Automobile Distribution

[Tony_S]

My knowledge of vehicle transportation in the US isn't anywhere up to date. My US modelling has been mainly set in the steam era and on rather rural lines.

I've seen models of what look like car transporters on the websites but is that the main method still of delivering cars from factories?

What inspired this was that I rented a car (a Ford Focus) from Avis at Houston Airport recently. It only had 5 miles on the "clock". When I refilled the washer fluid I noticed that it was "Made in Michigan". Would it have travelled by rail to Houston?

 

Tony

[pH]

Tony - some information from Norfolk Southern here - http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Customers/Automotive/

[298]

I picked up a Neon from Thrifty at Seatac that had 1 mile on it. I worked out later than it can be common practice (and in the UK too) for dealers to reset or activate the odometer, so the "delivery mileage" is wiped out.

[pH]

I picked up a Neon from Thrifty at Seatac that had 1 mile on it. I worked out later than it can be common practice (and in the UK too) for dealers to reset or activate the odometer, so the "delivery mileage" is wiped out.

As far as I know, it is illegal to reset odometers in the US. My brother-in-law, who lives in Texas, got a nice settlement from a dealer when he proved that a second-hand car he'd bought from them had had the odometer set back.

 

I don't know if it's still the case, but there was one rural county somewhere in the southern States where it was technically not illegal to turn back odometers. Guess what the major occupation was in that county?

 

Going back to Tony's OP - most of the cars built in Japan and Korea for Canada are imported to docks in the Vancouver area. They're driven off the ships onto the docks, then into autoracks for delivery across the country. A shortline, the Southern Railway of BC (SRY), has exclusive access to the docks and makes a lot of its money by hauling long trains of racks the short distance from the docks to the major railways - CN and CP. You can see the cars lined up on the docks south of Shoal Point in this screen, and the New Westminster yard that SRY haul the racks to (over the open swing span) at the top of the screen:

 

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Annacis+Island,+BC&hl=en&ll=49.195223,-122.924223&spn=0.012059,0.030556&sll=54.112352,-126.555646&sspn=11.092944,31.289062&oq=annacis+island&hnear=Annacis+Island&t=h&z=15

[Adrian Wintle]

A lot of rail traffic is automobiles, now mostly carried on enclosed autoracks (I've seen Sprinters and the like on open flat cars). They will go from the factories or docks to distribution centres. Frequently you will see block trains of autoracks, but you can also see blocks of them in mixed trains (down to, occasionally, single cars). From the distribution centres they will go to dealerships and other customers like rental agencies by road on car transporters. It is quite likely that a car will have done less than 5 miles by the time it arrives at the destination.

 

The enclosed autoracks have replaced ths older open auto transporters, primarily to provide protection for the product in transit.

Here is probably the largest of the auto transporters - http://www.gbrx.com/AutoMax.php

Most of the standard auto transporters are similar enclosed racks on 89' flat cars. The racks are owned by either the railroads or by TTX, while the flat cars are mostly owned by TTX. There are some flat + rack combinations which are wholly owned by the railroads, though. These cars are pooled, so you will usually see logos from all sorts of roads in a train (including fallen flags). I frequently see Ferromex autoracks in the Toronto area

 

Adrian

[Tony_S]

Thank you for the replies about new car transport by rail. I'm fairly certain the car mileage was genuine. There were lots of other indications it was new.

[CraigZ]

"Spinning the odometer" is for all intents and purposes illegal under Federal law:

 

Federal Odometer Laws and Regulations

49 U.S.C. §§ 32701-32711 (Formerly 15 U.S.C. §§ 1981-1991),

49 C.F.R., Sections 580.1-580.6 - Odometer Requirements

Violations -

• Resetting or altering odometer with intent to change mileage.
• Making false odometer disclosure statement.
• Failure to provide buyer complete odometer disclosure statement.
• In acquiring vehicle for resale, failure to obtain complete odometer disclosure statement from seller.
• Conspiring to violate any of the Federal odometer statutes.

Civil Recovery -

• $1,500 or,
• treble damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees.

Assessment of Actual Damages - Combination of:

• Value of vehicle with fraudulent mileage minus value of vehicle with actual mileage.
• Lessened resale value of vehicle with altered odometer.
• Increased finance charges on fraudulently inflated value.
• Increased insurance costs of fraudulently inflated value.
• Increased taxes on fraudulently inflated value.
• Cost of unanticipated repairs and maintenance.
• Times spent resolving problems created by fraud.

[Tony_S]

 

"Spinning the odometer" is for all intents and purposes illegal under Federal law:

 

Federal Odometer Laws and Regulations

49 U.S.C. §§ 32701-32711 (Formerly 15 U.S.C. §§ 1981-1991),

49 C.F.R., Sections 580.1-580.6 - Odometer Requirements

Violations -

• Resetting or altering odometer with intent to change mileage.
• Making false odometer disclosure statement.
• Failure to provide buyer complete odometer disclosure statement.
• In acquiring vehicle for resale, failure to obtain complete odometer disclosure statement from seller.
• Conspiring to violate any of the Federal odometer statutes.

Civil Recovery -

• $1,500 or,
• treble damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees.

Assessment of Actual Damages - Combination of:

• Value of vehicle with fraudulent mileage minus value of vehicle with actual mileage.
• Lessened resale value of vehicle with altered odometer.
• Increased finance charges on fraudulently inflated value.
• Increased insurance costs of fraudulently inflated value.
• Increased taxes on fraudulently inflated value.
• Cost of unanticipated repairs and maintenance.
• Times spent resolving problems created by fraud.

Is it an example of "Moral Turpitude" that you have to admit to or deny on entering the USA?

I like to think that at least for the first 700 miles of its life the Ford Focus was driven responsibly.

We are getting a Ford or Jeep SUV or "similar" for our Canada (Calgary, Jasper, Banff) trip at Easter. I may see more trains on that trip. 

Tony

[dave1905]

Virtually every auto in the US has at some time or another been on a railcar.  The auto manufacturers ship autos by rail to "mixing centers" where the different models are sorted out and reloaded onto railcars.  A dealer orders 3 red Escapes, 2 blue Focuses, a black Focus, a silver LX Taurus, a siliver SX Taurus and 3 red Mustangs.  Ford ships a car of Escapes, a car of Focuses, a car of Taurus's and a car of Mustangs to Kansas City.  All the autos are unloaded and then the specific cars ordered by the dealer are reloaded onto a railcar and that railcar is shipped to the auto ramp closest to the dealer.  The cars are unloaded from the rail car, loaded onto auto transporter trucks and taken short haul to the dealer. 

 

The whole process has cut literally weeks out of the delivery time. on new cars produced in N America.