Shipping your car

Check with your lender. Some will allow it, some won't. I know Chrysler does.

Read the Shipping your car page that said:
You must have either the title for your car or a notarized letter indicating why you don't have the title and usually permission from the person/lender that does indicating that you are allowed to transport the vehicle off the mainland. You should ask the shipping company you are using for more details as their required letters, documents and number of notarized copies may vary.

Wasn't sure if it was common for lenders to give you that kind of permission. Especially when I tell them I am moving with no permanent address or job! Don't think they will be very happy!

You can sell your car and buy on the island...It is a pain from my experience shipping a vehicle. Others have found it worked for them...There are lots of posts on shipping a vehicle...Read through them and get what will work for you.

Kellymac,
if you don't mind tell us your experience in shipping a car. Have you bought a car, also? FYI, I have read all the posts about shipping. Thanks!

I shipped a car down in Nov. I did it thru Barry @ Flemming. He was nice to deal with, and I pais extra to have him do all of the paperwork involved. It was ready for me when I got there. If you are already on island and have the time, you could save yourself some money by spending a day getting the paperwork yourself.

Don't put anyting in the car. First they don't allow it, and second, they will steal it> My car shipped fromJacksonville, Fl. and I thought it wouldn't go thru PR. I don't know if it went thru PR or not, but someone in Jacksonville or on the boat or in PR stole the small wrench I left in the map pocket, (more of a test on my part) but they also stole the knobs off of the A/C - Heater controls and took of the lock knobs from the doors.

Be careful who you let take your car from you house to FL. The people who transported mine, charged me for the complete trip, then either didn't pay the ship, or the ship charged again, because Flemming had to pay toi get it off the ship, and I had to pay them. Flemming is working on getting this corrected. AND the ststeside transporter charged me $500 more than Flemming was going to charge me.

I would use Flemming again, that was the third time, and am getting ready to send another crate down thru them.

I think it is better to have a island transporter "pull" the vehicle down to the island, than have a stateside transporter "push" it down there. That way if it ends up on the wrong island, the local will be looking for it and get it corrected. The stateside transported won't know the problem until you can't find your car, then call them and they try to figure it out.

I guess I'm going to be the one person with a different story. We shipped our car over about a year ago. After I read many posts suggesting how much easier it was to have someone handle all the details, my husband insisted on doing it all himself. I'm happy to say everything worked out perfectly and wasn't an ordeal at all. I'm fully aware that others have different stories but it can be done and done smoothly. I don't have details on who we used for everything but if you would like to know I can look it up. My husband was on STJ. I drove to Florida dropped the car off and flew on out. We picked the car up about a week later in STT. I had read many times about not leaving anything in the car. After a couple day drive with a child the car was a lot more full of stuff when we got to Florida than I had planned. I thought I was going to have to throw out everything. At this point we had no more room for luggage on the plane and didn't have time to mail anything. They told me since it wasn't much, the back floorboards were full up to the seat bottoms and if I remember correctly, the back had one larger item (that I originally hoped to mail), just to leave it. When we picked the car up in STT everything was exactly as we had left it. The shipping office in Florida was very helpful and made it all very easy to handle on our own.

As far as your wondering if it was very common for lenders to allow it - all I have experience with is Chrysler. I was surprised how easy it was. They didn't blink twice over my request and it turned out to be only a formality rather than an application type process. We used our address on island, even though a temporary rental, and only required a generalization regarding employment.

KellySTJ-
What companty did you use, if you don't mind me asking?

We shipped two cars to STT last year. We handled it completely on our own and used Crowley to ship them out of Port Everglades Florida (5 minutes away from the FLL airport). It was extremely easy and we had no problems whatsoever.

We used Viking on the STT end to for the "processing" (customs clearance, title, plates etc. etc.). The cost to do this was $150 per car (well worth it IMHO). We called Viking when the cars arrived on STT and picked them up the very next day. Viking even had the cars washed for us!!!

I have heard that Tropical is a good company to deal with. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Hope this helps. Thanks
Norman Paperman

Can you tell me how to get in touch with Viking? I couldn't find any info on the web. We are shipping a truck down next month and we would love to avoid all the running around. Didn't realize you could have someone do it for you! Any details would be appreciated! Thanks!

Viking Moving Corporation 340-776-1536

I used them as well to pick up my car when i shipped it through SeaStar from Jacksonville, FL. Thanks Mell!

They delivered it to my office and it is well worth the $150 not to deal with customs, registration, etc.

Remember to take EVERYTHING out of your car, even if it is of small significance such as a Glade Air Freshener. lol.
They'll steal it all if your car ships through PR. (even pictures of your friends, your business cards, pennies, and a cross strategically placed as a decoy)

trust me!

I have lived in the caribbean for many years but I have never shipped a car..I want to ship mine from jax fl to st Croix..please help,save me from stress ,tell me how you did it ..thanks Cathy

I know most of you are shipping from the States to STT or STX, but I wanted to add my positive experience shipping my car from St. Thomas to St. Croix. I used Formel Shipping, based in Puerto Rico. The Norma H sailed at 4:00pm today and I picked up my car at 5:30 in STX. It is an SUV, and my husband had packed it full. The cost was $280. What a deal! The office people were very nice. Someone even called after the ship sailed to tell me what time to be there. They made it pleasant for me. The hard part was dealing with DMV in STT. Go here, go there, wrong line, go back over there........if you live in STT, you know. The last person to give the OK told my husband he was very lucky, that 1 out of 4 people show up with the wrong VIN # and have to be sent away to correct it.

hi,
we are planning on moving to St.Croix in the fall. We live in Annapolis currently. I want to bring my MiniCooper. Can you tell me who you used to ship your car in detail. Did Fleming (this co. you spoke of) also ship other things for you.

Cheers,
Cameron Macdonald