Car Dealerships In Hawaii: How To Get Your New Car From Another Island

Hawaii, as everyone probably knows, is a state comprising several islands of varying sizes. Hawaii is the name of the largest of these islands and therefore was adopted as the state's name. There is also O'ahu, Kaua'i, Lana'i, and a few others. So what happens when you move to Hawaii and you need a new car? What if your new car is located on another one of Hawaii's islands? Here is how you can purchase a vehicle from car dealerships in Hawaii and still get your vehicle to your home island in this state.

Dealerships and Their Connections in the Same State

Hawaii, like most states, has car dealerships that share sales sites and dealership car search connections. Unlike other states, however, finding and shipping a car from another part of the state is very different. In Alaska or the forty-eight contingent states, if you buy a car across state or even from another state altogether, it is often loaded onto a car hauler truck and brought to the dealership where you made your purchase. But in Hawaii, special transportation needs to be arranged. So, while you can buy a car from any of the other islands around you, your dealer will need to make the travel arrangements.

Cars Coming by Ferry, Cargo Freighter, or Cargo Plane

In what should be a simple transport over the water, the shipping of your new vehicle from another island gets complex in a hurry. There are some ferries that run between certain islands, but they do not always allow the shipment of cars, nor do they run between all of the islands. Even if your dealer can get your car from one island to another by ferry, it still has to be driven around that island to the next ferry departure site and then try and get on that ferry to the next island. To bypass all of that, your dealer may just request that the car be shipped by cargo freighter directly from the island where the vehicle currently resides to your island. It may take a few weeks, depending on the weather and the availability of room on the freighter, so you might have to ride public transportation for awhile.

Finally, if you live on either of Hawaii's two islands that have an airport, the vehicle may be shipped via cargo plane. This specially designed plane is meant to move tanks and trucks for military but may be hired by businesses to move large cargo. Unfortunately, that also means that if your vehicle is on one of the smaller islands lacking an airport, your dealer will have to find another method of getting the vehicle to the airport. In that case, you may as well bypass that method for the cargo freighter. Shipping costs for all of the above may be your deciding factor.

For more information, talk with car dealerships directly, such as Jack Burford Chevrolet.