Selling a junk or dead car in Palisades Park

If you would rather move it on than fix it, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, with free pickup anywhere in the US, from a driveway off Broad Avenue to a tight spot behind a house.

What section 315-75 says

The key clause reads: "No currently uninspected or unregistered passenger motor vehicle shall be parked or stored on any property in a residential district ... for a period exceeding 30 days."

Three things follow from that wording:

• It covers residential districts as the borough's zoning ordinance defines them.
• Either trigger is enough. Current plates with a lapsed inspection count, and so does an inspected car whose registration ran out.
• The condition rule has no grace period. The car may never be "in the process of being stripped or dismantled outside an enclosed building."

The same section closes off the driveway repair job too: "At no time shall any vehicle of any type undergo major overhauling, including bodywork, in a residential district." The borough covers just 1.239 square miles of land, and its code does not carve out room for a long project car.

The state test and the borough rule

Most New Jersey cars face an emissions test every second year, while one younger than five model years may be exempt for five years. The borough rule covers a "currently uninspected" car, even one that still runs; the section does not say when its 30 days begin. If it failed and the fix costs more than the car, see failed inspection or rust.

Stripping it for parts at home

Pulling the engine or doors in the driveway is the exact "stripped or dismantled" case the code names. If you are weighing that against a whole-car sale, part it out or sell it whole lays out both.

Title, plates and the Oakland trip

The MVC will not change a title through the mail; someone has to carry it into an agency. Among the Bergen County Vehicle Centers we checked is one at Suite 24, 350 Ramapo Valley Rd, in Oakland. Measured from mid-borough as the crow flies, Oakland lies about 18 miles northwest. Bergen may have more offices.

In a typical sale, the buyer makes the Oakland drive, not you. Your signature belongs on the title's flip side, in the slot labeled for the seller. Then pass it over with a bill of sale listing the price, the odometer number, the day you sold it, and the buyer's name and home address. If the buyer lets 10 working days pass without transferring it, the state adds a $25 penalty.

Plates in New Jersey belong to the seller. Drop them off with the MVC, or fit them to a different car of yours. If the title is lost, you ask for a $60 duplicate on form OS/SS-UTA. That happens at a Vehicle Center visit you book first. The rest is in junk car with no title.

Towns next door

Fort Lee is 1.4 miles away and Cliffside Park 1.8. Englewood sits 3.3 miles off and Hackensack 3.9. Statewide rules are on the New Jersey page.

Getting an offer

Ring (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Mention the model, the odometer number, any sign of life from the starter, and the name printed on the title. For Palisades Park, the truck meets the car by the curb, up a driveway, or inside a garage that gave up on it.