Selling a junk or dead car in Grand Junction

The 60-day plate test

The presumption turns on plates. It applies once Colorado plates have been invalid for more than 60 days, or when no current Colorado plates are displayed. The same definitions describe junkyards as including "wrecking yards, salvage yards and automobile impoundment areas where stored vehicles are inoperative or unlicensed." Unlicensed is the word that keeps coming up.

Catching up costs money. After a one-month grace period, Colorado adds $25 for every month or part of one, capped at $100, with prorated registration taxes stacked on top. Once a Mesa County registration has been expired past 13 months, renewal moves off the website and onto the county counter.

A $100 summons that can drop to $5

Section 10.04.203 lets a police officer stop a vehicle that looks unsafe and hand over a notice listing what must be fixed. If the officer judges that driving it further "would be hazardous," the officer can also require that it "be moved at the operator's expense and not operated under its own power or that it be driven to the nearest garage or other place of safety."

An owner who receives the notice and summons is guilty of a misdemeanor, with a fine of $100 payable within 30 days after conviction. The code also gives a way out. If the owner shows the court, within 30 days after the summons, "that the owner has disposed of the vehicle for junk parts or immobilized the vehicle," and also hands in the registration and license plates, the fine is $5.00. A driver who did not own the car gets the same $5 outcome by proving it and showing that a copy of the summons went to the owner by certified mail within five days. Ask the court what proof of disposal it accepts.

A car left on someone else's land

Under Section 10.12.010, a property owner, lessee or their agent "may have an abandoned motor vehicle removed from his or her property by having it towed and impounded by a tow operator." The tow operator then has to tell the Police Department "within one hour of impoundment" who has the car and where. Statewide, a vehicle parked unattended on private land a full day without the landowner's okay counts as abandoned, unless a local ordinance picks another period. If you own the land, see car abandoned on your property.

Cars on Grand Junction streets

The same section lets officers impound a car standing in a street right-of-way "for a period of 24 hours or more" that state law presumes abandoned. After a city impound, mailed notice reaches the owner and the storage garage "within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays." Anyone legally entitled to the car can demand a hearing on whether there was probable cause to impound it, in writing on the city's form, within 10 days. Storage keeps adding up: a possessor who does not show the release certificate to the garage within 24 hours of getting it takes on the later storage charges.

Unclaimed, the car follows the state timeline. Certified mail from the tower goes out no later than day 10, and a sale may happen between 30 and 60 days afterward. Appraised at $350 or under, it can be bought only to be crushed, scrapped or pulled apart, and Colorado issues that buyer no title.

Title work on Spruce Street

Mesa County runs title work through its clerk and recorder, and Colorado lets each county set its own hours, local taxes and fees, so a Front Range price list will not apply here. The Mesa County motor vehicle office we checked is at 200 S. Spruce Street, phone 970-244-1664, roughly 2 miles south of downtown's midpoint as the crow flies.

Mesa County will look at the back of the title first. Sign and print in the Seller area, using the owner name exactly as the front shows it. If a second owner is listed on the front, they sign too. Add the sale price and date. Models from 2011 onward carry an odometer disclosure until they turn 20. Notarizing is not among the DMV's listed seller steps. Pass the buyer a DR 2173 or an equivalent bill of sale, which becomes required only if no price is written on the title.

A missing title has two fixes. A duplicate costs $8.20 with form DR 2539A, through myDMV, the county office, or the state's Westgate desk in Lakewood by appointment. With no title to duplicate, Colorado's path is Bonding for Title, where the bond equals double the appraisal and the VIN gets inspected and searched. Anything older than 25 years needs no bond. Remember, a car Colorado labels as junk can't ever be titled again. A car sold on a parts-only bill of sale is in the same boat.

Plates and the release report

Colorado plates belong to the owner, so pull them before the car rolls onto the truck. Inside 5 days, file "Report Release of Liability" on myDMV or with Mesa County, listing your plate along with the VIN or the registration card code. Standard plates can be dropped with the county or a scrap metal recycler; personalized ones can follow you to the next car through the county.

Colorado's emissions program is set in the Denver metro area and along the North Front Range, a long drive east of the Western Slope. Its seller test duty kicks in when a buyer living in one of those testing counties takes a car over 7 model years old.

Western Slope distances

The other towns we cover are far from Grand Junction. Montrose is 57.4 miles away in a straight line. Golden, Boulder and Lakewood are all between 184 and 189 miles off.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or write us online. Use the form or call about your Grand Junction car, and mention any snag with the Mesa County title. Pickup happens on site, on a valley-floor driveway, at a storage yard, or outside a repair bay. We buy whole non-running and junk cars with free pickup anywhere in the US. For statewide rules, see Colorado.