Cash for Junk Cars in Texas | Free Towing Statewide
1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys junk, damaged, and non-running vehicles throughout Texas. We serve all 254 counties, from El Paso and Lubbock to Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley. Every pickup includes free towing. Most areas get same-day or next-day service, and we pay cash on the spot when we collect your vehicle.
How Selling Your Junk Car Works in Texas
Get Your Quote
Call us at 1-800-935-8652 or use our online form for an instant cash offer. Give us your vehicle’s year, make, model, and condition. Texas quotes take about two minutes, and you get a guaranteed price with no obligation.
Schedule Free Pickup
Accept your offer and pick a time that works for you. We tow free throughout Texas, whether you’re on a remote West Texas ranch or in a Houston driveway. Most pickups happen within 24 to 48 hours, including weekends.
Get Paid Cash
Our driver shows up at your Texas location, checks that the vehicle matches the description, and hands you cash on the spot. We handle loading and towing. You sign over the title, and the whole thing usually takes fifteen minutes or less.
What Is Your Texas Junk Car Worth?
Junk car values in Texas run from $150 for complete scrap vehicles to $1,500 or more for newer models with good parts. Your offer depends on vehicle weight, current scrap metal prices, condition of major components like engines and transmissions, and local parts demand. Texas vehicles often hold better value than those from northern states because the dry climate in West Texas and the Panhandle means less rust. Trucks and SUVs, which are everywhere in Texas, often bring higher prices because of strong parts markets in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
Scrap steel prices set the baseline value for any junk car. When steel markets rise, so do junk car offers across Texas. A typical sedan weighs around 3,000 pounds, while trucks and SUVs can top 5,000 pounds, which directly affects scrap value. The live tracker below shows current scrap metal rates so you can see market conditions before requesting your quote.
Texas Junk Car Laws and Title Requirements
Last reviewed 2026-10-05 against Texas state sources. Fees and forms change; the official links below are authoritative.
| Who issues titles | TxDMV issues the title, but you file Form 130-U at one of the 254 county tax assessor-collector offices. source |
|---|---|
| Duplicate title form and fee | Form VTR-34, Rev 06/26. Costs $2.00 by mail, $5.45 at the counter, and only a Regional Service Center takes it. source |
| Can you sell without a title? | Only to a licensed parts recycler, and only if the car is 13+ years old and unregistered 7+ years. source |
| Notary required? | No. Form 130-U has no notary block; it takes the seller's and the applicant's signatures only. source |
| Odometer disclosure required | Model year 2011 and newer, until 20 years past the model year; 2010 and older exempt under 49 C.F.R. 580.17. source |
| Who keeps the license plates | A dealer buyer removes them; otherwise the seller does. Plates not transferred are disposed of within 10 days. source |
| Deadline to report the sale | 30 days, on Form VTR-346. The buyer has the same 30 days to apply for title at the county. source |
| Abandoned / inoperable vehicle statute | Transportation Code 683.002: 48 hours on private property without consent; on public property, if illegal or inoperable and 5+ years old. source |
| Salvage or junk title trigger | Salvage when repair cost exceeds pre-damage cash value; nonrepairable when only parts or scrap value remains. source |
| Catalytic converter sale limits | Seller must give the donor vehicle's year, make, model, VIN and proof of ownership; recyclers number each unit. source |
Two Counters in Texas, Doing Different Jobs
Texas splits vehicle paperwork between 254 county tax assessor-collector offices and sixteen state Regional Service Centers. § 501.023 routes the title application to the county, on Form 130-U, Application for Texas Title and/or Registration, revision 05/26. A lost title is not a county errand: Form VTR-34 is filed in person or by mail at a Regional Service Center, $2.00 by mail or $5.45 at the counter, with a 30-day wait between copies. Neither form carries a notary block, and § 501.073 voids any sale made in violation of the chapter.
Handing Over a Texas Car With No Title
Section 501.098, added by House Bill 5436 effective September 1, 2025, lets a licensed used automotive parts recycler buy without a title only when three things hold: the vehicle is 13 or more years old, unregistered for at least seven years, and bought solely for parts, dismantling or scrap. The recycler logs it on Form VTR-341-1, then reports the car to the department on Form VTR-341-2 and to NMVTIS within 24 hours of the close of business on the day it receives the car, excluding weekends and state holidays; dismantling waits for the close of the third business day after. An unreleased lien recorded within six years adds Form VTR-341-3, a $25 fee to the recycler’s own county tax assessor-collector, and a wait past the 21st day. Our Lubbock page works the same test.
A Bonded Title Will Not Rescue a Junk Car
Section 501.053 lets you bond around a missing title at one and a half times the value TxDMV assigns from Standard Presumptive Value, on Form VTR-130-SOF, revision 11/24, with a $15 fee at a Regional Service Center; the bond runs three years. Subsection (f) closes the route to any salvage or nonrepairable vehicle, and TxDMV’s eligibility page adds that the car cannot be junked and must be complete, meaning frame, body and motor, though it need not run.
What Makes It Salvage, and the Form That Ends It
Section 501.091 draws the line on cost: salvage means repairs would exceed the car’s value immediately before the damage; nonrepairable means the only residual value is parts or scrap. When a licensed dealer or recycler takes in either to dismantle, § 501.1003 requires the assigned ownership evidence surrendered on Form VTR-340 before the 31st day. Anything listed there is nonrepairable, cannot be retitled, and its body and frame cannot build another vehicle. Metal recyclers file Form VTR-340-M before the 61st day after destroying a car.
Forty-Eight Hours, and Who Holds the Plates
Section 683.002(a) gives six ways a vehicle counts as abandoned. Four run on 48 hours: inoperable and over five years old unattended on public property, illegally on public property, on private property without the owner’s consent, or unattended on a county, state or federal highway right of way. The 24-hour clock in (a)(5) reaches only a turnpike or controlled-access right of way, and (a)(6) covers impounded commercial vehicles. After a law enforcement agency takes custody under § 683.011, you reclaim it within 20 days of notice, on payment of towing, preservation and storage charges.
Plate removal splits by buyer. Section 504.901(a) puts it on the buyer when that buyer is a dealer holding a general distinguishing number, the usual junk-car buyer; (b) puts it on you when the buyer is not. Pull them yourself regardless. Moving them to another car you own needs department approval and a new insignia; an untransferred plate goes by the 10th day. Form VTR-346 within 30 days is protection, not a duty; the buyer’s 30 days under § 501.145 are a duty, and a miss costs $25, or $10 from a dealer seller, plus $25 per 30-day period after day 60, to a $250 cap. El Paso County is one of seventeen where registration still turns on an emissions test.
Official Texas sources
Cities We Buy Junk Cars in Texas
Texas has 254 counties, and we quote in all of them. That covers the Panhandle and the South Plains around Lubbock, the Permian Basin, the Trans-Pecos out to El Paso, the Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau, the Blackland Prairie through North Texas, the Piney Woods in the east, the Coastal Bend, and the Rio Grande Valley. Houston in Harris County, San Antonio in Bexar, Dallas, Fort Worth in Tarrant, Austin in Travis and Corpus Christi in Nueces are served areas on the same terms, along with the farm towns and county seats between them.
One Texas rule changes the math before the car leaves. Seventeen counties still require a passing emissions inspection before a vehicle can be registered: Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Ellis, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson. Everywhere else, and for every non-commercial vehicle since January 1, 2025, no inspection is required at all. So a dead car you keep registered in Harris or El Paso County costs more to hold than the identical car in Lubbock or Amarillo. Once it stops being worth holding, distance stops mattering: towing is free, and a ranch gate well off the interstate is quoted the same as a driveway inside Loop 610.
Don’t see your city? We serve all of Texas. Call 1-800-935-8652 to confirm pickup at your location.
Frequently Asked Questions — Selling a Junk Car in Texas
Can I sell a junk car in Texas without the title?
Only to a licensed used automotive parts recycler, and only if the car clears all three tests in Transportation Code 501.098: at least 13 years old, not registered for at least seven years, and sold purely for parts, dismantling or scrap. Fail any one of the three and you replace the title first. Call 1-800-935-8652 with the year and the last time it was registered and we will tell you which route applies.
What does a replacement Texas title cost, and who issues it?
$2.00 by mail or $5.45 in person, on Form VTR-34, revision 06/26. The county tax office does not handle it. You file at a TxDMV Regional Service Center; by mail, Wichita Falls at 1601-A Southwest Parkway is the only address that takes it, and TxDMV asks you to allow 15 days or more. Every recorded owner signs in black or blue ink and attaches a copy of a government-issued photo ID. You also cannot request another copy within 30 days of the last one.
After the car is towed away, is there anything I still have to file?
Nothing is legally required of you, but file the Vehicle Transfer Notification anyway. Form VTR-346 goes in online at TxDMV.gov/VTN or by mail to PO Box 26417, Austin, and submitting it within 30 days is what cuts off your liability for later tolls and tickets; TxDMV still notates the record if it arrives late. It does not move ownership. The buyer, not you, carries the hard 30-day deadline to apply for title at the county.
Can I get a bonded title for a car that does not run?
Usually not. Transportation Code 501.053(f) bars the bonded-title route for any salvage or nonrepairable vehicle, and TxDMV requires the car to be complete, with frame, body and motor, even though it does not have to start. If you do qualify, Form VTR-130-SOF costs $15 at a Regional Service Center and the surety bond is one and a half times the value the department assigns.
How long before a car parked on my property counts as abandoned in Texas?
Forty-eight hours, if it is there without the property owner's consent. Transportation Code 683.002 runs the same 48-hour clock for a vehicle left illegally on public property and for highway rights of way; the only 24-hour trigger is a turnpike or controlled-access right of way. Your city can be tougher than that, because 683.0711 lets a municipal ordinance adopt a more inclusive definition of a junked vehicle. The state offense itself is capped at a $200 fine.
Do I need an inspection or emissions test before scrapping a Texas car?
No. Inspection in Texas is a condition of registration, not of selling. Since January 1, 2025 non-commercial vehicles no longer need a safety inspection anywhere in the state, and emissions testing survives in only 17 counties, including El Paso, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Travis. San Antonio's Bexar County is not on that list. Letting registration lapse on a car you plan to scrap changes nothing about our offer.
From DFW and Houston through San Antonio and Austin down the I-35 corridor, Texas is our largest state by route volume, and El Paso, the Panhandle and the Valley are covered on the same terms. Hill Country and ranch-gate pickups just need directions dispatch can follow.
Neighboring States We Serve
New Mexico | Oklahoma | Arkansas | Louisiana