The bottom line: To sell a junk car in Montana, every owner on the title signs it over to the buyer. You need no notary, and Montana has no emissions or safety inspection.
Without the title, a licensed junk or wrecking buyer can still take the car, on a notarized bill of sale or release of ownership. To replace a lost title, apply online or by mail on Form MV7, which costs $10.30 and can take up to four weeks.
A bill of sale on Form MV24 is recommended, and it needs no notary. A car from model year 2011 or later also needs the mileage on Form MV90A.
Keep your plates. Montana has no release of liability form, so keep copies of the signed title and bill of sale.
In Montana, the typical offer in our data for a junk car 10 years or older is $695.
What would buyers pay for your junk car in Montana?Fill in one form, including whether you have the title, and see which buyers make an offer.
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 4/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
-
Process ease 15% 5/5
- Buys any car in any condition, running or not
- Free towing, with no fees taken off the offer
- You can cancel before pickup at no cost
- Pays by check on the spot at pickup
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 5/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
-
Process ease 15% 4/5
- Buys damaged cars, even ones that can't be driven
- The engine and transmission must still be in
- Free towing, included with every offer
- Picks up within 48 hours, sometimes the same day
-
Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 4/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
-
Process ease 15% 2/5
- Owned by Copart, the salvage auction company
- Buys almost any vehicle with a motor, running or not
- Free towing, and it handles the title transfer
- Hands you a check at pickup, or mails it
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
Compare Instant Offers
Start With Your Situation
Jump straight to your situation.
How Do You Sell a Junk Car in Montana?
Six steps, and only the last one is done after the truck has left.
Step 1: Get quotes from several buyers
A quote form wants the year, make and model, the mileage and your ZIP code. It also asks whether the car starts and whether it drives. Read the mileage off the dashboard rather than guessing it.
Some buyers ask for the VIN as well. It is on a small plate at the bottom of the windshield on the driver’s side, and it is printed on your registration card.
Say on the form whether the wheels, the engine and the catalytic converter are still on the car. The offer is for the car as you described it.
Get at least three quotes. None of them commits you to anything.
Step 2: Check your paperwork
Get the title and a photo ID out before you accept anything. The name on the title has to be yours, and no lender can still be listed on it.
Bill of sale: recommended.
State form: Form MV24.
Our bill of sale generator builds one from the details on the title, if you would rather not print the state PDF.
Every form you might need
Neither of these comes up unless the title is missing.
Bonded title
Form MV10, Application for Break/Bond Title.
When the state has no record of the title. When it applies.
Step 3: Accept an offer and book the pickup
You accept the offer online or by phone. The buyer passes the job to a tow company near you, and that company contacts you to set a pickup window.
You meet the driver, sign the title, and take the money. If someone else will do that for you, tell the buyer when you book.
Step 4: Get the car ready for the tow truck
The truck needs a straight run at the car and room behind it to drop the bed. Say when you book if the car is boxed in, buried in snow or parked on soft ground.
Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glove box, trunk, door pockets, under the seats and the spare tire well. Take off any toll pass or parking permit.
Plates stay with you. Take them off before the truck arrives.
Lost keys do not stop the pickup, because the driver winches the car on. Put it on the quote form, because with no key the driver cannot turn the car on to read the mileage. Our guide to selling a car with lost keys covers the rest.
Step 5: Sign the title and take payment
The driver looks the car over and you sign the back of the title.
You are paid before the car goes on the truck, so count the cash or read the check before it moves.
Where the buyer transfers the title: the buyer's County Treasurer's office.
Keep any paper the driver leaves with you, and check your inbox, because some buyers email the bill of sale and the confirmation instead. The bill of sale names the buyer: write in the company’s name and address from your offer confirmation, not the driver’s.
Step 6: Deal with the plates and cancel the insurance
Plates: ask your County Treasurer about transferring them to another vehicle you own.
Cancel the insurance once the car has gone. If you cancel on the morning of the pickup and the truck is late, the car sits on your property uninsured until it comes.
Montana Junk Car Checklist
Before the Sale
At Pickup
After the Sale
What Is Your Junk Car Worth in Montana?
In Montana, buyers typically offer $695 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 55 offers, ranked 1 of 44 states). Across the country, half of all offers on old cars fall between $375 and $1,075.
Buyers typically offer $415 for cars 15 years and older in Montana, from our own quote data. Of the requests here, 6% get no offer at all.
Nothing moves the offer more than the catalytic converter. With the converter gone, and age and mileage matched, the offer against a comparable car with it moves by about -57%. If it is missing, say so on the form.
Whether the engine starts is the next thing. Against a comparable car that drives, once age and mileage are matched, a car that won’t start moves the offer by about -46%.
Companies That Buy Junk Cars in Montana
Peddle
Peddle buys junk, salvage, and non-running cars
- Buys junk cars anywhere in Montana
- Offer online in minutes, then pickup and payment
- Takes dinged, damaged and non-running cars
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 4/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
-
Process ease 15% 5/5
Peddle buys a car with a blown engine, a failed transmission or crash damage.
Wheelzy
Wheelzy buys cars in any condition, running or not
- Free pickup from any Montana address
- Branches in seven Montana cities, Billings to Missoula
- Charges no title-transfer or car-removal fee
- Pays by cashier's check, cashable the same day
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 5/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
-
Process ease 15% 4/5
When the title is missing, get the quote from Wheelzy first, because it helps with the replacement. In Montana a replacement takes up to four weeks.
CashForCars
CashForCars is owned by Copart and buys cars in any condition
- Yards in Billings and Helena
- Offer in 60 seconds, from the form or one phone call
- Free towing when it comes for the car
- Takes cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, RVs and boats
-
Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 4/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
-
Process ease 15% 2/5
CashForCars is owned by Copart. The cars it buys in Montana are sold on through Copart’s auction yards.
Collect all three numbers even if the first one looks fine. When two or more buyers quote the same car on the same day through our own quote form, the highest and lowest offers are typically $314 apart.
If the car still starts and drives and has a clean title, a private sale usually pays more than a junk buyer. Our guide to selling a car privately in Montana covers the paperwork.
Can You Sell a Junk Car Without a Title in Montana?
Yes, in one case, and it depends on who is buying.
Option 1: Junk the car with no title. The rule in Montana: a private sale needs the signed title, while a licensed junk or wrecking buyer can take the vehicle on a notarized bill of sale or release of ownership in place of a title. The statute behind it: MCA 61-3-208 authorizes a bonded title (Break/Bond, Form MV10) when no record of the title can be found, and Title 75, chapter 10, part 5 lets licensed wrecking facilities take a vehicle for parts or scrap.
Put the missing title on the quote form. The buyer then says whether the yard it uses can take the car that way.
Option 2: Replace the title and sell with it. Every buyer can then quote the car. When the state has no record of the title at all, the form is different: Form MV10, Application for Break/Bond Title.
Option 3: Sell it for parts yourself. No title is needed to sell a part. A part sells one at a time, and the shell is still in the yard at the end of it.
Getting a Replacement Title in Montana
What a replacement title takes in Montana:
- Application: Form MV7
- Where to submit: online through MVD Online Services, or by mail to the Vehicle Services Bureau, P.O. Box 201431, Helena, MT 59620-1431
- Fee: $10.30
- Processing time: up to four weeks
Send the application the day you start asking for quotes, so the two waits overlap. If the old title turns up later, destroy it and sign the new one over.
If a lender is listed on your title
A car with a lien on the title cannot be junked until the lien is released. Your lender releases it one of these ways: the lienholder completes a Release of Security Interest or Lien (Form MV37A) or provides a release on official letterhead; Montana is not a title-holding state, so the owner holds the title while the lender holds a security interest filing.
Ask the lender for the payoff figure first. When it is higher than the best quote, the gap is yours to pay. The payoff and the release are covered in our guide to selling a financed car.
If your title is electronic
If the car is titled in another state
A buyer takes the car on the title it has, whichever state issued it. Name that state on the quote form.
A lost out-of-state title is replaced by the state that issued it, not by Montana, on that state’s form and at that state’s pace.
Selling a Junk Car That Isn’t in Your Name
The buyer pays whoever is named on the title. When the owner has died, the form that moves the title to your name is Form MV12, Application for Title by Non-Probate Transfer. Once the title is in your name, the junk sale is the same as any other.
Montana’s rule on a gifted car: No state form. Titling and registration happen together through the county treasurer.
A buyer will ask for the paperwork that put the title in your name, so have it out before the truck is booked.
A car a stranger left on your land is not yours to sign over. It goes through the abandoned vehicle process, which starts with the sheriff or the police, not with a buyer.
Local Dismantlers vs Online Buyers in Montana
Selling to a local yard
A local yard’s offer is set by weight, and the scrap price moves from week to week. A number given on the phone is not written down.
A car brought in on a trailer saves the yard a tow. When the yard collects the car instead, ask whether the tow comes off the offer.
Ask what license the yard holds. Whether it can take the car without a title depends on that.
A yard that wants the car for its parts rather than its weight may offer more, so it is worth saying what still works on it.
Selling to an online buyer
An online buyer’s number comes in writing, from the form, before any truck is booked. It prices the parts that can be resold, not just the weight of the shell.
The tow is the buyer’s cost, not yours.
The car is still yours until the driver loads it.
Our guide to how online buyers work out an offer goes through what moves the number.
When selling it yourself makes sense
A mechanic or a hobbyist may offer more than a scrap buyer for a car whose engine is sound. It takes weeks rather than days, and the buyer brings a trailer.
Advertise it as parts or as a project, priced at what the scrap buyers offered.
Let the first person who turns up with a trailer take it.
Storing a Junk Car in Montana
Cities and counties each set their own rules on a car that does not run and can be seen from the road. Where the rule exists, it ends in a fine or a tow at your cost.
A winter outdoors can freeze the battery and seize the brakes. Mice get into the wiring. If the car has to sit, park it on gravel or concrete rather than grass, and take the battery indoors.
Our guide on how to store a junk car covers a car that has to sit for a few months.
Montana Motor Vehicle Resources
- Motor vehicle agency: Montana Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)
- Selling a vehicle: MT MVD, Tips for Selling a Vehicle in Montana
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to sell a junk car in Montana?
A few days from the first quote to the truck when the title is in hand. The tow company sets the day.
A replacement title, if you need one, adds its own wait before that.
Do I have to tell Montana I sold the car?
What happens to my junk car after I sell it in Montana?
The yard drains the fuel, the oil and the coolant first. Then it takes off the parts it can sell again, and what is left is crushed and sold as scrap steel.
Does anything have to be notarized to junk a car in Montana?
Title notarization: not required.
Bill of sale notarization: not required when you have the title. A sale with no title is the exception, because the wrecking buyer takes the car on a notarized bill of sale instead.
Does a junk car need an emissions test to sell in Montana?
Emissions test to sell: no testing required.
Junk buyers do not ask for test results.
Can I junk a car with expired registration in Montana?
Yes. Registration is for driving on the road, and this car is leaving on a truck. You don’t need to renew it first.
The old card is still worth keeping as a second piece of paper with your name and the VIN on it.
What if the junk car offer changes when the driver arrives in Montana?
A converter or wheels that are missing but were not on the form give the driver a reason to lower the number.
Nothing obliges you to accept the lower number. Until you sign the title the car is still yours, so you can send the truck away and use one of your other quotes.
Is it worth repairing my car instead of junking it in Montana?
Set the repair estimate against two numbers: the junk offer now, and what the car would sell for once it runs. A repair that costs more than the gap between those two loses money.
A car with a sound engine or a part that is hard to find can also be sold for parts.
Article Update History
Montana junk car offers now come from Sell Car Advisor quote data.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"$10.30" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"recommended" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the seller discloses the mileage on Form MV90A, required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older and vehicles rated over 16,000 pounds exempt" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Conditions to Sell Without Title
"a private sale needs the signed title, while a licensed junk or wrecking buyer can take the vehicle on a notarized bill of sale or release of ownership in place of a title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Sell Without Title: Legal Authority
"MCA 61-3-208 authorizes a bonded title (Break/Bond, Form MV10) when no record of the title can be found, and Title 75, chapter 10, part 5 lets licensed wrecking facilities take a vehicle for parts or scrap" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Montana Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MV24" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form MV7" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MV10, Application for Break/Bond Title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the lienholder completes a Release of Security Interest or Lien (Form MV37A) or provides a release on official letterhead; Montana is not a title-holding state, so the owner holds the title while the lender holds a security interest filing" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Replacement Title Processing Time
"up to four weeks" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Title Transfer Form
"Form MV12, Application for Title by Non-Probate Transfer" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"no testing required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 6 figures from 17,628 instant cash offers, and 3 figures from same-day quotes by several buyers" Accessed Oct. 19, 2026
Found this useful? Show Sell Car Advisor first when you search on Google.
Add us as a preferred source on Google