Ship or Sell is an independent PCS vehicle decision tool. It combines public rules, vehicle data, route logic, market evidence and commercial shipping information to help a user compare SHIP, SELL and STORE. It is not DoD guidance, a customs ruling, a carrier contract or a substitute for the office or agency that controls the final decision.
For entitlement, import, customs, registration and tax questions, we prefer the agency or office responsible for the rule: Military OneSource and transportation offices, NHTSA, EPA, CBP, state DMVs and other official government sources.
For operational shipping rules, acceptance, preparation, tracking and commercial inclusions, we use the booked or relevant provider, carrier or terminal when that information is available.
For resale, replacement, storage and published shipping benchmarks, we separate real offers, comparable listings, published ranges and lower-confidence estimates so the user can see what kind of evidence supports the number.
A shipping number can come from several different evidence levels. Ship or Sell does not treat them as interchangeable.
For a private Germany-to-USA vehicle shipment, the decision can include Germany-side movement, international transport, insurance, export or terminal handling, customs or duty exposure, federal compliance, destination charges, U.S. inland delivery, registration costs and temporary mobility while the car is unavailable.
That is why the Germany → USA shipping cost guide separates the cost stack instead of presenting one freight line as the complete landed cost.
PCS benefits can depend on Orders, status, route, service-specific implementation and current policy. Ship or Sell uses public official guidance for planning, but your transportation office and current Orders control the actual entitlement.
When policy is changing, we distinguish between a law that authorizes a benefit and a benefit that has actually been funded and implemented. The two-POV PCS guide is an example: it separates current public one-POV guidance from newer statutory authority rather than collapsing both into a misleading yes/no headline.
Transportability and importability are separate questions. A commercial carrier may be willing to quote transport even when a vehicle still has an unresolved federal import path. Ship or Sell therefore treats NHTSA safety eligibility and EPA emissions requirements separately from the carrier quote.
Start with the U.S. car import check and the 25-year import rule guide. Where the facts are incomplete, the result should remain uncertain instead of turning unknown information into an automatic green check.
Complete landed shipping economics, import path, vehicle downtime and destination movement.
Realistic sale proceeds compared with the cost of acquiring a comparable replacement at destination, including transaction and recreation costs where relevant.
Storage setup, monthly carrying costs, insurance, maintenance, alternative mobility and later retrieval or shipping across the relevant time horizon.
The detailed financial framework is published in the Ship vs Sell math methodology. The calculator keeps liquidity pressure separate from economic cost so a cash-flow problem does not automatically become a false long-term financial conclusion.
Vehicle year, make, model, dimensions, running condition and modifications can change carrier acceptance, rate class and importability. Factory specifications can support planning for an unmodified vehicle; a modified or oversized vehicle can require actual measurements and provider review.
For the U.S. destination side, Ship or Sell separates the ocean gateway from the final destination and publishes its U.S. inland routing methodology. The recommended gateway is planning logic, not a promise that the provider will book that exact port.
Many Ship or Sell guides display a published or last-reviewed date. A review date means the page was checked against the sources relevant to that topic; it does not guarantee that an external agency, carrier or state has not changed a rule after that date.
When a rule, fee or commercial condition is time-sensitive, the current controlling source wins over Ship or Sell. The guide should explain the planning rule and point the user toward the authoritative source or provider for the final decision.
The analyzer is designed to expose sources, assumptions and confidence instead of giving a black-box recommendation. If you have a better real-world input — such as an actual provider quote, sale offer or storage quote — use it in place of a weaker planning assumption.
Enter the vehicle and route, review the evidence behind SHIP, SELL and STORE, and request a provider-verified rate only if shipping is the path you want to pursue.
Start free analysis →