Selling a car that won't start or move

A car that doesn’t run is the normal case for a junk buyer, not a problem to work around. A car that starts and drives well has better places to go.

Common reasons a car stops for good

Sellers usually call us after one of these:

• The engine is gone. A thrown rod, a cracked block, overheating that never got fixed. A rebuild costs more than the car.
• The transmission quit. It slips, won’t go into gear or makes the car crawl. Same math as an engine.
• It just sat. A car parked behind a two-flat for a winter or two often comes back with a dead battery, flat-spotted tires, mice in the air filter and brakes rusted to the rotors.
• The keys are lost. Replacing a modern key and programming it can cost real money on a car that’s nearly worthless.
• The car failed something and was never fixed. An emissions test, a safety recall, a check engine light that turned into something bigger.

None of these changes how the sale works. You tell us what’s wrong, we tell you what we’d pay.

Details that keep the quote accurate

The more we know, the less can change at pickup. Four details matter most:

1. Year, make and model, and roughly the mileage if you know it.
2. Whether it rolls. Can the wheels turn, or are they locked or flat?
3. Where it is: street, alley, garage, driveway, lot. A car in a garage with the nose to the wall is a different job than one at the curb.
4. What papers you have. A title in your name is simplest. If it’s lost or not in your name, see selling a car without a title.

Parked on the street and not moving

A car that can’t move is exposed to tickets and towing. On Chicago streets the city can treat a car as abandoned when it’s inoperable or hasn’t moved in a set number of days, and a car with enough unpaid tickets can be booted. If yours already has a boot on it, read selling a booted car in Chicago before you call anyone.

The suburbs set their own limits. Cicero, Berwyn, Oak Park and the rest each have rules about non-running cars on streets and driveways; the neighborhood pages quote them town by town.

Stuck in a garage

Plenty of West Side cars die in an alley garage, and the hard part is getting them out the door. Before you rent a jack or call three friends, read our guide on moving a dead car out of an alley garage. Often the answer is to leave it where it is and let the tow driver pull it.

If the car is wrecked rather than worn out, the wrecked and totaled cars page covers that side, and our free removal page covers pickup.