Texas to Tennessee Car Shipping

Texas to Tennessee car shipping is a quick trip. In Neptune Auto Transport’s records the median trip took 1 day once the car was loaded, and 15 of 27 cars were delivered the day after pickup. Half went to the Nashville area and about a third to the Memphis area, mostly from Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Lately most cars on this route went for about $650 to $700 on an open carrier, door to door. Moving from Texas to Tennessee? Here is the cost, the timing and the visit to the county clerk.

Picked up today, delivered tomorrow: how quickly cars reached Tennessee

From loading to delivery the median trip took 1 day. Fifteen of 27 cars arrived the day after pickup, 25 within 2 days and every one within 3. Pickups in Dallas-Fort Worth and in Houston both took 1 day at the median. Deliveries to the Memphis area took 1 day, and to the Nashville area 1 to 2 days, since Nashville is about 200 miles farther along I-40.

Google puts Dallas to Nashville at about 663 miles, or just under 10 hours of driving on I-30 and I-40, and Houston to Nashville at about 780 miles. Dallas to Memphis is about 452 miles and Houston to Memphis about 568. A carrier drives those miles with other cars to load and unload, so a one-day run is fast for a car hauler, not a given.

The pickup date is set separately. It depends on where in Texas the car is, which carriers are loading toward Tennessee and how flexible your dates are; we agree the window with you once a carrier is assigned. If a date cannot move, ask about expedited auto transport. The median describes finished trips, not a promised delivery date.

Recent prices from Dallas and Houston to Nashville and Memphis

Each row below comes from at least three separate recent shipments, dispatched from January to October 2026, for an operable vehicle on an open carrier, door to door.

Across every route in those months, most cars went for about $650 to $700, most SUVs for $700 to $800 and most pickups for $750 to $800, with the full spread running from $550 to $1,000. Memphis usually came in a little below Nashville from the same Texas city, because it is the shorter run. Comparing TX to TN quotes? Those are the figures to check them against.

These are recent rates, not a fixed price, and they shift through the year. Your quote depends on both addresses, the vehicle, your dates and which carriers are heading northeast. Our car shipping cost calculator gives a ballpark for any route, and every quote we send is free and all-inclusive.

Half to the Nashville area, a third to Memphis

The Nashville area took half the cars: Nashville six times, Clarksville three times, Antioch twice, and Franklin, Murfreesboro and Waverly once each. The Memphis area took 32%, seven of them to Memphis itself and the others to Arlington and Halls.

The rest went east: two cars to Knoxville, one each to Caryville and Chattanooga, and one to Jackson in West Tennessee. Our Tennessee car shipping page covers deliveries anywhere else in the state.

Four in five came from Dallas-Fort Worth or Houston

Dallas-Fort Worth supplied 46% of pickups: Dallas, Grand Prairie and Arlington three times each, plus Lewisville, Plano, Red Oak and Fort Worth. Greater Houston supplied 36%: Houston and Humble three times each, Spring twice, and Cypress and Cleveland. The rest came from San Antonio, New Braunfels, Edinburg in the Rio Grande Valley, Abilene and Longview.

Sedans, SUVs and two heavy-duty Silverados: what rode east

Cars made up 57% of the loads, from a Toyota Prius and a Nissan Versa to a BMW 330i, a BMW 6 Series and an Infiniti M37. The rest were SUVs such as a 2025 Ford Bronco, a Jeep Wrangler, a Ford Edge and a Cadillac SRX, a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, a Ram 1500 and two Silverado 2500HD trucks. The median model year was 2015.

Most of these went on an open carrier, which the price table describes. For a classic or a car you would rather keep out of the weather, ask us to price an enclosed trailer too. A heavy-duty truck with a lift or a long bed may need a specific spot on the trailer, so mention it when you book.

New to Tennessee from Texas: title, plates and no emissions test

Tennessee asks new residents to register within 30 days of moving, and the title and plates both come from the county clerk where you live. The Tennessee Department of Revenue lists what to bring: ID, proof of your Tennessee address, the current Texas registration, and the Texas title, or your lender’s name and address if the car is financed.

If you came from Dallas, Fort Worth or Houston, where Texas still requires an emissions test, the test simply drops away: Tennessee’s program ended in 2022, including Nashville’s. Tennessee does require liability insurance on every registered vehicle, so set up a policy before the clerk visit.

The return trip: Memphis to Dallas often took one day

Going the other way, every car we moved from the Memphis area to Dallas-Fort Worth arrived the day after pickup. Our Tennessee to Texas auto transport guide covers the rest of that direction: about a third of pickups were around Memphis there too, but more than a third came from East Tennessee, and a quarter of the vehicles were pickup trucks. Its median was also 1 day. Shipping to Tennessee from farther west? See our California to Tennessee guide, or our Texas auto transport page for routes out of Texas.

How we measured it

The shares, medians and vehicle mix come from Neptune Auto Transport’s own Texas to Tennessee shipments picked up from October 2022 to June 2026, with voided orders left out. Areas are built from the first three digits of each ZIP code, transit runs from loading to delivery and leaves out one record with the same pickup and delivery date, and the comparison is against our other routes into Tennessee. Percentages are rounded so each table adds to 100. The price table is separate: it reflects recent comparable shipments on these routes dispatched from January to October 2026, not our order records, and it is not a quote. No customer or address is named, and nothing here promises a price or a date.