Sell a Junk Car in Billings, MT: Free Tow, Paid at Pickup, Both Sides of the Rims

Billings sits in a bowl under the Rimrocks, and that geography decides how a junk car leaves your property. A truck reaching a driveway in the Heights climbs the rims on Main Street or Airport Road; a pickup on the South Side works around the rail yards and the I-90 ramps; Lockwood, east of the rims, is unincorporated Yellowstone County with a different code enforcement office. 1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys vehicles that do not run, do not roll, or have simply outlived the repair math, and we dispatch a tow instead of asking you to drive anywhere. Call 1-800-935-8652 with the year, make, model and whether the catalytic converter is still on it, and you get a number on that call. Towing is free and the driver pays you at pickup. Below: what the car is worth here, how a Montana title replacement and lien release work, and what Billings code enforcement can do about a car that has sat too long.

Call 1-800-935-8652 for a free offer on your vehicle in Billings. Free towing, cash on pickup.

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How to sell a junk car in Billings

The call comes first. Give the year, make and model, then the condition answers that actually move the price: does it start, does it roll and steer, are all the wheels on it, is the converter still underneath, and has anyone stripped parts. Then say where the vehicle sits and how a truck gets to it, because Billings pickups vary more by neighborhood than by distance. Downtown, North Park and the Central-Terry blocks have alley access behind older lots, and an alley job means a shorter truck and a winch line rather than a full flatbed swing. The Heights is reached by climbing the rims on Main Street or Airport Road, and cul-de-sacs off Wicks Lane or Bench Boulevard are fine for a rollback if the car is at the end of the driveway rather than behind a second vehicle. The West End and Shiloh have wider lots and newer subdivisions, some gated, so have the code ready. Yellowstone County’s own junk vehicle crew asks owners for a clear path for a 35-foot tow truck, a fair standard for ours too. Have the Montana title in hand, or tell us on the call that it is missing.

What is a junk car worth in Billings?

A junk car in Billings typically brings $150 to $700, and the spread comes down to weight, parts and the catalytic converter. Weight sets the floor. A three-quarter-ton pickup or a body-on-frame SUV with its engine and transmission still in place is worth more as scrap steel than a compact sedan before anyone looks at parts. The converter is the single most valuable component on most vehicles; if it has already been cut off, say so and expect a lower number. Parts add value only when a dismantler can resell them, which favors common trucks and SUVs over an orphaned import. Billings has an advantage most Montana cities do not: local processing capacity. Pacific Steel & Recycling runs two scrap yards in the metro, one downtown and one in Lockwood, so the haul from your driveway to the scale is short and the freight leg that quietly shaves offers in smaller markets is nearly absent. Rust is moderate. Montana winters are cold but dry, and de-icer on I-90 and the arterials does less damage than the heavy salting in the Great Lakes states, so twenty-year-old Billings vehicles often keep resellable suspension and driveline parts. Hail lowers a car’s retail value but rarely its scrap value.

Title and paperwork rules in Montana

Montana titles run through county treasurers acting for the Motor Vehicle Division, so in Billings that is the Yellowstone County Treasurer’s Motor Vehicle Department, 2825 3rd Avenue North, Room 125, 406-256-2833. Start with liens, because a lien still showing on the record stops a sale. Once a loan is paid off the lender must file a satisfaction; Montana law gives a secured party 21 days after final payment and charges it $25.75 for each day it is late, and the MVD’s release form is MV37A. If the paper title is lost, mutilated or illegible, file the MVD’s Certificate of Title Replacement Application, form MV7, with the $10.30 replacement title fee, 3% administrative fee included. No notary is needed; you sign under penalty of law and list your driver license number. Mail it with a check payable to State of Montana to the Vehicle Services Bureau, PO Box 201431, Helena, MT 59620-1431, or pick up the form at the treasurer’s counter. One caution: MCA 61-3-204 was amended in 2025 to set the base replacement fee at $5 beginning July 1, 2026, and the MVD’s August 2026 form still prints $10.30, so confirm the amount first. At the sale, sign the transfer on the title and take the plates off.

Billings abandoned and inoperable vehicle rules

Inside city limits, junk cars fall under the zoning code, Chapter 27 of the Billings Municipal City Code. Section 27-1803 defines an inoperable vehicle as any vehicle incapable of immediate operation under its own power, or any vehicle without current license plates lawfully affixed, so expired tags alone qualify a running car. The same section defines open storage as keeping junk, salvage, trash or inoperable vehicles outside an enclosed structure for five consecutive days or more, and an enclosed structure means a building with sight-obscuring walls on all sides and a roof. In residential districts, section 27-1307 makes licensed and operable vehicles the only allowed accessory parking use, and the city’s guidance is plain: junk vehicles, including unlicensed ones, must be stored within an enclosed building or removed after five days. A zoning violation is a misdemeanor under section 27-1704, and each day it continues is a separate offense. The Code Enforcement Division, 316 North 26th Street, takes private-property complaints at 406-237-6146. A dead car on the street is a different track: any vehicle on a right-of-way must move under its own power at least once every five days, the police Crime Prevention Unit tags and tows, and reports go to 406-247-8590. Outside city limits, Yellowstone County’s Junk Vehicle and Code Enforcement office, 406-652-2050, enforces the county community decay ordinance and generally allows at least 30 days to comply.

How Fast Can You Sell a Junk Car in Billings?

Most Billings sellers have cash in hand within a day of calling, because 1-800-We-Junk-Cars prices the car over the phone from the year, make and model, then sends a truck instead of asking you to haul it across the rail yards or up onto the rims yourself. Hand over the Montana title at pickup, or say on the call that Yellowstone County still has to reissue it, since a missing title is the one thing that regularly slows a Billings sale down. Call 1-800-935-8652; Lockwood and Laurel sellers get the identical offer and the same same-day pickup as a driveway in the Heights.

Areas of Billings we tow from

Pickups run across all nine of the city’s neighborhood task force areas: the Heights north of the rims, Central-Terry, Pioneer Park, North Park and Midtown in the core, the South Side below the tracks, the Southwest Corridor, the West End and the Rimrock neighborhoods under the airport bluff. Downtown and the Shiloh corridor are in range, and so is North Elevation along the top of the rims. I-90 and the western end of I-94 organize the east side, US 87 and Main Street feed the Heights, and King Avenue and Grand Avenue carry the West End. We also tow from Lockwood and Laurel, from Shepherd and Huntley along the Yellowstone, and from the ranch roads out toward Molt and Broadview. Distance inside Yellowstone County does not change the offer; access changes the truck we send.

• Downtown
• North Park
• Central-Terry
• Pioneer Park
• Midtown
• South Side
• Southwest Corridor
• West End
• Shiloh
• Heights
• Rimrock
• North Elevation

Frequently asked questions

What is a junk car worth in Billings?

Most junk vehicles in Billings land between $150 and $700. Weight sets the floor, an intact catalytic converter adds the most on top of it, and resellable parts add more for common trucks and SUVs than for rare imports. Billings offers hold up better than in smaller Montana towns because Pacific Steel & Recycling has two scrap yards in the metro, one downtown and one in Lockwood, so there is almost no haul cost to subtract. Call 1-800-935-8652 with the year, make, model and condition for a real number.

Can Billings cite me for a car with expired plates sitting in my driveway?

Yes. Section 27-1803 of the Billings Municipal City Code defines an inoperable vehicle as one incapable of immediate operation under its own power or one without current license plates lawfully affixed, and open storage as keeping such a vehicle outside an enclosed structure for five consecutive days or more. The city’s guidance says junk vehicles, including unlicensed ones, must be stored in an enclosed building or removed after five days. Complaints go to the Code Enforcement Division at 406-237-6146.

Does a tarp or carport count as enclosed storage in Billings?

No. Section 27-1803 defines an enclosed structure as a building that protects its contents from the elements, with sight-obscuring walls on all sides and a roof. A carport is open on at least one side, a tarp is not a building, and a privacy fence has no roof, so none of them takes an inoperable vehicle out of open storage. Under section 27-1704 a zoning violation is a misdemeanor and each day counts as a separate offense, which is usually the point at which selling the car costs less than keeping it.

How do I replace a lost Montana title from Billings?

File form MV7, the Motor Vehicle Division’s Certificate of Title Replacement Application, with the $10.30 replacement title fee, which includes the 3% administrative fee. You sign under penalty of law; no notary is required. Mail it to the Vehicle Services Bureau, PO Box 201431, Helena, MT 59620-1431, or get the form at the Yellowstone County Treasurer’s Motor Vehicle Department, 2825 3rd Avenue North, Room 125, 406-256-2833. Note that MCA 61-3-204 now sets the base fee at $5 as of July 1, 2026, so confirm the amount when you file.

The lender never released the lien on my old car. What now?

The lienholder has to file the satisfaction, not you. Montana law gives a secured party 21 days after it receives final payment to file the release and charges it $25.75 for every day it is late, which is useful leverage when you call the bank. The MVD’s form is MV37A, Release of Security Interest or Lien, signed by the secured party. Get that filed or in hand before you schedule a tow, because a title with an open lien cannot be transferred at pickup.

Do you pick up in Lockwood and Laurel, and are the rules different there?

Yes, we tow from Lockwood, Laurel, Shepherd and Huntley at the same offer. Lockwood is unincorporated, so a junk car there is handled by Yellowstone County’s Junk Vehicle and Code Enforcement office at 1200 Shiloh Road, 406-652-2050, under the county zoning code and community decay ordinance rather than the Billings city code. The county program is complaint-based and generally allows a property at least 30 days to reach compliance, which is more time than the city’s five-day open storage clock gives you.

Yellowstone County will haul a junk car for free. Why sell it instead?

Because the county program is disposal, not a sale. You sign the county’s Junk Release form giving up all right, title and interest in the vehicle to the county motor vehicle graveyard under MCA 75-10-512, strip out everything that is not an original component, leave no more than five tires with it, and wait for the crew. Nobody pays you. Our tow is also free, but the driver hands you cash for the same car, and a title in your name gets you the higher end of the $150 to $700 range.

What happens to a dead car parked on a Billings street?

City code requires every vehicle parked on a right-of-way to move under its own power at least once every five days. Report a suspected abandoned car to the Crime Prevention Center at 406-247-8590 or through the police online form; the vehicle gets an orange sticker, is checked again five days later, and is referred for towing if it has not moved. An owner has 30 days to retrieve a towed vehicle by calling 406-657-8200 for the tow company, then paying that company’s charges.

Ready to get rid of it? Call 1-800-935-8652 and we will quote your car in Billings over the phone, tow it free, and pay you cash at pickup.

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Cash for junk cars across Montana