a lane this busy, widening the band usually brings your pickup forward.

Yes, for all 790 miles. Carrier Cargo Insurance travels with the truck, and the carrier holds it rather than us. We get the certificate on file as soon as a truck accepts your order and will send it over whenever you want. Verification is public too: FMCSA SAFER is free, and a USDOT number returns live operating authority and the insurance filed against it. Ours are 2887232 and MC 969368.

No. It is loaded once in Illinois and unloaded once in New York, by the same driver. No depot in Ohio, no second company taking over partway. That means fewer hands on the car and no gap in the cover from one driveway to the other.

Open, for almost every car, and every price here assumes it. The trailer is the same kind dealerships receive new stock on. Enclosed runs about 80 percent more, because a hard-sided trailer carries two to six cars instead of ten. Its case is a classic, an exotic, fresh paint, or a January run through Ohio and Pennsylvania road salt.

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.

Chicago, yes, staffed, at 742 E 87th Pl on 312-300-7773. Hours are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday through Thursday, until 6:00 PM Friday, and 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday, Central. The useful part on an eastbound run is the time zone: your driver and our office share a morning. New York works as two service areas, the Bronx and Huntington Station, reached on 888-709-9078.