Not sure if this is the best place for this or not.

Young adult son is thinking about transferring from Phoenix back to Texas, probably Dallas, maybe Austin. Doesn't love phoenix and his company has lots of options to move to. Trying to help give good advice on moving, but I have never move across state lines. He has a civic coupe, so not a huge amount of cargo space. Has a relatively small amount of stuff.

What are the best and least expensive options for moving? We are willing and probably will fly out to help drive back. Rent a uhaul (seems expansive at 1400 bucks), some sort of pod company, moving company, etc?
Did some searching online, but none of the companies but uhaul will actually give you a price without jumping through hoops.

Done a couple cross country moves, including Tucson to Dallas in 2021, and I think U-haul is the cheapest. You should still get quotes from the POD-like companies (which will require them to call you) but unless things have changed driving your own stuff is the gonna be cheapest option. Phoenix to Dallas is a pretty easy drive. If he doesn't have that much stuff he could get a medium sized U-haul and even do it in one (very long) day.

ETA maybe not one day...he'll lose 2 hours of daylight going west to east.

Rent a uhaul truck and tow his car, you'll have more flexibility. My daughter moved to DC last year and she did a Ubox (Uhaul's version of Pods) and it worked out great. She didn't have alot of stuff and the Ubox is smaller than a Pods. Pods didn't fit her schedule and was harder to deal with because you can't do the entire transaction online.

UHaul is the cheapest and it's not even close.

Uhaul and toy the car

We moved from Denver to Dallas in 2019 and ABF pods were comparable maybe even cheaper than Uhaul. Don't forget to factor gas with uhaul.

Also check rental rates on Penske trucks at Home Depot.

GAC06 said:

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"Not a lot of stuff" may mean it's easier and cheaper to just sell it and get new stuff in the new city

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I have suggested that. He has been out of school for a few year and been acquiring furnishings. Don't have specifics on the stuff he has and the values to compare. Basically a small one bedroom apt worth of stuff. Will definitely tell him to run the numbers.

Texas Ag Mom said:

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Also check rental rates on Penske trucks at Home Depot.

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Wasn't sure HD let you do one way trips. Will throw that out too.

We did this for a Dallas to Nashville move, was the cheapest and we just dropped it off in Nash. We hired local help to load and unload at each stop, was pretty inexpensive but nice to not have to do so much manual labor.

I did a ubox from Seattle back to Texas and it was incredibly hassle free

rme said:

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Rent a uhaul truck and tow his car, you'll have more flexibility. My daughter moved to DC last year and she did a Ubox (Uhaul's version of Pods) and it worked out great. She didn't have alot of stuff and the Ubox is smaller than a Pods. Pods didn't fit her schedule and was harder to deal with because you can't do the entire transaction online.

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I recommend against towing the car, if possible, especially if you've never done so before. It's one thing to tow in-town a short distance, but towing long distance is much more daunting. See if he has a friend that can help load/unload (and will drive the car to Dallas & fly back).

When I moved from Dallas to Los Angeles in 2007, we rented a truck from Penske (much better than UHaul) and towed the wife's car. Paid some local movers at both locations to help load / unload.

When we moved back to Dallas in 2010, we used a moving company that just shows up with a truck, and you load it / unload it yourself. Did the same thing and paid some local guys to help with that part.

I did something similar before getting married and liquidated damn near everything I owned. Sold it all and cashed out. Car, electronics, etc. Packed clothes in three suitcases and bought a one way ticket from Chicago to Dallas. Simple and no stress at all, Would do it 10x over again.