Re: Transporting Audis Far Away

["Gary G. Erickson" <erickson@teleport.com>]

WARATAP@aol.com wrote:

> Wait a minute!  500 mile tow?  $500 sound like an absolute steal to me.
> Especially since it's almost 1700 miles from Minneapolis to Seattle, by my
> book.

$500 would be one hell of a bargain for a 1700 mile tow.  I was quoted
$2800 from the middle of Wyoming to Portland, OR.  (about 1200 miles)

Figure an average of $3/mile for most towing companies.  If you can
strike a deal with somebody who happens to have a truck and driver than
they can spare, you might get down to the $2-2.25/mile region. 
Remember, they need to pay to get the truck and driver back to where
they started from!

And AAA (even the Plus membership) won't be much help since they only
cover the hookup and first 100 miles.  Then it's up to the tow company
to figure out how much (within AAA's limits) they're going to charge per
mile for the remainder of the trip.  Usually about $2.50/mile, from what
I'm told.

The best bet is to either buy a cheap plane ticket for half the trip and
drive the car yourself, or hire somebody to do it for you.  Even gas,
food, motels, and the requisite plane ticket will still usually be less
than half of a true towing bill.

There are other options such as shipping companies, or getting it into
an extra boxcar on a freight train, but I don't have any firsthand
experience with these.

HTH!

Gary

P.S.  If you _really_ want to know why I'm so current on the costs for
long tows, just ask for my report of the trip back from Pike's Peak! 
:-(