Selling a junk or dead car in Greenfield

The bill for a parked car

The DMV's late-renewal rules leave little room. If no PNO was on file, fees and penalties are owed for every year the registration lapsed. Sitting for years covers the other trouble a long-parked car brings, from dead batteries to flat tires.

Recording a car as Junk

The DMV wants a car on its books as Junk before anyone pulls it apart. The owner applies first; take it apart before applying and an investigative service fee follows. You do not have to run a dismantling business to junk your own car.

Once that Junk application goes in, the plates assigned to the car are turned in to the DMV. A Greenfield car counts as junk to the DMV once it was taken apart after a crash, after being abandoned, or because it quit running. That extra fee is one reason to weigh parting it out or selling it whole.

Salvage and nonrepairable cars

A car hit on a farm road or soaked in a flood may already carry a brand. Greenfield cars have no percent test for a total loss. If fixing a Greenfield car costs more than it makes sense to pay, and the insurer or owner says so, Vehicle Code 544 calls it total loss salvage. From then on, that Greenfield car carries a salvage certificate rather than a title.

Greenfield titles may get a DMV brand. "Warranty Return (Lemon Law Buyback)" is one, and "Park Trailer" and "Non-USA (Grey Market)" are others. So are "Salvaged," "Remanufactured," "Original/Prior Taxi" and "Original/Prior Police." In Greenfield, a flooded car gets the Salvaged brand, the same as one that was wrecked, vandalized or dismantled before. Vehicle Code 431 sets a stricter label, nonrepairable. For a Greenfield car, that includes one stripped for parts, one burned out, or one its owner said was good only for parts or scrap. That car can't be titled or registered ever again. More is on salvage title.

Removal under state law

With Vehicle Code 22660, a city or county can set up a program to remove wrecked, dismantled, inoperative or abandoned cars from private and public property, and bill for it. No Greenfield version turned up online, so ask the city. Under Section 22669, Greenfield can take a car off public ground right away when its wheels, tires, engine, transmission, doors or windshield have been removed.

Title and plates

California's DMV handles titles. You can visit a field office or use the mail. You sign as seller, as does any lienholder, and the buyer files it; the DMV's instructions name no notary. REG 138 releases a Greenfield seller from liability, and it is due within 5 days. In a normal Greenfield sale the standard plates go with the car. A Greenfield buyer who will wreck or dismantle the car gets no smog certificate from you.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 about your Greenfield car, or fill in the offer form. Pickup works on a farm lane, beside a field or in a driveway in town. Soledad sits 8.7 miles away and Salinas 33.3. Statewide rules are on the California page.