Car Transport

[GEKKO]

I am hoping someone can help. At the end of 2005, I had my BMW 323i transported from Florida to California. When the car arrived, the steering was off center. I took it to the local BMW dealership. As it turns out, the the tie rods were BENT. The service advisor showed the marks where the chain was tied and caused the tie rod to bend.

I have sent a claim to the transport company and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. To this day they claim they did nothing wrong. They quoted the contract that said that they are not responsible for a tie down that breaks. Great excuse but it does not apply here.

I am now at a point of taking them to small claims court. I was wondering if anyone out there has been in this situation and what they did to get compensated. Also, since I am looking to take them to court, does anyone know what the procedure is to properly transport a car? I will need to prove there was neglect by the company and they caused the damage.

I appreciate any help on this.

[OwnedbyDuncan]

Chances are unless they are based or near the court where you are suing them they will not show up! Even if the judge finds in your favor and awards you a judgment how are going to collect especially if they out of state? Chances are you will never see any of the money. You might want to approach your insurance company and they maybe able to get some money from the company.

Dave Apker

[Scotty]

There are many ways to tie a car down but doing it right depends on the car. Doing it wrong is easy: apply force to a component that wasn't designed for the magnitude and/or direction of that force. Draping chains over tie rods, axles, etc. is an obvious mistake. Some BMW's have chassis slots that accept T-hooks for connecting chains to.

Since cars are shipped all over the world in all kinds of transporters, I'd say you just got unlucky and picked a company that isn't very good at moving cars. If they aren't willing to work with you, they probably won't be in business much longer. You should definitely check with your insurance company.

[ase2dais]

a little off-topic but..fyi for others thinking of the best car transport com., I've used closed transport from Denver to VA

InterCity Lines are the best in the business..
http://www.intercitylines.com/

heres their video
http://www.intercitylines.com/downlo...bo_loading.wmv

back to you Gekko!