For anyone who may be reading my blog and wondering how to ship a car to St. Maarten, this is the post for you!
I decided to go with Carib-Link Services, a company which was recommended by some people on the valuemd.com forums. The total cost (with insurance) of the shipping was $1970. It was $1850 for just the shipping. This probably seems like a lot, but it's probably cheaper than what you'd pay for a car in St. Maarten and my car is much nicer than what I probably would have bought there. And when I'm going somewhere that is not the US...I'd prefer to have a dependable car so that I don't have to worry about finding a half decent and honest mechanic.
The price was competitive with other shipping companies (Tropical was the other company I looked at), but the deciding factor was mostly that they will allow you to ship your car full of stuff. They do not recommend this and you cannot insure the stuff being shipped in your car, but they will allow it at your own risk. They said that they have not had a single thing stolen from a car, but they can't guarantee anything and there's a first time for everything. So, it remains to be seen if my car while arrive as it was shipped.
Despite their advisement not to ship my car with my stuff in it, I shipped it pretty much totally full. I had a ton of stuff to send to the island and it would have been a fortune to ship separately. I am hoping that their streak of never having anything stolen will continue for a bit longer. I do know of other people who have shipped things in their car with carib-link and have not had problems. I'll let you know once I pick up the car if everything is still there [fingers crossed].
The process was very easy, no need for an appointment. Just show up at their office in Miami (not a very good part of Miami, btw) with your car, the title,and original sales receipt. They've got all the other paperwork there. Filling everything out probably took about 15 minutes and was a very painless process. Then, Joe (the vice president) drove us to the crap hole airport. If things continue to go well and all of my stuff arrives, I will definitely be able to recommend the company. So far, so good.
Their website is http://www.clsshipping.com/
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