To make it brief, the car is located in Vancouver Canada. I'm in NYC, quite a trip. As far as getting the car through customs myself, I've done the research on that and know whats necessary. What I'm looking for is recommendations on shipping carriers/methods that can get it to me. The car needs to be trailered, it runs fine but it has an engine swap and the gauges are not wired up so there is no telling if anything can go wrong while driving. OR- what can I use to plug into the ECM and get oil pressure/ engine temp/ basic readings while I drive? Then I wouldn't have to trailer it providing it runs fine, swap has very little time on it.
Here are my options:

-Have a carrier bring it directly to my house and use a broker to get it through customs for me.
-Have a carrier bring it to Montreal or the closest destination in Canada relative to NY, fly up there and rent a car/trailer and bring it down.
-This one is a super long shot but, pay a local forum member to bring it through customs for me and to Washington, and arrange for the carrier to pick it up there and ship it to NY.

So what do you think would be most economical and practical for me, (I know it won't be cheap either way...) Thanks.

The 87 Eco from the mall?

Customs shouldn't be too hard if you just trailer it across the border with the proper papers, I think.

Yessir, I'm a sucker for ecotecs in fieros. I'm still swapping one into mine but it would be nice if I could add that one to my possession.

[This message has been edited by nitroheadz28 (edited 06-12-2011).]

quote Originally posted by nitroheadz28:what can I use to plug into the ECM and get oil pressure/ engine temp/ basic readings while I drive?

Laptop....?

if you get hp tuners mpvi pro you can drive with a laptop .shows speed rpm etc .other than that a gps will give you speed ,make sure nothing leaks and fill up every 250 miles or so and you shouldnt have a problem .

How much is shipping going to be

quote Originally posted by Quad GT: How much is shipping going to be

That was the point of this thread, so that someone can maybe recommend me a carrier if anyone has done this before. I was estimating to spend in the neighborhood of $1500, but it could probably be as high as 2 grand. I'll make some calls tomorrow.

It pisses me off that this car is so far away, I don't even know how its not sold yet. I initially skipped over the ad cause the seller didn't have an asking price up and I assumed he wanted 10k or more, turns out its a fraction of that.

[This message has been edited by nitroheadz28 (edited 06-13-2011).]

For 1500 bucks I would friggen drive it to ya and detail it

i just live close by tghere. vancouver island. there are local guys here who actually live right in vancouver. guy named Patrick and Capt fiero both live in Vancouver.
im sure there some others but thos seem to be the 2 main guys i see post here.

it will be quite a long trip. there are so many ways to get it over across to where you are. its just finding the cheapest way. i would just send it across canada. then across the border would be the easyest. traveling threw alberta and saskaewan are super flat. its just getting threw the rocky mountian between BC and alberta will be the slow part. and during the summer will be the hardest due to wildfires. sometimes they close the main route across into alberta. so you end up having to drive up north of BC and drive across to alberta. i think that would be the only slow part. winter can be quite bad to. depends. but if weather is all good. it might be faster that way. if weather seems gross. might be better just to send it down across the border by vancouver and get it sent across the US. then the car is in the US and dont have to monkey around with us Canadian fokes :P

i would just check the roads first to see if they main highway is open going into alberta are open. and not closed due to fires. but fires seem to be not as bad this year as other years have been.

Only input I have on price is I have a friend that got a car delivered from Ontario to Alberta and it cost him $1500. So from Vancouver to Montreal for $1500 sounds like a good deal.

Sounds like a hell of a lot of shipping. I can get a car into Australia from the USA for $3000.

Trying to fathom how it could be so expensive there.

quote Originally posted by AusFiero: Sounds like a hell of a lot of shipping. I can get a car into Australia from the USA for $3000. Trying to fathom how it could be so expensive there.

Shipping by road is much more expensive than by ship. From Vancouver to New York City is about 3000 miles or about 5000 km. You can't load up a truck with 1,000's of cars or containers, etc. Usually you're just moving one car at a time. Think of how much the fuel would cost to drive that distance, especially for a transport truck! Recently my brother and I trailered a rally car from my place to the Toronto area (about 140 miles each way) and the fuel cost me well over $100!!! That was an eye opener for me!

And that's not to mention the driver getting paid! You are basically looking at an entire work week of driving.

Still seems a lot. You can get a car from one side of Australia to the other for about $1000, or under on backloads and that is just over 2000 miles. Fuel here also costs a lot more. Can only assume insurance there for the trucks must be eating into the costs????

Would be interesting to see a cost break down on shipping companies from each country to compare where the money goes.

i have shipped containers to the UK and europe far cheaper than it costs to truck stuff from ontario to BC .the reason is that when it goes overseas , the container only is on the road a short time and then goes by rail to halifax and on to the ship .why i cant load up a container and put it on a train to BC is beyond me but we have strange regulations in canada .the cheapest and most sensible way is to head south of vancouver and take it into washington state and drive it home from there .and you have to take it across the border yourself or brokerage charges are going to apply .no one trucks anything through canada if it is going from BC to ontario .it goes on a bonded truck through the states because it is over 400 miles shorter , americans have real roads (the trans canada hwy turns in to a 2 lane 80KMH road when you get to ontario) and fuel is about 20% cheaper in the USA .i have driven everywhere in north america including alaska and you do not want to drive across canada if you can avoid it .

That is a 4 800 Km trip!

I do a lot of hauling mainly boats with my F350 dually, I recently done a trip to Vancouver from Oakville and charged the guy $3800

Mind you I am fully insured and can drive in US and Canada. This is basically a coast to coast trip