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The bottom line: To sell a junk car in New Hampshire, you get quotes online, sign the title when the tow driver arrives, and take payment on the spot. Two days is normal.
Peddle, Wheelzy and CashForCars all buy junk cars here. Most bring $200 to $600, and towing is free.
You need the title and a photo ID on the day. Your car’s model year decides whether a title exists at all, so check that first.
If the title is lost, apply for a replacement and collect quotes while you wait. If your car is old enough to be title exempt, a bill of sale takes its place.
One form gets you all three offers, so you can compare offers from multiple buyers in one go.
Automated assistant — general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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How to Sell a Junk Car in New Hampshire in Six Steps
Step 1: Get quotes from several buyers
Every quote form asks the same handful of things. Year, make, model, mileage, your ZIP code, and whether the car starts and rolls.
Then it asks what’s wrong. Say it plainly: dead battery, blown head gasket, rear end caved in, no catalytic converter, three flat tires.
Some forms want the VIN. It’s on a small plate at the base of the windshield on the driver’s side, and on your registration.
A number comes back in about two minutes. It’s a real offer, not an estimate, and Peddle and CashForCars both hold theirs for seven days.
That number holds as long as the car matches what you typed. Leave out the missing engine and the driver will price it again at your curb.
Fill in one form instead of three and compare offers from multiple buyers at once.
Top junk car buyers in New Hampshire. All three reach the populated corridors along I-93, I-95 and Route 101. Up in the North Country, pickup can take an extra day.
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
- Quote stays valid for 7 days
- Handles all the paperwork too
- Buys cars that are missing keys
- Pays cash or check at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
- Assists with replacement titles
- Buys cars stripped for parts
- Driver pays you before loading
- Quote often needs a phone call
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Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 2/5
- Over 200 locations nationwide
- Drop off your car at any yard
- Backed by Copart auction yards
- Pays a check right at pickup
Step 2: Check your paperwork
Look at the model year on your car before anything else. That one number decides which pile of paper you need.
Title needed to sell: yes (model year 1999 and older exempt)
Bill of sale: required only for title-exempt vehicles (1999 and older) and boats; recommended otherwise
Bill of sale form: Report of Sale or Transfer of a Non-Titled Motor Vehicle (Form TDMV 22A)
Where to get the form: available from the NH DMV website and must contain the information required by RSA 261:148
You can also build one with our bill of sale generator. Keep a copy of whatever you sign.
Odometer disclosure: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles over 16,000 lbs GVWR exempt
Separate odometer form: none; the reading goes in the assignment section on the back of the title, and under federal law a disclosure is required for vehicles model year 2011 or newer under 16,000 pounds
Bring a photo ID as well. Expired registration doesn’t stop the sale, since buyers care that the car is yours rather than that it was legal to drive.
If a document is missing, the fix depends on which one. A lost title goes to the replacement title section, a lender holding it goes to the lien section, and a title-exempt car goes to selling without a title.
Every form you might need
Most junk sales in New Hampshire need no forms at all. These come up when something is missing or the car isn’t straightforwardly yours.
Step 3: Accept an offer and book the pickup
Once you accept, the buyer hands your car to a local tow company. Someone from that company calls you, usually within a few hours.
You agree on a day and a rough window, and someone has to be at the car when the truck arrives.
Tell them where the car sits. A car behind a snowbank or up a steep dirt drive changes which truck they send.
Step 4: Get the car ready for the tow truck
Clear a path to the car. A flatbed needs room to back in and about thirty feet of straight pull to winch it up.
In winter that means shovelling. A car frozen into a plowed-in driveway is the most common reason a New Hampshire pickup gets pushed to another day.
Empty it out. Check the glovebox, console, under the seats, the spare tire well and the visors, because people leave garage remotes and EZ-Pass transponders behind.
No keys doesn’t stop the pickup, since a flatbed winches a car that won’t start or steer. It can lower the offer, because the driver can’t open the car or read the odometer.
Say there’s no key on the quote form. Then the number you’re given already accounts for it.
Step 5: Sign and take payment
The driver walks the car, checks it against your description, then hands you the paperwork. Sign the assignment on the back of the title in blue or black ink, exactly as your name is printed on the front.
Notarization: not required
You don’t go anywhere for this. The buyer takes the signed title to their own town or city clerk, who prepares the title application and sends it on.
For the full walkthrough of every box on the title, including jointly owned cars, see our guide to selling a car in New Hampshire.
Photograph everything you sign before it leaves with the driver. Both sides of the title, the bill of sale, and the odometer reading.
Payment is usually cash or check. It depends on the tow company.
Take the money before the car goes on the truck.
Step 6: Plates, records and insurance
Plates stay: with the seller
What to do with them: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own through your town or city clerk, or return them to your town or city clerk to avoid future fees
Plate transfer fee: varies, set by your town or city clerk where the plate transfer is processed
Take the plates off before the driver arrives rather than after. Once the car is on the truck it’s harder to get to them.
Form to file with the state: None required
Save your photos somewhere you’ll still find them in a year.
Call your insurance after the car is gone, not before. Cancelling early leaves it uninsured while it’s still sitting in your driveway.
Your New Hampshire Junk Car Checklist
Before the Sale
At Pickup
After the Sale
What Your Junk Car Is Worth in New Hampshire
Most junk cars bring $200 to $600. Heavier, newer or more complete vehicles reach $1,000 and up.
Two things drive that number. What the car weighs as scrap metal, and whether anything on it can be pulled and resold.
Scrap value is the floor. Parts value is what moves, and it’s why two identical wrecks get different offers in different towns.
A complete car beats a stripped one. Engine, transmission, wheels and catalytic converter still attached is worth more than the same car with them gone.
Weight matters more than looks. A rusted-out truck often beats a tidy little sedan, because there’s more steel on the scale.
Common models pay better. Buyers pull more parts from an ordinary Honda or Ford than from something rare nobody stocks.
Road salt cuts into it. New Hampshire winters eat rocker panels and brake lines, and a rotted body is worth its metal and little else.
Missing paperwork lowers offers. A car the buyer can’t title cleanly is worth less to them, so they offer less for it.
Where you are changes it too. Cars in the Merrimack Valley sit close to more yards than cars in Coos County, and competition shows up in the offer.
For a fuller breakdown of who offers what, see who gives the most cash for junk cars.
Companies That Buy Junk Cars in New Hampshire
All three buy cars that don’t run. A dead engine, a seized transmission or a car that hasn’t moved in four years is normal business for them, and none of them needs to see it before quoting.
Peddle
Peddle buys junk, salvage, and non-running cars
- Quote stays valid for 7 days
- Handles all the paperwork too
- Buys cars that are missing keys
- Pays cash or check at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
Peddle picks up in Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Derry and Dover, and across the rest of the state through its carrier network.
Their quote holds for seven days. They also buy in some cases where there’s no title at all, such as a lost title or a car left by someone who has died.
Wheelzy
Wheelzy is best for older, junk or damaged cars
- Assists with replacement titles
- Buys cars stripped for parts
- Driver pays you before loading
- Quote often needs a phone call
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
Wheelzy covers Rochester, Salem, Keene, Portsmouth and Laconia, and works through local tow partners elsewhere in the state.
The form takes about two minutes and asks only for basic details. Your price stays locked at pickup when the car matches what you described.
CashForCars
CashForCars runs on Copart's nationwide auction yards
- Over 200 locations nationwide
- Drop off your car at any yard
- Backed by Copart auction yards
- Pays a check right at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 2/5
CashForCars serves Merrimack, Londonderry, Hudson, Bedford and Lebanon, backed by a network of more than 200 locations.
Their quote is also good for seven days, and they handle the title transfer paperwork themselves. Same-day pickup happens in a lot of areas.
Pick Peddle if the title is lost or the owner has died, since they buy without one in some cases. Pick Wheelzy for crash damage or a car already stripped for parts.
Pick CashForCars if you want same-day pickup or would rather they filled in the transfer paperwork.
On junk cars their offers usually land within about $50 of each other, and the gap widens as the car gets more valuable. One form shows you all three.
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Selling a Junk Car Without a Title in New Hampshire
Which route you take depends on whether your car falls inside the state’s title exemption.
Conditions to sell without a title: the vehicle must have a model year of 1999 or older and not be a heavy truck or truck-tractor over 18,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, which must always be titled regardless of age
That gives you three ways forward.
- Your car is exempt. There’s no title to look for, so sell it on the form above and keep a copy.
- Your car needs a title and you’ve lost it. Apply for a replacement and get quotes while you wait.
- Your car needs a title and a replacement isn’t possible. Ask each buyer which ownership documents they take instead, and selling it for parts is the fallback.
The exempt route isn’t limited to scrap yards or licensed dismantlers. Any buyer can use it, including the national online buyers, subject to their own document rules.
Say so when you request your quote. That way the right paperwork arrives with the driver instead of a title assignment nobody can fill in.
Learn more: How to Sell a Car Without a Title
Getting a Replacement Title in New Hampshire
This only applies to cars the state titles in the first place. If yours is exempt, there’s nothing to replace.
Processing time: 5 to 10 calendar days once the DMV receives and verifies your application
Apply first, then get your quotes as the title gets close to arriving. Offers hold for about a week, so collecting them too early means doing it twice.
Is it worth doing? On a car at the bottom of the range, the fee and the trip to a DMV office eat much of what you’d gain.
Above roughly $500 it usually pays for itself. Below that, ask Peddle what they can accept first, since they sometimes work from other ownership documents.
If a lender still holds the title
Lien release: the lienholder signs a Release of Lien or Other Encumbrances (Form TDMV 20A) or provides a release on bank letterhead
Call the bank or credit union even if the loan was paid off years ago. Old liens sit on titles long after the debt is gone.
If you still owe more than the car is worth, that gap comes out of your pocket. Our guide to selling a financed car covers how that works.
Electronic titles
So if the paper copy is gone, a replacement is the only route. There’s nothing to print or download.
If the car is titled in another state
Sell it on the title you already hold. You don’t need to bring a Maine or Massachusetts title into New Hampshire first.
Follow that state’s signing and plate rules, not ours, since they often differ. Our guide to selling a car out of state walks through it.
Selling a Junk Car That Isn’t in Your Name
You can only sell a car you have the authority to sign for. A car parked at your place that belongs to someone else isn’t yours to hand to a tow driver.
When the owner has died, whoever the court appoints signs the title.
How a gift transfer works: No gift form. The title assignment shows $0 or gift as the purchase price
An abandoned car left on your property has its own legal path. See our guide to selling an abandoned vehicle before you promise it to anyone.
Learn more: How to Sell a Car of a Deceased Person
What Counts as a Junk Car in New Hampshire
There’s no test you have to pass. Buyers use the word loosely, and it just means a car worth more in pieces than it is as a car.
Your model year decides the paperwork. Your condition decides the offer. Here’s how buyers sort what shows up.
| What you have | What buyers call it | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Runs and drives, worth under $1,000 | Old car or high-mileage car | Best offers of the group, since it can be resold whole |
| Won’t start but everything is still on it | Non-running junk car | Parts value holds, so offers stay solid |
| Crashed, frame or structure bent | Wrecked or salvage | Depends on which panels and parts survived |
| Engine, wheels or converter already gone | Parts car | Lowest offers, and the tow can be harder to arrange |
| Flood or fire damage | Total loss | Parts value drops sharply, metal value stays |
| Sat outside for years, badly rusted | Scrap | Weight does most of the work on the offer |
Local Yards or Online Buyers?
New Hampshire has plenty of salvage yards, from Rochester down through the Merrimack Valley. Calling them means one phone call per yard and a different set of questions each time.
A yard can beat an online buyer when your car has something they want. If they’re stocking parts for your exact model, they’ll pay for it.
Some yards also want you to deliver the car. That’s a tow bill of $75 to $150 straight off the top of your offer.
Online buyers quote in writing, tow for free, and hold the number for days. The trade-off is that they price off a national model rather than what one local yard happens to need this week.
Get the online quotes first, since they take two minutes. Then you have a real number to hold a local yard against.
Storing a Junk Car While You Sort It Out
If the car is waiting on paperwork, keep it off the street. Many New Hampshire towns have ordinances about unregistered vehicles parked in view.
Keep it on a hard surface if you can. A car sinking into wet ground over a mud season gets much harder to winch out later.
Our guide to storing a junk car covers leaks, flat tires and town complaints.
New Hampshire Motor Vehicle Resources
State agency: New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
Official selling guidance: NH DMV Purchasing or Selling a Titled Vehicle page
For plates, registrations and title applications, your town or city clerk is the office you deal with. The DMV handles duplicate titles and lien records.
New Hampshire Junk Car FAQ
How long does it take to sell a junk car in New Hampshire?
Two days is realistic. Quotes come back in about two minutes, and pickup is usually scheduled within 24 to 48 hours of you accepting.
Same-day pickup happens in the busier parts of the state. If you’re waiting on a replacement title, that wait is the whole timeline.
Do I need a title to sell my junk car in New Hampshire?
Title needed to sell: yes (model year 1999 and older exempt)
If your car is exempt, selling without a title has the form and what goes with it.
Learn more: Best Places to Sell a Car Without a Title
How much does a replacement title cost in New Hampshire?
Cost: $35
Form: Form TDMV 18
Where to submit it: most DMV offices, or by mail to NH Dept. of Safety DMV – Title, 23 Hazen Drive, Concord NH 03305
Does the title have to be notarized in New Hampshire?
Title notarization: not required
Bill of sale notarization: not required
Is a bill of sale required to sell a junk car in New Hampshire?
Bill of sale: required only for title-exempt vehicles (1999 and older) and boats; recommended otherwise
Do one either way. It’s the cheapest record you’ll ever have of the date the car stopped being yours.
Does my junk car need an emissions test or safety inspection in New Hampshire?
Emissions test: not required (buyer needs a passing test to register statewide, as part of the annual inspection)
Safety inspection: not required
What paperwork do I file with the state after selling in New Hampshire?
Form to file: None required
Do I remove my license plates before pickup in New Hampshire?
Plates stay: with the seller
What to do with them: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own through your town or city clerk, or return them to your town or city clerk to avoid future fees
Can I sell a junk car with a loan on it in New Hampshire?
Not until the lien is cleared first.
Lien release: the lienholder signs a Release of Lien or Other Encumbrances (Form TDMV 20A) or provides a release on bank letterhead
On a junk car the balance is often more than the offer, and you’d cover the difference to close it out.
Can I sell a junk car with expired registration in New Hampshire?
Yes. Registration is about driving the car, and this one isn’t going anywhere under its own power.
Hold on to the old registration anyway. On a title-exempt car it’s part of the paperwork the buyer needs.
What if I lost the keys to my junk car?
It doesn’t change much. A flatbed winches the car on without anyone starting it or steering it.
Say so on the quote form so the buyer sends the right truck. Our guide to selling a car with lost keys has the details.
Article Update History
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"yes (model year 1999 and older exempt)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required only for title-exempt vehicles (1999 and older) and boats; recommended otherwise" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Report of Sale or Transfer of a Non-Titled Motor Vehicle (Form TDMV 22A)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Bill of Sale Form Availability
"available from the NH DMV website and must contain the information required by RSA 261:148" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles over 16,000 lbs GVWR exempt" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Separate Odometer Disclosure Form
"none; the reading goes in the assignment section on the back of the title, and under federal law a disclosure is required for vehicles model year 2011 or newer under 16,000 pounds" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form TDMV 18" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Title Transfer Form
"No dedicated DMV inheritance form, since the executor or administrator signs the title using Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the probate court" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
What to Do With License Plates
"transfer your plates to another vehicle you own through your town or city clerk, or return them to your town or city clerk to avoid future fees" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Bill of Sale Notarization Required?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"not required (buyer needs a passing test to register statewide, as part of the annual inspection)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
How to Complete a Gift Transfer
"No gift form. The title assignment shows $0 or gift as the purchase price" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
