whats the cheapest way to get a car moved from ediniburgh to manchester
- posted
15 years ago
whats the cheapest way to get a car moved from ediniburgh to manchester
Apart from driving it!, most recovery companies will charge around £2.20 per return mile (£1.10 per mile there and back), unless you can negotiate a deal.
Is it broken and roadworthy ? do you have breakdown cover? if not and the car is roadworthy I can't suggest you join one of them and leave it a few days....
Des
I would advise caution to this approach; certainly the AA are much less helpful nowadays if they detect a possible fraudulent use of service.
For example, if the engine has a rod through the block, you phone them, and the thing is stone cold. (To quote a recent example where service was actually refused.)
Chris
National Express have coach fares from £3 at the moment. Just bus someone up to ediniburgh to drive it back.
I did the same recently, but to Serville in Spain! Actually it was an interesting train/coach/air/ferry trip. I wonder if I can get a worthwhile job recovering cars that is nothing to do with tow trucks or parking enforcement?
Assuming it can't be driven:
For that distance, you'd be pushing your luck pretending it was "recovery of a broken down vehicle", so towing on a rope, a bar, or a dolly is out.
The cheapest way might to hire a trailer, but there are two possible major problems: I don't know how long you have been driving, but if you passed your test after 1 Jan 97, your licence will not cover you towing a car trailer. Then there's the question of the tow car's maximum permitted towing load. Cue: cries of "my Spagthorpe will tow a house, even though it's the 821cc single-cylinder version". Yes, but if the maker says it can only tow 400kg, you'll look pretty silly in court. A typical 2-axle car transporter trailer weighs around 6-700kg. I've no idea what sort of car you're talking about fetching, but I'd guess it means that the total weight of car and trailer is close to 2000kg, which not many conventional cars are rated to tow.
There are, of course one or two smaller problems: towing a 20ft long,
7ft6in wide trailer is not everyone's idea of fun, and you've got to find one for hire for a sensible price. Hirers can be remarkably careless with trailers, and it wouldn't be unusual to find one with all sorts of damage. Indespension have depots around the country, but I've no idea of the general condition of their hire fleet.I used to do car collection and delivery as a part-time business, but only do it now "for friends". I'd have charged around £300 for an equivalent journey.
That's the guys stood at roundabouts up and down the country holding trade plates.
uruy formulated the question :
If you mean picked up on a trailer or on the back of a truck, then check out ebay.
That sounds like an interestiong adventure :)
Be a cool job if you could.
My old foreman did this for a while when he retired - he seemed to enjoy it.
I heard a tale of one of these drivers delivering a Renault of some sort from Anglesey down to the south of England, getting stuck at motorway services because he hadn't been given the keycard. Something about the card needing to be nearby before the engine would start. It was in the pocket of the bloke who handed the car over to him, 200 miles away.
They start bleeping at you within seconds of moving away from the card, it would be impossible to ignore.
Ah thanks for that, I did wonder if it was apocryphal!
Next one that comes in I'll try it to see how far I can drive it away, and whether it stops, or does more bleeping or whatever. I know you can't easily ignore it, there is even a message comes up on the dash about can't find key card or something like that.
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