We imported two vehicles from Canada to the US.  My husband and I decided to drive my vehicle down from Vancouver to California to make a nice road trip out of it, while the movers took care of shipping my husband’s vehicle along with our belongings.

A few things to prepare 1-2 days before handing your car over to the moving/shipping company:

1. Remove all non-essential/non-emergency items from your vehicle
2. Schedule to have your exterior, undercarriage and interior cleaned.  This is necessary to avoid bringing in foreign pests/contaminants from Canada into the US, and for the shipping company to detail any existing vehicle damages/scratches prior to shipping for insurance purposes.
3.  Gas tank should be roughly a quarter full.

As always, please double-check with your moving company as vehicle shipping standards may be different between companies.

For our move, our vehicle and belongings were originally planned to arrive in a month’s time, but we decided to postpone receiving my husband’s car and belongings for another month instead – i.e. everything sat in storage with the moving company for a total of 2 months.  We figured 2 months would give us sufficient time to adequately allocate a new home while juggling with new work environments and with getting acquainted to new surroundings.

The 2 months did give us a chance to fully explore our new housing options, but my husband’s 7 year old vehicle wasn’t pleased about the lengthy idle period.  Despite the car being in good working condition, the car battery no longer held a charge (failing to start right in the middle of an automated car wash :P), and the front tires no longer kept their tire pressure.  Both the battery and tires needed to be replaced a bit earlier than scheduled, but all is well now.  My husband’s vehicle is now happy to explore Northern California.  All the best with your vehicle shipment!