How to Sell a Junk Car in Pennsylvania? (Title & Buyers)

The bottom line: To sell a junk car in Pennsylvania, you need the title, signed by every owner on it. Each signature must be notarized, which a notary or tag service does for $5. A bill of sale is recommended, and it needs no notary.

For a lost title, mail Form MV-38O to PennDOT with $72, or apply through an authorized PennDOT agent. If the car had a loan, the lender mails you the paper title once it is paid off.

Without a title, a licensed salvor or scrap processor can take the car if it doesn’t run, or costs more to fix than it’s worth. It must be on your property, and you give them a written statement that it is salvage.

Keep your plates, then move them to another car you own or mail them to PennDOT’s Return Tag Unit.

In Pennsylvania, a junk car 10 years or older is typically offered $605 in our data.

Go straight to the part that fits your car.

The first screen of a quote form wants the year, make, model, mileage and ZIP code. After that it asks whether the car runs.

Buyers that ask for the VIN can have it from the title or from the plate you see through the windshield on the driver’s side.

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 $346 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 no lender can still be listed on it.

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.

The notary rule: the seller's signature on the title must be notarized or verified by an authorized PennDOT agent at a notary public, tag service, or licensed motor vehicle dealer.

What it costs and where: $5 per notarial act, plus up to $20 more when done electronically or remotely, at a notary public, tag service, or licensed dealer that is an authorized PennDOT agent.

Sign the seller’s section in front of the notary, and leave the rest of the title for the buyer.

With the title in your name, none of these is needed. They cover a lost title, a car you were given, and a car whose owner has died.

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 and hand over the title for you, tell the buyer when you book.

A car on a narrow row-house street or up a steep, icy driveway is harder for a truck to reach. Describe the spot to the tow company when it calls.

Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glovebox, 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, or return them to PennDOT Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Return Tag Unit, P.O. Box 68597, Harrisburg, PA 17106-8597

Wheelzy buys cars without keys regularly, so lost keys don’t have to stop the sale. Say so on the quote form, and read our guide to selling a car with lost keys for more.

The driver looks the car over and takes the title you signed at the notary.

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. On your bill of sale, name the company from your offer confirmation as the buyer, not the driver.

Plates: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or return them to PennDOT Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Return Tag Unit, P.O. Box 68597, Harrisburg, PA 17106-8597.

Cost to move them to another car: $11.

If you move the plates to another car you own instead, keep your copy of the signed title and the bill of sale as the record of the sale.

Keep the insurance until the car has left and the plates are dealt with. A pickup pushed back a day leaves the car in your name for that day.

Wheelzy buys cars with any amount of damage, including totaled cars that can’t be driven.

CashForCars is owned by Copart, and it buys everything from used cars to damaged and total-loss ones.

Yes, as a salvage vehicle. Otherwise the title comes first.

Option 1: Sell it as a salvage vehicle. Pennsylvania’s terms: vehicle must be a salvage vehicle (inoperable or unable to meet inspection standards where the cost of repairs would exceed the value of the repaired vehicle), located on the owner's property, and transferor must verify in writing that the vehicle is salvage; transfer must be to a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor. The law behind it: 75 Pa.C.S. Sections 1162 and 1163 (transfer of salvage vehicle without title to a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor).

What you hand over: no state form; you give the licensed salvor or scrap metal processor a written statement that the car is a salvage vehicle.

Tell the buyer on the quote form that there’s no title, and ask whether the yard it sends the car to is a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor.

Option 2: Apply for a duplicate, then sell. Every buyer can then quote the car.

Option 3: Strip and sell the parts. An engine or a set of tires needs no title. It’s a long job, and our guide to selling a car for parts sets it out.

What a replacement title takes in Pennsylvania:

• Application: Form MV-38O
• How to apply: complete Form MV-38O and mail to PennDOT with payment, or submit through an authorized PennDOT agent
• Mailing address: PennDOT Bureau of Motor Vehicles, P.O. Box 68593, Harrisburg, PA 17106-8593
• Fee: $72
• Processing time: not published by PennDOT

Send the form off as soon as you know the title is gone, and get your quotes while you wait. A buyer can quote the car without seeing the title.

If the old title reappears after the duplicate comes, destroy the old one.

How the lien comes off: lender mails paper title with lien released to owner once loan is satisfied; if lender participates in ELT program, request conversion to paper title before sale.

Peddle, Wheelzy and CashForCars don’t take a car with a lien still on it. Ask the lender for the payoff before you say yes to a quote, because a balance above the offer is yours to pay.

We cover the payoff in our guide to selling a financed car.

Electronic titles: ELT program exists for lienholders, but a paper title is normally needed for private sale; lender must convert e-title to paper title before sale.

Ask the lender for the paper title before you book either the notary or the pickup.

A car on a New Jersey, Ohio or New York title can be junked in Pennsylvania on that title. Put the issuing state on the quote form, and follow that state’s rules for signing it.

If that title goes missing, the state that issued it provides the duplicate. PennDOT replaces Pennsylvania titles only.

The buyer pays whoever is named on the title. When that person has died, PennDOT needs Form MV-39 (Notification of Assignment/Correction of Vehicle Title Upon Death of Owner) or the estate papers.

What to bring: If probated: certified copy of letters testamentary or letters of administration plus title; if not probated: Form MV-39 plus death certificate; surviving spouse co-owner or joint tenant with right of survivorship can transfer without title fee.

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

Pennsylvania’s rule on a gifted car: Both parties sign under penalty of perjury. Falsification can bring criminal prosecution and a one-year license revocation. An out-of-state titled vehicle needs proof the donor paid tax in a reciprocal state.

A car left on your land by someone else isn’t yours to sign away. The abandoned vehicle process comes first, starting with the police, not with a buyer.

Pennsylvania’s rule on reporting the sale: no penalty; no formal release of liability filing required.

A bill of sale is recommended in Pennsylvania.

State form: Generic (no state form).

Bill of sale notarization: not required.

Write one, because it records the price and the date. Our bill of sale generator makes one from the title details.

Junk buyers don’t ask for test results.

Emissions test to sell: not required (buyer needs a passing test to register in 25 counties).

Safety inspection to sell: not required.

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

An old registration card is worth keeping, because it puts your name next to the VIN.

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.

Keep the title until you’ve agreed the price. The car is still yours, so you can send the truck away and use one of your other quotes.

Set the repair quote against the extra the car would be offered once repaired. A repair that costs more than that extra is money lost.