Selling a junk or dead car in Princeton

If the car is not worth fixing, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, whether it died on a side street or made it home to the driveway.

The public-land rule in T11-25

The section covers more than cars that will not start. Three kinds of vehicle fall under it:

• inoperable cars, trucks and trailers
• unlicensed ones
• uninspected ones

Loose "automotive parts" are covered too, so a pulled engine left by the curb is a violation on its own. The section reaches "any public lands or premises," and it names the bicycle paths designated elsewhere in the code.

Two streets with no room for a dead car

Princeton's parking rules single out two roads. On Billie Ellis Lane and on Griggs Drive, no "mobile home, recreation vehicle, boat, boat trailer, inoperative vehicle or the like shall be parked on any part of said road." The only exception is a vehicle on the road briefly to serve residents. If you live on either one, a car that stops running needs to go into a driveway or off the street entirely.

If police remove it

Under the code, police can order a car parked in violation of T11-25 "removed from said public property to a suitable storage place." Then:

1. "Notice of the place to which the vehicle is removed shall be given promptly to the owner or custodian of the vehicle, if known."
2. The car is released to the owner "only upon payment of the cost of such removal and storage."
3. "Unclaimed vehicles shall be disposed of as early as possible, in the manner provided by law for the disposition of abandoned motor vehicles."

The state statute behind that last line, N.J.S.A. 39:10A-1 and onward, has cars left on public land auctioned off or junked. For a car already sitting in a storage lot, read towed or impounded.

The title office in Trenton

The state handles transfers in person only, at an MVC agency. From Princeton, the Mercer County office we checked is down in Trenton at 120 South Stockton Street. As the crow flies, it lies about 11 miles southwest of Princeton's middle. Other offices may exist.

Usually only the buyer needs to make that drive. On the back of a Princeton title, sign in the seller spot. Princeton sellers next write a bill of sale. It lists the buyer's name and address, the amount paid, the mileage and the day of the sale. A late transfer, beyond 10 working days, costs a $25 penalty.

Plates

Keep the plates. In New Jersey they either go back to an MVC agency or move to whatever you drive next; a buyer never gets them.

Nearby

Trenton is 10.6 miles away and New Brunswick 14.7. Sayreville is 19.7 miles off and South Plainfield 20.0. See selling as is and the New Jersey page for more.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or send us the form: the model and year, approximate miles, whether it still drives, and the title's status. Pickup is possible from a driveway, a private lot or wherever it came to rest after the breakdown.