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The bottom line: To sell a junk car in Virginia, sign the title over to the buyer and write the sale price and mileage on it. Every owner signs, and no notary is needed. That price counts as your bill of sale.
If you lost the title, get a duplicate first, since Virginia has no way to sell without one. It costs $14 online, and a DMV office can issue one the same day. If the car had a loan, the lien is released electronically once it’s paid off, and the DMV mails you the paper title.
The plates are yours to move to your next car, hand in at the DMV or deactivate in myDMV. Then report the sale to the DMV online, by phone or in person, because handing in the plates doesn’t do this for you.
In Virginia, the typical offer in our data for a junk car 10 years or older is $565.
What would buyers pay for your junk car in Virginia?Fill in one form, including whether you have the title, and see which buyers make an offer.
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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
- Free towing
- Fast payment
- Buys non running cars
- Pays by 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
- Buys cars without keys
- Buys cars missing parts, engine still in
- Pays cash or check at pickup
- 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
- Free towing from nearly 200 locations
- Buys any vehicle with a motor, running or not
- Backed by Copart auction yards
- Pays a check right at pickup
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 Virginia?
Step 1: Get quotes from several buyers
A quote form asks for the year, make, model and mileage, and the ZIP code where the car is. It also asks what’s wrong with the car.
If a form asks for the VIN, it’s on the small plate where the dashboard meets the windshield on the driver’s side. Your registration card carries the same number.
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.
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.
Odometer disclosure: required on the title at every transfer whatever the vehicle's age; exempt only for vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs or where the title is already branded exempt from another state.
If the title is missing, damaged or in someone else’s name, get the quotes now and start on the paperwork the same day.
Every form you might need
The report of sale is for after the sale. The others are only for a title that’s missing, from another state or not yet in your name.
Replacement title
Use: Form VSA 67
When the title is lost, stolen or too damaged to sign. Fee and wait.
Odometer statement
Needed: required only when the title has no assignment section, typically out-of-state titles
For a title with no odometer box. Out-of-state titles.
Report of sale
Form: None required (online, by phone or at a customer service center)
Tells the DMV the car is no longer yours. When and how.
Inherited vehicle
Use: Form VSA 24 (Authority to Transfer Virginia Title Certification)
Moves the car from the estate into your name. The estate route.
Step 3: Accept an offer and book the pickup
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.
When you book, say if the car is behind a locked gate, on a steep drive or on soft ground.
Be there to meet the driver and sign the title. If someone else will do that for you, tell the buyer when you book.
Step 4: Get the car ready for the tow truck
Clear a straight path to the car so the tow truck can reach it.
Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glovebox, trunk, door pockets, under the seats and the spare tire well. Look for a toll transponder on the windshield too.
Find the keys if you still have them.
The plates are yours, not the buyer’s, so take them off before the truck arrives.
Step 5: Sign the title and take payment
The driver looks the car over and you sign the back of the title.
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.
Step 6: Report the sale and deal with the plates
Plate transfer fee: $2, plus the difference in registration fees if the next vehicle's is higher (Form VSA 10).
Report the sale online through your myDMV account, by phone, or at a customer service center.
Deadline: no deadline is published; notifying DMV is required by law.
If you skip it: none is published.
Cancel the insurance last, after the car has gone and the sale is reported. If the pickup is late, the car is still yours, and it still needs insurance.
Virginia Junk Car Checklist
Before the Sale
At Pickup
After the Sale
What Is Your Junk Car Worth in Virginia?
In Virginia, a typical junk car is offered $565 (cars 10 years and older, 383 offers, ranked 14 of 44 states). Across the country, half of all offers on old cars fall between $375 and $1,075.
Of the junk cars quoted in Virginia, 41% are sedans, coupes and hatchbacks, typically offered $470. A car 15 years or older is typically offered $428 in Virginia. Of all the offers here, 31% are under $400, from our own quote data.
A Virginia car is offered less than the national figure at every age except 15 to 17 years, where it’s offered more. The gap is smallest on cars 13 to 14 years old. The chart sets our Virginia offers against every offer nationally at each age.
Typical offer on old cars in Virginia 383 Virginia offers · 12,312 nationally · Age of car when the offer was made (years)Show the numbers
Age (years) Virginia Offers All cars nationally Offers 10-12 $1,200 94 $1,235 2,808 13-14 $705 49 $720 1,746 15-17 $615 90 $555 2,735 18-19 $380 47 $465 1,527 20-24 $333 68 $410 2,331 25+ $295 35 $350 1,165 
A Virginia pickup is offered far more than the national pickup figure, and a Virginia SUV a little more. A Virginia car (sedan, coupe or hatchback) is offered less than the national figure.
Typical offer on old cars in Virginia by body type 305 Virginia offers, cars 10 years and olderShow the numbers
Body type Virginia Offers All cars nationally Offers Pickup truck $1,190 30 $855 1,035 SUV / crossover $705 117 $665 3,437 Car (sedan, coupe, hatch) $470 158 $505 5,115
Whether the catalytic converter is still on the car. With the converter gone, a car is offered about 76% less than a comparable car with it, once age and mileage are matched. If it’s missing, say so on the form.
Whether it starts. A car that won’t start is offered about 48% less than a comparable car that drives, once age and mileage are matched. Say on the quote form whether it rolls as well.
Our guide to selling a non-running car covers what else to tell the buyer about a car that won’t start.
Companies That Buy Junk Cars in Virginia
Peddle
Peddle buys junk, salvage, and non-running cars
- Hauls junk cars away from Virginia addresses
- Offer on screen once you have described the car
- Buys used cars whatever their condition
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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 makes offers on cars in all conditions, including damaged cars and cars with missing parts.
Wheelzy
Wheelzy buys cars in any condition, running or not
- Branches in 46 Virginia cities, Alexandria to Yorktown
- Free pickup from any address in Virginia
- No dealer, title-transfer or removal fees
- Usually pays by cashier's check, cashable the same 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% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
Wheelzy buys cars with any amount of damage, including totaled cars that can’t be driven.
CashForCars
CashForCars is owned by Copart and buys cars in any condition
- Yards in Danville, Hampton, Richmond and Virginia Beach
- The offer comes back in 60 seconds, by form or by phone
- Tows the car away free once you accept
- Buys trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, RVs and boats, not just cars
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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 is owned by Copart, and it buys everything from used cars to damaged and total-loss ones.
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Compare Instant Offers
Do You Need a Smog Check to Junk a Car in Virginia?
Junk buyers don’t ask for test results.
Emissions test to sell: not required (buyer needs a passing test to register in Northern Virginia).
Seller responsible for the test: no, the buyer handles emissions at registration.
The ordinary rule for a car sold to another driver: Required every 2 years for vehicles garaged in Arlington, Fairfax City, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Manassas, or Manassas Park. Not required statewide.
Exempt from the test anyway: gasoline cars and light trucks more than 25 model years old, vehicles over 10,000 lbs GVWR, most diesel vehicles, motorcycles, and vehicles powered only by electricity or another clean fuel.
Test fee when one is needed: $30 (Va. Code § 46.2-1182 cap).
If the car still drives and has failed its test, Virginia gives you one more option before a scrap offer: a repair waiver after the car fails an initial inspection and a reinspection, once emissions repairs by a certified emissions repair technician reach the current repair cost limit, adjusted each year. Our guide to selling a car that failed emissions compares the repair cost with the offer.
Can You Sell a Junk Car Without a Title in Virginia?
Virginia’s rule: title required for all sales; the owner applies for a duplicate (Form VSA 67) before selling.
The law: Va. Code § 46.2-617.
Option 1: a replacement title. Every buyer can then quote the car.
Option 2: sell it for parts. Selling parts doesn’t transfer the car, so no title is needed. It’s slow, and every part needs its own buyer.
Getting a Replacement Title in Virginia
What a replacement title takes in Virginia:
- Application: Form VSA 67
- Where to submit: online portal, any customer service center, or DMV Select office
- Fee: $14 online / $15 by mail
- Processing time: 5 business days by mail
- Rush option: not available online; in-person same-day at any customer service center
Apply the day you ask for quotes, so the wait runs while you compare offers.
If a lender still holds the title
Peddle and CashForCars don’t buy a car with a loan still on it, so the lien comes off first. How the lien comes off in Virginia: the lender holds the title until the loan is paid off. After payoff, the lien is released electronically and DMV mails the paper title to you.
Ask the lender for a payoff figure before you accept a quote, and get the release in writing.
If your title is electronic
Virginia’s electronic titles: E-title holders can request a free paper print online if no lien exists.
Have the paper title in hand before you book the pickup.
If the car is titled in another state
You can junk a car in Virginia on a Maryland, North Carolina or any other state’s title, as long as it’s in your name. Sign it where that state’s title tells you to.
A lost out-of-state title is replaced by the state named on it, with that state’s own form and fee. The Virginia DMV can’t print it for you.
Selling a Junk Car That Isn’t in Your Name
The title has to be in your name before the pickup. You can get quotes while the paperwork is being processed.
The owner died: Virginia handles that with Form VSA 24 (Authority to Transfer Virginia Title Certification). Once the title is in your name, the junk sale is the same as any other. Our guide to selling a car of a deceased person covers the estate side.
Someone gave you the car. The gift form is SUT 3, Purchaser's Statement of Tax Exemption. Who counts as family: Son, daughter and parent mean biological and adopted only. DMV guidance states stepparents and stepchildren are not exempt.
A car was dumped on your property. It was never yours, so you have nothing to sign over. Virginia’s abandoned vehicle process comes first.
Local Dismantlers vs Online Buyers in Virginia
Selling to a local yard
Ask a local yard to put its price in writing.
Ask whether the tow is included before you agree to a price. If you can deliver the car yourself, ask whether that changes the price.
Selling to an online buyer
The comparison tool shows each buyer’s offer in writing before any truck is booked, so you can compare them side by side.
Our guide to how online buyers work out an offer goes through what moves the number.
Storing a Junk Car in Virginia
Before you store the car, check your city’s and county’s rules on a junked car kept in public view.
Park it on a hard surface and keep it closed up.
The rest is in our guide on how to store a junk car.
Virginia Motor Vehicle Resources
- Motor vehicle agency: Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
- Selling a vehicle: Virginia DMV, Buying and Selling a Vehicle
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to sell a junk car in Virginia?
The comparison tool returns offers within minutes, and Peddle’s pickups typically happen within 24 to 48 hours of scheduling.
A replacement title adds its processing time to that.
Is a bill of sale required to junk a car in Virginia?
In Virginia, a bill of sale is recommended (required when the vehicle is more than 5 years old and the seller has not entered the sale price on the title).
State form: Form SUT 1.
Keep one as your record of who bought the car. Our bill of sale generator creates one for you.
Do the plates release me from liability in Virginia?
Virginia’s rule on plates and liability: no, you must also file the sale notification through myDMV.
Does anything have to be notarized to junk a car in Virginia?
Title notarization is not required in Virginia, and bill of sale notarization is not required.
Can I junk a car with expired registration in Virginia?
Yes. You don’t need to renew the registration first.
What happens to a junk car after it is sold in Virginia?
That depends on the buyer. Wheelzy repairs the cars it can, and recycles or parts out the ones that are beyond repair.
What if the junk car offer changes when the driver arrives in Virginia?
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.
What if I lost the keys to my junk car in Virginia?
Wheelzy buys cars without keys regularly, so lost keys don’t have to stop the sale. Mention them on the quote form.
Should I repair the car or junk it in Virginia?
Get a repair estimate and see how much more the car would be offered once it runs. A repair that costs more than that difference loses money.
If the engine or the wheels are still good, the car can also be sold for parts.
Article Update History
Virginia offers by age and body type now come from Sell Car Advisor quote data.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"recommended (required when the vehicle is more than 5 years old and the seller has not entered the sale price on the title)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form VSA 67" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the lender holds the title until the loan is paid off. After payoff, the lien is released electronically and DMV mails the paper title to you." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Title Transfer Form
"Form VSA 24 (Authority to Transfer Virginia Title Certification)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Form Name
"None required (online, by phone or at a customer service center)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
How to File Release of Liability
"Report the sale online through your myDMV account, by phone, or at a customer service center." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Conditions to Sell Without Title
"title required for all sales; the owner applies for a duplicate (Form VSA 67) before selling" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$14 online / $15 by mail" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Electronic Title Handling Note
"E-title holders can request a free paper print online if no lien exists" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"not required (buyer needs a passing test to register in Northern Virginia)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Separate Odometer Disclosure Form
"required only when the title has no assignment section, typically out-of-state titles" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$30 (Va. Code § 46.2-1182 cap)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Fail: Help Available
"a repair waiver after the car fails an initial inspection and a reinspection, once emissions repairs by a certified emissions repair technician reach the current repair cost limit, adjusted each year" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Where to Submit Duplicate Title Application
"online portal, any customer service center, or DMV Select office" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"SUT 3, Purchaser's Statement of Tax Exemption" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form SUT 1" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required on the title at every transfer whatever the vehicle's age; exempt only for vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs or where the title is already branded exempt from another state" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$2, plus the difference in registration fees if the next vehicle's is higher (Form VSA 10)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Typical offer on old cars in Virginia, Junk Car Value Statistics
"383 Virginia offers · 12,312 nationally" Accessed Oct. 2, 2026
Typical offer on old cars in Virginia by body type, Junk Car Value Statistics
"305 Virginia offers, cars 10 years and older" Accessed Oct. 2, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 9 figures from 17,628 instant cash offers, and 3 figures from same-day quotes by several buyers" Accessed Oct. 2, 2026
