How to Sell a Junk Car in New York? (Online for Cash)

Tap the card that matches where you are.

Each buyer’s form starts with year, make, model, mileage and ZIP code, then asks whether the car starts and drives.

For the VIN, check the lower corner of the windshield on the driver’s side, or the title and registration.

In our offer data, nothing moves the offer more than a missing catalytic converter. So be exact about damage and missing parts, the converter above all.

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. So get at least three quotes.

Get the title and a photo ID out before you accept anything. The name on the title has to be yours, and if a lender is still listed on it, you’ll need its lien release too.

• Bill of sale: required.
• State bill of sale form: Form MV-912 (Vehicle Bill of Sale).
• Odometer reading: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt.

Print the state bill of sale before the pickup so it can be signed at the car.

Besides the bill of sale, three forms can come up in a New York junk sale.

Accept the offer you want. Peddle’s tow company then contacts you within one business day to schedule the pickup, and CashForCars has one of its towing partners call you to set a time.

If someone else will meet the driver for you, tell the buyer when you book.

Tell the tow company if the car is on the street or in a low garage. Upstate, clear the snow from around it before the truck comes.

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.

Take the plates off before the car goes on the truck.

What to do with them: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own at the DMV, or surrender them to the DMV (in person at a county DMV office, or by mail to the DMV Albany address) before canceling your liability insurance

Wheelzy buys cars without keys regularly, so lost keys don’t have to stop the sale. Mention the missing keys when you fill in the form. Our guide to selling a car with lost keys has more.

The driver looks the car over and you sign the back of the title. You and the driver both sign the bill of sale too.

Peddle, Wheelzy and CashForCars all pay at pickup, so count the cash or read the check before the driver leaves.

Keep any paper the driver leaves with you, and your offer confirmation. Where a form asks for the buyer, use the company named in your offer confirmation, not the driver.

Plates: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own at the DMV, or surrender them to the DMV (in person at a county DMV office, or by mail to the DMV Albany address) before canceling your liability insurance.

What it costs: $1 to surrender plates in person at a county office, free by mail.

Deadline: before you cancel the liability insurance.

Handing plates back releases you from liability: yes, surrendering your plates to the DMV and getting the FS-6T receipt is the release of liability; without it the DMV will suspend your registration and may suspend your driver license.

Keep the receipt with the bill of sale.

Yes. New York gives you three routes.

Option 1: Sign an owner’s statement instead of the title. It works when the car is worth $1,250 or less and at least 8 model years old and sold to a registered dismantler or scrap processor, or the car is a 1972-or-older model New York never titled. You fill in Form MV-35 (Statement of Vehicle Owner Who Does Not Have a Valid Title), under NY Vehicle and Traffic Law section 429, plus the pre-1972 untitled-vehicle rule.

Tell the buyer on the quote form that there’s no title, and ask whether the yard that takes the car is a registered dismantler or scrap processor.

Option 2: Order a replacement title, then sell.

Option 3: Sell off the parts. Parts such as a catalytic converter or tires sell without a title. It’s slow, and our guide to selling a car for parts shows how.

What a replacement title takes in New York:

• Application: Form MV-902
• Where to apply: online via the NY DMV title duplicate portal, by mail to NYS DMV Title Bureau, P.O. Box 2750, Albany, NY 12220-0750, or in person at any DMV office
• Rush option: no
• Fee: $20
• Processing time: the title prints within 72 hours of an accepted application and is mailed to you, never handed over at a DMV office

Order the replacement the day you ask for quotes.

How the lien comes off: the lender must send you a signed lien release (a Notice of Recorded Lien, MV-901, or a letter on its letterhead) when the loan is repaid; you do not need a new title to sell, you give the buyer the original title and the original lien release.

A car with a lien on it can’t go to a junk buyer. Ask for the payoff figure before you accept any quote, because whatever the offer doesn’t cover is yours to pay.

Our guide to selling a financed car has the rest.

New York prints every title on paper and mails it to the owner with any lien shown on its face; a lender's ELT account only records and releases the lien electronically, and no new title is needed before a sale. Book the tow once the paper title is in your hands, since the driver takes it.

A car still on a New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania title can be junked in New York on that title. Name the state on the quote form and sign where that title tells the seller to.

New York’s DMV can’t replace another state’s title. A lost one has to come from the state that issued it.

The buyer pays whoever is named on the title. When that person has died, New York’s forms depend on who inherits: Form MV-349.1 (Affidavit for Transfer of Motor Vehicle) for a surviving spouse or minor child, Form MV-349 (Transfer of Vehicle Registered in Name of Deceased Person) for next of kin when there is no surviving spouse or minor child, or Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from Surrogate's Court for a probated estate.

Once the title is in your name, the junk sale is the same as any other.

Gifted car: DTF-802, Statement of Transaction, Sale or Gift of Motor Vehicle.

A car abandoned on your property isn’t yours to sell. The abandoned vehicle process comes first, and it starts with the police, not with a buyer.

Ask a local yard to put its price in writing.

Ask who handles the tow and whether it’s deducted from the price.

Title notarization is not required in New York, and bill of sale notarization is not required.

Junk buyers don’t ask for test results.

Emissions test to sell: not required (buyer needs a passing test to register statewide, as part of the annual inspection).

Safety inspection to sell: not required (buyer needs an inspection within 10 days of registration).

Yes. The buyer needs the title, and the car is towed, not driven. You don’t need to renew it first.

An expired registration doesn’t change what you do with the plates.

That depends on the buyer. Wheelzy repairs the cars it can, and recycles or parts out the ones that are beyond repair.

You don’t have to accept it. A price cut at or after pickup was the most common complaint sellers made about Peddle to the BBB in the year we read.

Until you sign the title the car is still yours, so you can send the truck away and use one of your other quotes.

Compare the repair estimate with how much more buyers would offer for the car after the repair. When the repair costs more than that, junking comes out ahead.