Do not decide from the ocean quote alone. The useful comparison is your vehicle-specific true ship cost versus what it would cost to sell now and replace the vehicle after the move — with import eligibility and storage treated as separate decision paths.
Enter the VIN or vehicle details, mileage and PCS route. Ship or Sell compares SHIP, SELL and STORE without requiring an account or sensitive Orders upload.
Analyze my vehicle →Shipping can make sense when the vehicle is importable, the full landed cost is lower than the cost of selling and replacing it, and keeping the vehicle fits your timeline. Selling can make more sense when the replacement-market advantage is small, import/compliance risk is high, or shipping creates a large cash and mobility burden. Storage can be rational for a temporary move when keeping the vehicle has value but shipping it now does not.
For many OCONUS PCS moves, the government may pay to ship or store one personally owned vehicle. Military OneSource says only one POV owned or leased for personal use may generally be shipped at government expense for OCONUS moves, subject to exceptions and local transportation-office guidance. That is why the ship/sell question is especially important for an additional privately arranged vehicle.
Economics do not matter if the import path is not workable. NHTSA states that a vehicle less than 25 years old that was not originally manufactured and certified to applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards generally cannot be permanently imported unless NHTSA has determined it eligible. Vehicles at least 25 years old have a separate age-based path measured from the date of manufacture. EPA has separate emissions requirements, including a provision for vehicles over 21 years old that depends on the original engine model and configuration.
A useful ship number can include pickup, ocean transport, insurance, customs or duty exposure, compliance, port charges, U.S. inland delivery, registration and the cost of temporary mobility while the car is unavailable. A low headline freight quote can still produce an expensive landed result.
For Germany-origin PCS cases, use the Germany-to-USA car shipping cost guide to break the route into the charges that belong in the SHIP total before comparing it with SELL.
The SELL path is not simply “what can I sell my car for?” It is the U.S. replacement price plus purchase fees, title/registration, transaction costs, recreated modifications and temporary mobility, minus your realistic sale proceeds. Ship or Sell keeps those components visible instead of burying them in one score.
Storage is not automatically the cheap option. Over a longer period, monthly storage, insurance, maintenance, alternative mobility and future retrieval or shipping can compound. But for a temporary move, storing a vehicle you strongly want to keep may beat both immediate shipping and a forced sale.
See the private shipping process for an additional vehicle.
Second POV shipping guide →Break down the full Germany-to-USA shipping cost stack.
PCS shipping cost guide →Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.
Run the vehicle-specific analysis instead of guessing from generic averages.
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