Junk and dead cars in Oregon: what a seller does

Oregon DMV issues every title

Oregon titles are state-issued by Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV), part of the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Your side of the title:

• Sign the title's reverse and add the date. A bill of sale can carry both instead.
• A lender with a lien on the car releases its interest.
• On newer cars, meaning 2011 models and later that are under 20 years old, an odometer disclosure needs signatures from both of you.

No notary appears among the DMV's steps for sellers. Your buyer then gets a 30-day window to file for a title. Filing late costs $25 between day 31 and day 60, and $50 after that.

When the title doesn't list you as owner, give the buyer a bill of sale. At minimum it shows the VIN, a line releasing your interest, your name in print, your signature, and when you signed.

Plates: yours to take

Oregon lets you remove your plates before the sale. If you leave them, they stay on the car. Plates may move only to another vehicle with the same owner. Put them on a car owned by someone else and the remaining registration ends for both vehicles.

File the notice of sale

This is the step that protects you. File the sale with DMV through DMV2U no later than day 10, and list the buyer's name and address. With that notice in and the title signed over, you are "not civilly or criminally liable" under the Vehicle Code for how the buyer parks, abandons or operates the car.

When the title is lost

Replace it before you sell; the DMV's instructions say so. Use the DMV's replacement or duplicate title application and sign it to certify that the title was lost, destroyed or mutilated.

Oregon has no separate duplicate fee. You pay the regular title fee, which for cars and trucks up to 26,000 lb GVWR is:

A wrecking yard's paperwork won't do. A bill of sale from a dismantler or wrecker is not accepted by DMV as a substitute for the title. See selling with no title.

Totaled, salvage and junk brands

ORS 801.527 calls a car "totaled" in three cases:

• the insurance company says it's a total loss, or takes over its title
• it was stolen, had no insurance, and stayed missing past 30 days
• it had no insurance and fixing it costs 80 percent or more of its retail market value before the damage

Within 30 days, a total-loss car's title has to reach DMV or the insurance company. Don't plan to drive it, and it hasn't been called junk or scrap? Then a salvage title is available for $27. Oregon's own brands are Totaled, Reconstructed, and Replica (and assembled). A flood brand or other brand from another state shows up with that state's name.

Junk status sticks. If another state has declared a car non-repairable (crushed, dismantled, hulk, junk, parts only, scrap or wreck), Oregon DMV won't title it. The only opening is to ask that other state if it will lift the junk status. More in our totaled car guide.

Dismantling and abandoned-car rules

Taking a car apart yourself triggers a state rule. Under ORS 819.010, an owner must notify DMV at least 7 days before wrecking, dismantling or disassembling a titled or registered car. When the work is visible from any public right of way, the deadline to finish is 30 days. When a car is destroyed, dismantled, totaled or substantially altered, its Oregon title goes back to DMV.

Abandoning a car is an offense in Oregon, whether it's left on a highway, on public land or on private land. Whoever DMV lists as owner is liable for the tow and disposal bills. For rules on keeping a junk car on your own lot, look at your city page; Eugene and Salem are two examples.

Towing an abandoned car

A property owner, or someone lawfully in charge of the land, can have an abandoned car towed. First a notice goes on the vehicle and must stay up a minimum of 72 hours, and the property owner puts the car's description and location in writing and signs it (ORS 98.830). DMV won't hand over the owner's name, and it has no form for this. In DMV's words: "You cannot claim ownership of an abandoned vehicle on your property."

After 30 unclaimed days, a towed car goes to public auction, or a local ordinance decides its fate. There's a shortcut for cheap cars: when a certified appraiser values one at $1,000 or less, it can go once it has been photographed and the registered owner and any secured parties have been told. Read more on a car abandoned on your property.

DEQ tests in two areas

Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality tests non-exempt passenger cars only when they're registered in the Portland or Medford metropolitan areas. Tests come every two years. Cars from 1996 and later get a plug-in OBD test; 1995 and older get a tailpipe test. To check a registration address against the test areas, DEQ has a boundary lookup online.

A dead car can't take the test, and letting the registration lapse has a cost: renewing late costs the same as any registration, but letting it go unrenewed is a Class D traffic violation.

Selling it, start to finish

1. Find the title, or replace it first.
2. Get an offer from us; say whether the car starts and what is missing.
3. Sign and date the title, and get the lien released if there is one.
4. Take the plates if you want them.
5. Tell DMV through DMV2U, no later than 10 days out.

The biggest Oregon cities

Free pickup covers each of them. Population figures come from our town data.

Every Oregon town we cover

Portland · Salem · Eugene · Gresham · Hillsboro · Bend · Beaverton · Medford · Corvallis · Springfield · Tigard · Albany · Lake Oswego · Grants Pass · Keizer · Redmond · Oregon City · McMinnville · Woodburn · Happy Valley · Tualatin · Wilsonville · Forest Grove · Newberg · West Linn · Roseburg · Milwaukie · Klamath Falls · Ashland · Sherwood · Lebanon

Rather talk it through? Call (877) 421-6008 and sell the whole car as it sits.

Cities and towns in Oregon

• Albany
• Ashland
• Beaverton
• Bend
• Corvallis
• Eugene
• Forest Grove
• Grants Pass
• Gresham
• Happy Valley
• Hillsboro
• Keizer
• Klamath Falls
• Lake Oswego
• Lebanon
• McMinnville
• Medford
• Milwaukie
• Newberg
• Oregon City
• Portland
• Redmond
• Roseburg
• Salem
• Sherwood
• Springfield
• Tigard
• Tualatin
• West Linn
• Wilsonville
• Woodburn