Selling a junk car in Aurora

The emissions test and the waiver

Testing applies to gasoline passenger cars from model year 1996 forward, starting at four years of age. A car's model year picks its test year, even with even and odd with odd, while the plate expiration picks the month. For applications from January 1, 2026, a failed car qualifies for a repair waiver only once $1,176 or more goes to emissions repairs. Labor for diagnosis is left out of that total. When the repairs outrun the car, failed emissions walks through the choices. The test applies to registration, not to selling.

Aurora's code was not found

We searched for Aurora's vehicle ordinances and came up short, so Aurora could have local rules on dead cars beyond what is here. Under 65 ILCS 5/11-40-3, an Illinois municipality may pass an ordinance making a nuisance of inoperable cars that sit where the public can see them, on private land or public. Police can then remove one 7 days after the town's notice. The state's definition requires at least 7 days of being undrivable because parts were removed or the car was altered or damaged, and a car that is just in for routine repair is excluded.

Separately, 625 ILCS 5/4-201 lets law enforcement remove a car abandoned on someone else's private property, in public view, after a wait of 7 days or more. That is the section to know if a stranger's car is the problem; see abandoned car on your property.

Selling: title, plates, notice

The certificate of title does the work in an Illinois sale. On its Assignment of Title you add your signature and the date, both sides print and sign their names, and the mileage is certified in the odometer section. Aurora sellers won't find a notary step anywhere in the Secretary of State's seller instructions. Write down who bought it and where they live. Make a bill of sale that lists what they paid and the day of the sale.

Hold on to your plates, since a buyer is not allowed to drive on them. After that, mail the Notice of Sale to the Secretary of State's Record Inquiry Division in Springfield. Use the title stub or form VSD 703. The form says to send it "immediately". Doing so takes the car off your hands legally, but the title is what moves ownership.

Illinois titles are state-issued, handled by mail in Springfield or at Secretary of State facilities; we have not checked a particular Aurora location. Retitling costs the buyer $165, and they get 20 days to do it. A car good only for scrap needs a junking certificate. Apply within 15 days. If no lienholder is listed, you hang on to the title.

Fox Valley neighbors

Straight-line distances from Aurora: Montgomery 4.6 miles, Batavia 5.9, Oswego 6.1, Naperville 6.7, Geneva 8.4 and West Chicago 9.7. See Illinois for statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or on the form. Share the model year and the miles, say if the engine cranks, and say what kind of title you hold. Mention a failed emissions test if there was one; it changes nothing about what a sale requires.