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The Bay Area is a high volume auto transport market but it has some quirks worth knowing about. San Francisco proper is tough for carriers because of the hills, narrow streets, and parking situation. Most carriers prefer to pick up and drop off in Oakland, the East Bay, San Jose, or the Peninsula rather than inside the city limits. The Port of Oakland handles significant vehicle import traffic and there is a Manheim location in the Bay Area that keeps carrier activity flowing. The dealer market across the metro is solid, especially in the South Bay. This is a strong market overall, just not always easy to access in SF proper.
Pickups in the Bay Area run 2 to 4 days typically. If your car is in Oakland, Fremont, San Jose, or anywhere in the East Bay or South Bay it is smooth and often faster. If it is in San Francisco itself, be ready to coordinate a meetup at a more accessible location. We can usually arrange this easily and it is not a big hurdle. The carrier volume heading out of the Bay Area on I-80 toward the East, I-5 toward LA and the Pacific Northwest, and Highway 50 toward Sacramento is strong. There is always a truck heading your direction.
Let me be completely straight with you about Honolulu. Shipping a car to or from Hawaii is a fundamentally different process from mainland auto transport. There are no roads connecting Hawaii to the mainland. Your car has to go on a ship. This is called Roll-on Roll-off shipping, or RoRo for short, and it is how vehicles get moved across the ocean. The two primary carriers for this are Matson Navigation and Pasha Hawaii. Matson ships from Oakland, Los Angeles, and Tacoma. Pasha ships from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Oakland. There is no Manheim, no ADESA, no carrier on a multi-car hauler. It is ocean freight, and the pricing, timeline, and process are entirely different from what most people expect when they search for auto transport.
On the Hawaii end, your vehicle arrives at Honolulu Harbor and goes through a customs and inspection process before you can pick it up. Matson and Pasha have port facilities in Honolulu and will notify you when your car is ready for pickup. If you need your car delivered from the port to your address in Honolulu or elsewhere on Oahu, that is a separate local delivery that can usually be arranged. Plan for the port release process to take 1 to 3 days after the ship arrives. Inter-island shipping to Maui, Kauai, or the Big Island is also possible but adds additional cost and time.
Shipping a standard sedan from San Francisco to Honolulu on open carrier currently estimates between $1475 and $1775. That is based on the 2,922-mile distance and current market conditions.
The Bay Area runs slightly above the national average. The street access challenge adds a small premium, and the cost of operating in California generally pushes prices up a little versus comparable distances in other states. Popular lanes like Bay Area to LA, Bay Area to Portland, and Bay Area to Las Vegas are very competitive. Long haul routes to the Midwest and East Coast are solid but expect to pay market rate or slightly above. Get a quote for your exact route.
Hawaii car shipping costs significantly more than any mainland route of comparable distance. You are paying for mainland transport to the departure port, ocean freight, port fees on both ends, and any delivery on the Hawaii side. Total costs for a standard sedan from the continental US to Honolulu typically range from $1,500 to $2,500 depending on your mainland origin, the carrier you choose, and whether you want door-to-door service or port-to-port. Matson and Pasha are generally competitive with each other on ocean freight. The mainland portion of the route is priced like standard auto transport. Get a quote to see your exact price.
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