Free tool

Ship your car or drive it?

Compare the estimated cost of shipping your car with the cost of driving it yourself: fuel, hotels, meals and your time. Enter the route to start.

From

Vehicle class

Adjust the driving assumptions

The starting U.S. regular gasoline price is $3.995 per gallon for the week of 2026-11-09, published 2026-11-10. You can edit every figure before calculating.

Fuel starts at 25 MPG, an editable planning assumption. Replace it with your own MPG, or leave it blank and enter a make and model for a lookup.

Make (optional, for fuel economy)

Model (optional)

Year (optional)

Miles per gallon, if you know it

Shipping trailer

Car runs

Travellers

Hotel rooms

Hotel nights

Nights, if you enter them

Miles per driving day

Miles per hour, for the time line

Gasoline, dollars per gallon

Lodging, dollars per room-night

Meals, dollars per person per day

Wear, cents per mile

Return flight, whole dollars

Your time, dollars per day

Sources

Shareable link

Questions

Does this page choose for me?

No. It shows the driving lines and the shipping range. You compare them.

Is the lodging figure a motel quote?

No. The starting lodging allowance is the GSA CONUS standard per diem, a federal ceiling. You can replace it.

Is the IRS mileage rate the fuel cost?

No. The IRS business rate includes depreciation. Fuel is the gasoline line. The IRS rate is shown beside wear so you can type it in if you want that allowance.

Call (800) 989-8833 Quotes by phone, 24/7