Who ends up with more than one junk car
It usually happens slowly. The old commuter stops passing its repairs, so it moves to the side of the driveway. A few years later the second car follows it. Then there’s the pickup a relative left behind, or the van from a business that closed.
Some of the situations we hear about most:
- A family driveway with two or three cars that haven’t moved in months.
- Clearing a parent’s house, where the garage and the yard both hold a car.
- A small shop or landlord with company vehicles that are past saving.
- After a move, when the cars that came along never got registered again.
Whatever the reason, the approach is the same. You don’t need to sort them into “worth something” and “worth nothing” before you ask. Send them all to junk car buyers in Northwest Indiana who price each car separately, and let each one get its own number.
How the offers work when there are several
Each car is priced on its own details: the year, the make and model, whether you have the title, and what shape it’s in. A 2009 minivan and a 1998 sedan in the same yard can get very different offers, and that’s normal.
You’re not locked into a bundle. Take the offer on the minivan, pass on the sedan, and ask again later if you change your mind. There’s no fee for asking. If you’re weighing a dealer trade-in for one of them, our trade-in guide walks through that choice.
Paperwork for each car
Every vehicle needs its own proof of ownership. For most people that’s the Indiana title, signed over to the buyer at pickup. If a title went missing, we can still help. In Indiana a junk car changes hands with one of two documents: the title, or a certificate of authority from the BMV. A replacement title from the BMV is $15. The certificate is $4, and you apply for it by showing the car is yours, for example with its current registration. If the car is less than 15 model years old, the law requires one of the two. Let us know which papers you’ve got, whether that’s a bill of sale, the registration or an insurance card, and on the call we’ll point you to the route that fits.
Plates are the part people forget. In Indiana the plate stays with you, not the car, so pull each one off before the tow. Our guide to license plates after selling a car in Indiana covers what happens to the registration and the insurance afterwards.
Getting them out
A tow truck needs a clear route to each car. Before pickup day, check a few things:
- Can the truck reach every car from the street or alley?
- Is any car boxed in by another vehicle, a fence or a shed?
- Do the tires hold air, or are some flat or missing?
- Are the keys around? No keys is fine, but tell us.
Mention anything unusual when we call. A car wedged behind a garage takes more time than one parked at the curb, and knowing about it up front keeps the day simple.
Covered towns for a multi-car pickup
We collect junk cars across the covered part of Northwest Indiana: Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago, Munster, Highland, Griffith, Gary, Merrillville, Hobart, Lake Station and New Chicago. If they all sit inside that area, one set of requests covers them. The roads we cover page shows how the area fits together, from Indianapolis Boulevard to the Borman.