Car Shipping Versus Convoying, The Downside of driving it yourself

When my wife and I moved back from Florida to Michigan, we each drove our own cars back, with me following behind my wife's car. It was not a great experience, as it took an extra day to make the trip.

Since you don't get breaks behind the wheel, you can travel less in a day. A tag-team driver combo can drive 12-16 hours a day safely, depending on roads and temperament. However, if you're doing all the driving in your car, you (or your partner) could hit the wall much sooner. If one of you has had it at 6PM, that's going to be as far as you get that day. Thus, you might need to tack on an extra day's travel, with an extra day at a hotel and the meals on the road, to your travel costs.

Also, you'll be divided. If you don't have kids, you'll just have the radio/CD player for company, which makes the miles go slower. If you do have kids, you won't have the other spouse to keep the kid company while you're behind the wheel. That's going to leave you with extra stress at the end of the trip, and if you're starting a new job at the other end, you going to want to be as stress-free as possible.

Lastly, remember the cost of driving the car. Not only will you have to be paying for gas, but wear-and-tear on the car. If you have a 1500-mile move, that will eat up about 1% of the car’s life if we can expect a 150,000 mile lifetime; for a $20,000 car, that’s $200 plus the gas plus half an oil-change.

Shipping a car with Momentum might look pricey at first, but doing it yourself can be more costly, especially if you factor in the quality of the trip