Nixa's junk vehicle test and selling a dead car

The second half of the test

On top of the missing plate or sticker, the vehicle needs "any one or more" of these traits:

• It "Lacks engine, wheel, tire, properly installed battery or other structural parts" that make it unusable as the maker designed it.
• It has junk, garbage or refuse stored inside, or paper, cardboard, wood or other combustible materials.
• It is used to store solid waste or hazardous materials.
• It holds gasoline, propane or diesel anywhere "other than in the vehicle's gas or fuel tank."

The code is broad about what counts as a vehicle: "an automobile, truck, van, sports utility vehicle, motorcycle, motorized scooter or dirtbike." A dead dirt bike behind the shed is covered the same as a minivan.

The same section also describes a stripped car, one "from which essential equipment, parts or contents have been removed or stripped and the outward appearance verifies the removal." A car picked over for parts can look exactly like that; missing parts covers selling one.

Two everyday ways to meet the definition

A car used as a storage bin, with boxes stacked on the seats, can meet the combustible-materials trait. And a battery pulled to stop it draining can meet the "properly installed battery" trait. Either one counts only if the plates or stickers are not current, which brings up a timing problem with plates further down.

What these sections leave out

The parts of Section 14-1 quoted here are definitions. They give no notice period and no deadline, and Nixa may set those elsewhere in its code. Ask the city what applies before planning around a date. If a letter has already arrived, notice to remove a car is a place to start.

Plates, title and the sale report

Missouri makes the seller take the plates off, current or expired, before the buyer takes possession. In Nixa, wait until pickup day to pull them, since a car sitting with no plates meets the first half of the city's test.

The rest of the Missouri steps:

• Titles here are a state matter. Nixa paperwork can go to whichever Missouri license office is handy, or to Jefferson City, home of the Motor Vehicle Bureau.
• Signing the title takes no notary stamp.
• Odometer figure and date: write them neatly, because the state rules out correction fluid and erasing.
• Revenue needs a sale report inside 30 days, on the Notice of Sale or a Bill of Sale (forms DOR-5049 and DOR-1957).

Passing the car to family instead? See the FAQ below for the gift wording. For a car left by someone who died, inherited car has the estate side. Christian County sellers owe no emissions test at sale.

Getting an offer

Tell us about it at (877) 421-6008 or on the form: make, model, year, miles, running or dead, and where the title ended up. A Nixa driveway, a back corner of the yard, a shop's lot: the truck goes to it. Ozark and Springfield have their own pages, and Missouri has the state rules.