Salem's dead-car rules, and selling one whole

Fifteen days, then fifteen more

Section 86-264 forbids an inoperative vehicle on land zoned for residential, commercial or agricultural use "except within a fully enclosed building or structure or otherwise shielded or screened from view." The city may remove one "whenever the owner of the premises, after 15 days' notice, has failed to do so." After the tow, the vehicle "may be disposed of after giving an additional 15 days' notice to the owner of the vehicle."

Read the section closely before counting on a tarp or fence. Its first sentence allows a screened vehicle. The removal paragraph tells owners to take away any inoperative vehicle "not kept within a fully enclosed building or structure," with no mention of screens. A garage is the one place both sentences agree on. If in doubt, ask the city before building anything.

When parts are missing

The 60-day clause catches cars that most people would not call junk yet: a truck up on blocks waiting for tires, a sedan with the engine on a stand in the garage while the body sits outside. Once that stretch passes, the city can treat it like a car that never runs again. Our guide to missing parts covers selling a car that is already partly stripped.

Salem has a second rule worth knowing if the emissions parts are gone. Section 30-48 says "A motor vehicle or its engine shall not be operated with the motor vehicle pollution control system or device removed or otherwise rendered inoperable." A car with a deleted system is still a car you can sell whole; see modified or deleted.

No title in the glove box

Virginia gives scrap buyers a route around a missing title. A demolisher or scrap metal processor buying a vehicle for wrecking or dismantling does not have to title it in its own name. When the seller is a private person, the yard uses DMV form VSA 40, the Vehicle Removal Certificate, which you sign as the one giving up the car. Model year changes the path. A Salem yard checks DMV records first when a car arrives with no title, salvage certificate or nonrepairable certificate and sits ten model years or more behind the current one. Newer cars use the Abandoned Vehicle Process.

If you would rather replace the title, it costs $15. File VSA 67 on the DMV site or at a service center, bringing ID and the registration card; any single co-owner may do it. An old lien that was never paid off changes the mailing address: the replacement goes to that lender.

Signing over and plates

On a Salem sale, your signature goes in Section A, the seller's block on the title's front. Salem sellers skip the notary. Keep the plates when the car leaves, and file the sale notice with the DMV by web, phone or visit.

Getting an offer

For a price on a Salem car, call (877) 421-6008 or go online. Say if parts are off your Salem car. We load from garage bays, gravel pads, jack stands. Salem sits 5.4 miles from Roanoke and 20.8 miles from Blacksburg; see Virginia for statewide rules.