This weekend is the start of the 2010 F1 Auto Racing season. There are several interesting things about this year that should be noted. First, is the return of 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher. He will be driving the Mercedes car with his old team partner from Ferrari Ross Braun. Another change is that this year there will be no refueling of the cars which means the fuel efficiency of the cars will be key. Marketing plays a huge role in this industry just like any other major sporting event. Mercedes is a German owned team and both of their drivers are German. The Ferrari team is being driven by a Brazilian and Spaniard, both latin. And the English McLaren team is being driven by two English drivers. This is the first time in years that this has been the case and with the changes it promises to be an exciting auto racing season.

At the most recent car show in Geneva I was surprised to see some changes from manufacturers I never thought would happen. One main example is the new 599 Ferrari; they have created a prototype version of the car that is a hybrid. These cars aren’t daily drivers anyway, so they do not normally get many miles put on them. However, it is the belief of Ferrari that in the future they will be more environmentally friendly. One of the things I am going to be wondering about is if this new Ferrari is going to have the old Ferrari sound that separates it from most other cars on the road. I am sure our drivers are looking forward to getting the call for enclosed car transport of one of these cars when they make it to America.

We wanted to give some pointers to the residents of New York when they are considering New York auto transport. The points we are going to make are more for those who live or are planning to use an auto transport service into the city of New York or Long Island. It is a common practice for most car transport companies that are doing long haul runs to or from New York to use a terminal in New Jersey. An example would be if you had planned to have your car transported from San Diego to Manhattan. The process would be, in some cases, for your car to be picked up and delivered to a terminal in New Jersey and from there be delivered to on a smaller truck to your house. If you are looking to cut or reduce costs and ever have reason to go to New Jersey often you can cut some costs by picking it up from the terminal. Doing this can save you, on average $50-$100 so if that is worth it for you then it may be something to consider when you are trying to cut costs. If you are moving your car from dead end routes such as The Hamptons, be sure to keep flexible on your pickup windows as most carriers try to plan to find vehicles to replace the ones they are picking up and dropping off so it is not a one way trip. When you call our office ask for an auto transport quote with both options so you can compare and make your decision.

We are very pleased to announce that American Auto Movers launched our new website yesterday. We have added all kinds of new and useful content that will hopefully be useful in educating you on how the industry works. We have included several new pages like tips to ship a car and a breakdown of the entire auto shipping process. We hope you find the information helpful and we look forward to hearing from you.

There are two snow bird seasons every year, one during the winter when the majority of people are leaving the Northeast and arrange for Florida auto transport; the other season in spring when everyone is escaping the soon sweltering heat of Florida.  During these times of years the rates will be different north and south along the east coast than any other time of the year.  If you are moving your vehicle in the direction of all the snow birds, your rates will always be more expensive.  This is simply a matter of supply and demand.  However, you can use this flux of directional auto shipping to your advantage.  For example, if you have a car in Florida that you need brought to Massachusetts and you are not in a rush, you can wait for the winter.  Since the majority of the trailers will be going south full, they will have empty spots going north.  This being the case you can take advantage of it and get a rate $100-200 less than you would pay in other times of the year.

There are multiple review websites for car transporters that discuss their quality of service or lack there of, but there is a point we want to address than many people are overlooking.  We always direct people who call us to look up the companies they are considering on the Better Business Bureau website.  There are a few reasons we advise people to look up the companies on the BBB compared to other “review” websites.  The main reason being that many of these review sites can be altered by the company themselves writing multiple reviews on themselves.  While we are not trying to be conspiracy theorist, we just find it surprising to see some companies who have many complaints on the Better Business Bureau, which are verified by people confirming they are actual complaints, have glowing reviews about them on some review sites.  It seems horribly contradictory to us, we just feel it is important for everyone to do their homework before they hire a non reputable transporter to move their vehicle.

Something I think almost all Americans can get behind is creating more jobs here at home and reducing pollution into the environment.  At American Auto Movers, we are not scientist so we can’t prove if the green house effect is real or not, but what we do know is that lots of people driving with fossil fuels does create pollution and some green options for truck drivers and auto movers would help bring jobs here in the US.  Those are things we think most Americans can support.  It still isn’t clear if hydrogen, natural gas, biodiesel or a combination of those will end up being the source of fuel for the future generation.  Obviously politics, like most major changes, will play a role to some degree.  North America has a very large supply of natural gas as well as Russia.  This is something many Americans are leaning towards because it would bring a lot of jobs from overseas to the US specifically for the reason of using this fuel.  Research is being done by many large corporations to decide what will be the most useful fuel and have the least amount of environmental damages.  Regardless of what direction the transport industry takes on the matter the team at American Auto Movers is excited to see where this takes us.