Imperial Towing flatbed in its purple and green flame wrap carrying a vintage sedan with whitewall tires, parked on a lawn in front of a house on a Cape Canaveral, FL call

The Car Sat All Week. Now It Will Not Start.

Sedans, SUVs, minivans and pickups. The ordinary dead car, out of a garage or off the shoulder, about twenty-five road miles up from our Melbourne yard.

Passenger vehicle towing at the cape

Most Of Our Cape Work Is Somebody’s Daily Driver.

Vintage sedan riding on the deck of an Imperial Towing flame-wrapped flatbed, stopped on grass beside a house on a Cape Canaveral, FL light-duty run

The dramatic calls are the ones people remember. A car spun around on SR 401, a recovery under work lights at midnight. Those happen, and we run them. But the bulk of what we do in this city is smaller and far more boring: a four-door that turns over and will not catch, a crossover with a dead battery on the fourth level of a garage, a pickup that shifted itself into limp mode and quit on A1A. That is light-duty towing, and it is most of the work.

Boring is the goal. A light tow done right is a phone call, a number said out loud, a truck arriving inside the window you were given, and a car sitting at a shop an hour later. Nothing about it should be memorable. Imperial Towing has been doing this in Brevard for 28 years and the everyday car tow is still the job we run more than any other. Call (321) 499-4610.

What counts as light duty

Anything you would drive to work. Sedans, hatchbacks, coupes, crossovers, SUVs, minivans, half-ton pickups. If it has four wheels, a passenger cabin, and no air brakes, it is almost certainly this page. A dual-rear-wheel truck, a loaded work van, a shuttle, anything on a commercial chassis: that is a bigger truck and a different conversation, and we would rather have it on the phone than in a parking garage after the wrong equipment shows up.

Tell us the year, make and model when you call. Not because we are filling in a form, but because a 2004 sedan with a manual gearbox and a 2023 crossover with electronic parking brakes and all-wheel drive get loaded two completely different ways.

The long-stay garage car

This is the call that is particular to Cape Canaveral. People leave a vehicle here for a week or longer while they are somewhere else entirely, and salt air does not take a vacation with them. The battery that was merely weak on the drive over is flat by day four. Rear brake cables corrode with the parking brake applied. A caliper sticks. The owner comes back tired, with luggage, and the car does nothing at all.

Two questions sort out how we handle it. Will the vehicle shift out of park with your foot on the brake, and do all four wheels roll freely when it does. If yes to both, a wheel-lift takes it out of the garage and you are on your way. If the battery is dead enough that the shifter interlock will not release, or a wheel will not turn, the car has to come out on the winch and every wheel rides up. Either way we know before we dispatch, which is the whole point of asking.

Tell dispatch these five things

What you are driving: year, make and model, so the right truck leaves the yard.
Exactly where it sits: garage and level, a terminal area, a street, or the shoulder of A1A.
Whether it rolls and steers: that single answer picks the equipment.
Where it is going: your shop, a dealer, your driveway, or help deciding.
Anything on a clock: a flight, a ship, or a shop that closes at five.

The run up from Melbourne, and what that actually means

The Melbourne yard is about twenty-five road miles from Cape Canaveral. That number is worth about as much as the weather forecast on its own, because the drive up I-95 or US-1 and across is an entirely different trip depending on the hour. When ships are working, SR 401 and the terminal approaches surge and then empty out again. Bridges open. A1A does what A1A does on a Saturday in March.

So we do not quote you the mileage, we quote you a window, and the window is built from what the roads are doing at that moment. If the honest answer is longer than you want to hear, you will hear it anyway. A driver stranded with a dead car makes better decisions with a real number than a flattering one, and people remember which they were given.

Where the car is going matters as much as the pickup

The job is not finished when the vehicle is loaded. Plenty of local drivers here already know their shop and we simply take it there. Visitors and seasonal residents usually do not, and the cape is a small city, so most repair work means traveling back down the beach or crossing toward Merritt Island and Cocoa.

Describe the symptom and dispatch will name a few places that genuinely handle that kind of work, along with the unwelcome note about what nobody is fixing on a Sunday afternoon. Nobody pays us a referral to send you anywhere. And if your destination is closed when we arrive, we talk through a safe overnight drop on the phone rather than letting you find out about it from the driver.

Pricing, said out loud, first

You get a straight, no-surprise price on your tow before a truck leaves the yard, and it accounts for the vehicle, the destination, and anything odd about the pickup. Then it holds. When a job turns out easier than described, plenty of ours end up cheaper than quoted. A rental plate or an out-of-state one does not move the number, which should not be worth mentioning and unfortunately is.

Behind it: operators who are certified, insured, and badged for Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Space Force Base access, plus 28 years of police and municipal work across the county including the City of Melbourne contract.

When it is a different call

Not everything at the cape is a light tow. A car stopped in a live lane with traffic moving past it is emergency towing in Cape Canaveral, where the clock outranks everything. A seized wheel, an all-wheel-drive rental, or a lowered car has to ride with every wheel off the ground, which is flatbed towing at the cape. A battery, a flat, a fuel run or keys locked inside often ends with you driving away under roadside assistance. Anything with air brakes or a box body is heavy-duty towing. The countywide detail on this service sits on our light towing page, and everything we run in this city is listed on the Cape Canaveral service page.

Not sure which one you need? Describe the car and what it is doing and we will sort it in a minute. Call (321) 499-4610 or send us your location and a truck heads up.

Everyday Car Questions.

I got back from a week away and my car will not start in the garage. Now what?

That is the single most common light-duty call we take at the cape, so you are in ordinary company. Tell us the garage, the level, and the row, then tell us whether the car will shift out of park with the brake pressed. If it shifts and rolls we can usually take it out on a wheel-lift. If the battery is flat enough that the shifter will not release, the car has to be winched, and that is worth knowing before the truck is dispatched rather than after.

How long is the run from your yard to Cape Canaveral?

It is about twenty-five road miles from the Melbourne yard, up I-95 or US-1 and across, and honestly the mileage is the least interesting part of the answer. Ship turnaround hours on SR 401, an open bridge, or the ordinary A1A afternoon can all stretch it. We look at what the road is doing right then and give you a window we expect to hit instead of the one that sounds best on the phone.

Is my pickup too big for a light-duty truck?

A standard half-ton pickup is light duty and we tow them all day. It only stops being light duty when it is dual rear wheel, heavily loaded, pulling something, or built on a commercial chassis. Read us the year, make and model and we will tell you straight whether the light truck handles it or whether this is a bigger truck’s job. Sending the wrong equipment wastes your afternoon, not ours.

Can you get into a cruise parking garage?

Often yes, and sometimes we stage outside and bring the car out to you. Overhead clearance decides it, not willingness, and garage decks are lower than people expect. Give dispatch the property name and whether you are inside secured port property or on public ground, since the access rules differ and can change. Our operators are certified and insured and carry Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Space Force Base credentials, so controlled access is familiar ground.

My minivan died in an A1A turn lane with my kids in it. What do I do first?

Hazards on, then get everyone out on the side away from traffic and stand well back behind the vehicle, off the pavement. If there is nowhere safe to stand, keep everyone belted inside instead. Call 911 first if the van is sitting where traffic is still moving, then call us at (321) 499-4610. Tell dispatch there are children on the scene, because it changes how the operator sets the truck when he arrives.

Where does the car end up if I do not have a shop out here?

Most repair work happens off the cape, so the car generally travels back down the beach or across toward Merritt Island and Cocoa. Describe the symptom and we will name a few places that actually do that kind of work, plus the honest note about what nobody is fixing on a Sunday. If your shop is closed when we arrive, we will talk through what a safe overnight drop looks like instead of leaving it as a surprise.

What does a car tow out of Cape Canaveral cost?

It depends on the vehicle and the destination. Ask when you call and you get a straight, no-surprise price on your tow before a truck leaves the yard, and then it holds. If the job turns out easier than you described it, plenty of ours end up cheaper than the number we gave. A rental plate does not change the figure.

Do you run out here overnight?

Every night, all year, and a live person picks up. Cars do not check the hour before their batteries quit, and a port town has people arriving and leaving at strange times anyway. The arrival window you get at two in the morning is built the same way as the one at two in the afternoon, off what the roads are actually doing.

Dead Car, Ordinary Day. That Is Our Usual Job.

Say what you drive and where it sits. You get a real window and the price before the truck rolls.

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See our trucks working the Space Coast in the photo gallery.

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