Cash for Junk Cars in West Virginia | Free Towing Statewide
1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys junk, damaged, and non-running vehicles throughout West Virginia. We serve Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Wheeling, and every county from the Eastern Panhandle to the Ohio River Valley. Free towing, same-day or next-day pickup, and cash payment when we pick up your car. Call today for an instant quote on any car, truck, van, or SUV regardless of condition.
How Selling Your Junk Car Works in West Virginia
Get Your Quote
Call 1-800-935-8652 or use our online form for an instant cash offer. Tell us your vehicle’s year, make, model, mileage, and general condition. We quote junk cars across all 55 West Virginia counties, from Berkeley County to Wayne County. Offers are based on current scrap metal prices and salvageable parts value.
Schedule Free Pickup
Accept your offer and schedule pickup at your convenience. We tow free throughout West Virginia, including rural mountain communities and remote hollows. Most pickups happen within 24 to 48 hours. Our drivers reach locations across the Appalachian region, Potomac Highlands, and Ohio Valley areas.
Get Paid Cash
Get cash when our tow driver arrives. Sign over your West Virginia title, remove your license plates to return to the DMV, and collect your money on the spot. The whole transaction takes about 15 to 20 minutes. No hidden fees, no deductions from your quoted price, and no waiting for checks to clear.
What Is Your West Virginia Junk Car Worth?
Most junk cars in West Virginia sell for $150 to $800, with complete vehicles that run bringing $500 to $1,500 or more. Your car’s value depends on weight and metal content, condition of major components like engines and transmissions, current demand for parts, and how easy it is to reach your location. West Virginia’s harsh winters with road salt speed up rust on undercarriages and body panels, which can reduce scrap value. But the state’s strong truck and SUV culture means parts for popular models like Ford F-150s and Chevrolet Silverados stay in high demand at local salvage yards.
Scrap steel prices set the baseline value for any junk car. When metal prices rise, so do offers for end-of-life vehicles. The scrap market fluctuates based on domestic demand, international trade, and regional recycling capacity. West Virginia’s proximity to steel production facilities in Pennsylvania and Ohio can influence local rates. The live scrap price tracker below shows current market values so you can see what buyers are paying for automotive scrap metal today.
West Virginia Junk Car Laws and Title Requirements
Last reviewed 2026-10-05 against West Virginia state sources. Fees and forms change; the official links below are authoritative.
| Who issues titles | The state Division of Motor Vehicles issues every certificate of title; West Virginia has no county title office. source |
|---|---|
| Duplicate title form and fee | Form DMV-4-TR, the Affidavit of Duplicate Title, Rev. 04/2022. The fee is $15.00. source |
| Can you sell without a title? | No age or model-year exemption. You sign a statement of cancellation, form DMV-SV-14; the scrap buyer files it within 45 days. source |
| Notary required? | Not on the title assignment. A bill of sale needs notarizing only when the price is under 50% of book value. source |
| Odometer disclosure required | Model year 2011 and newer, for 20 years. Model year 2010 and earlier, and anything over 16,000 lbs GVWR, are exempt. source |
| Who keeps the license plates | The seller keeps the plates and sends the registration certificate back; registration expires the moment the title is assigned. source |
| Deadline to report the sale | Notify the Commissioner immediately (§17A-4-1). Under §17A-4-2 you then have 60 days to deliver the title, except on scrap sales. source |
| Abandoned / inoperable vehicle statute | W. Va. Code ch. 17, art. 24A. Over five days inoperative on public property is one of three triggers. source |
| Salvage or junk title trigger | Damage at 75% or more of market value, or flood intrusion. Salvage certificate $22.50; nonrepairable certificate free. source |
| Catalytic converter sale limits | A detached converter needs an inked fingerprint and payment by check, plus a 14-day dealer hold, reducible to five days. source |
Who Issues a West Virginia Title
West Virginia titles at the state level. The Division of Motor Vehicles issues every certificate of title, so a Kanawha County seller and a Berkeley County seller file the same form, DMV-1-TR. The fee is $15, plus a 6 percent titling sales tax on the net purchase price, or a flat $30 when that price is under $500. A bill of sale needs notarizing, on the DMV’s form DMV-7-TR or otherwise, when a private-sale price lands below half the NADA clean loan book value.
Signing a Junk Car Over
W. Va. Code §17A-4-2 has you endorse the assignment and warranty of title, and two names belong on that back panel — the DMV requires the seller’s signature and the buyer’s. The same section allows 60 days to pass the certificate along, then carves out “a vehicle sold as scrap or to be dismantled.” The reciprocal duty sits in §17A-4-10(g). A yard taking your car for scrap has 45 days to close the record out, using the title, a salvage certificate, a nonrepairable certificate, or a cancellation statement you sign as seller. That last one is form DMV-SV-14, with a signature block for you and another for the recycler.
Replacing a Lost Title
The duplicate application is form DMV-4-TR, revision 04/2022, and it costs $15. Address it to the division’s Receiving and Processing unit, PO Box 17710 in Charleston, ZIP 25317, with a copy of a government-issued photo ID enclosed. The DMV runs 26 regional offices, including Huntington, Kanawha City, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Beckley, Fairmont and Weirton. Wheeling is not among them; the Northern Panhandle’s largest city sends people down to Moundsville.
Plates and Registration After the Sale
§17A-4-1 ends the registration the moment you assign the title, so there is nothing for you to cancel. Three duties replace it: hold the plates, notify the Commissioner, and hand back the certificate of registration. Reusing those plates on a replacement of the same class costs $10, plus the difference if it carries a higher license fee, and the application must reach the department inside 60 days of the purchase and no later than 60 days after the original transfer. A different-class swap costs $10 plus whatever equalizes the two sets’ value.
Odometer Disclosure Runs by Model Year, Not Vehicle Age
Form DMV-TM-1 draws the line at model year, not vehicle age. No reading is needed when the model year is 2010 or earlier, when the vehicle is non-motorized, or when gross weight tops 16,000 pounds; model years 2011 and later carry the disclosure for 20 years. A dead, replaced or rolled-over instrument is not left blank. The DMV accepts three status marks and no others: Actual Mileage, Not Actual Mileage, and Mileage Exceeds Mechanical Limits. Titles issued after January 1, 1991 print the certification on the reverse, so DMV-TM-1 covers the older ones.
Abandoned and Junked Vehicles
Chapter 17, Article 24A is the live law; Article 24 was repealed in 2005 and now reads as waste tire remediation. §17-24A-1(3) catches a vehicle three ways: inoperative on public property over five days; on private property over five days without the consent of its owner or whoever controls that land; or unattended, discarded, deserted and unlicensed while sitting outside a licensed salvage yard, an enclosed building or a demolisher’s hands. §17-24A-3 sets a 30-day warning by registered or certified mail to the landowner and the vehicle’s owner before an agency hauls a junked car off private land. Title to one built more than 25 years ago costs $100 under §17-24A-6a; a landowner qualifies on that basis alone, while anyone else needs the landowner’s notarized permission on the free Antique Vehicle Removal Certificate, form DMV-VRC-1. Huntington permits one commercially covered vehicle for 45 days, and Charleston writes home-rule nuisance citations for open storage in residential districts that climb $100, $200, $300, then $500 inside any 12-month period.
Official West Virginia sources
- West Virginia DMV — Titles
- Form DMV-4-TR, Affidavit of Duplicate Title for a Vehicle or Watercraft (Rev. 04/2022)
- W. Va. Code §17A-4-10. Salvage certificates for certain wrecked or damaged vehicles; fee; penalty
- W. Va. Code §17-24A-1. Definitions (abandoned and junked motor vehicles)
- Form DMV-SV-1, Salvage Certificate Application (Rev. 11/2022)
- West Virginia DMV — Regional Office Locations
Cities We Buy Junk Cars in West Virginia
West Virginia does not sell the same way in all 55 counties. The Kanawha Valley around Charleston is the densest run we make, with I-64, I-77 and I-79 meeting inside the city and US 119 heading south out of it. The Ohio River corridor starts at Huntington and follows WV 2 north through Parkersburg, Wheeling and Weirton. Along I-79 we cover Morgantown and Fairmont; Beckley anchors the southern coalfields off the Turnpike; and the Eastern Panhandle in Berkeley and Jefferson counties runs on its own clock, closer to Hagerstown than to the capital. Those six cities are served areas, reached by the same trucks, without pages of their own.
The terrain changes what we need from you on the phone. Winter brine on the Turnpike grades and on US 19 works on frame rails and rocker panels for years before anything shows through the paint, and a frame that has rusted through changes how a car gets loaded, not just what it is worth. Narrow hollow roads and one-lane bridges decide whether a rollback can reach the vehicle or whether the car has to be winched out to the nearest wide spot. So name the county and say whether the last stretch in is a state route or a private hollow road, because in the Potomac Highlands and the southern coalfields that answer sets the pickup window more than the car does.
🏙️ Huntington
Don’t see your city? We serve all of West Virginia. Call 1-800-935-8652 to confirm pickup at your location.
Frequently Asked Questions — Selling a Junk Car in West Virginia
Can I sell a junk car in West Virginia without the title if the car is old enough?
No. West Virginia sets no model-year or age cutoff that excuses the title, so a 1994 pickup is handled the same as a 2024 one. The practical route runs through W. Va. Code 17A-4-10(g): you sign a cancellation statement as the seller, on DMV form DMV-SV-14, and the yard that takes the car has 45 days to put it in front of the division.
What does a duplicate West Virginia title cost, and which form is it?
Fifteen dollars, on form DMV-4-TR, revision 04/2022. Address the package to PO Box 17710 in Charleston, ZIP 25317, marked for the division's Receiving and Processing unit, and enclose a copy of your government-issued photo ID. One trap: where a lien was ever recorded against the vehicle, the lender has to fill in Section D. Leave that block empty and the new title is posted to the lender's address instead of yours.
Does a 2004 pickup need an odometer reading when I sell it for scrap?
No. West Virginia follows the model-year line on form DMV-TM-1: vehicles of model year 2010 or earlier need no odometer disclosure, and neither do non-motorized vehicles or anything with a gross vehicle weight over 16,000 pounds. Model years 2011 and newer carry the disclosure for 20 years. On any title the state issued after January 1, 1991, the certification is printed on the back.
What happens to my license plates and registration when the car is towed away?
The registration expires on its own the instant you assign the title, under W. Va. Code 17A-4-1, so you file nothing to cancel it. What you still owe the state is the plates, a notice of transfer to the Commissioner, and the registration certificate itself. To put those plates on a replacement vehicle you must apply within 60 days of buying it, and never beyond 60 days from the original transfer, for a $10 fee.
How long can an inoperable car sit in West Virginia before it counts as abandoned?
More than five days on public property, or more than five on private property without the consent of its owner or whoever controls the land. W. Va. Code 17-24A-1(3) adds a third route with no clock on it at all: unattended, discarded, deserted and unlicensed, parked outside a licensed yard, an enclosed building or a demolisher's possession. An agency still owes a 30-day certified-mail warning before towing off private land.
Should I unbolt the catalytic converter and sell it separately?
Leave it bolted on. Under W. Va. Code 61-3-49(k)(1), a converter still part of the car falls outside the scrap-metal rules. Cut it off and subsection (k)(2) takes over: written proof of ownership, your fingerprint in ink next to the signature, a check instead of cash, and two weeks before the yard may move the part, cut to five days if it files everything with the State Police and the city police or county sheriff. Our quote assumes it is attached; reach us at 1-800-935-8652.
Neighboring States We Serve
Pennsylvania | Maryland | Virginia | Kentucky | Ohio