Cash for Junk Cars in Florida | Free Towing Statewide
1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys junk, damaged, and non-running vehicles throughout Florida. We serve Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Hillsborough, Duval, and all 67 counties. Free towing included with same-day or next-day pickup in most areas. We pay cash on the spot when we collect your vehicle. From the Panhandle to the Keys, Cape Coral to Lakeland, we buy cars in any condition across the state.
How It Works in Florida
Get Your Quote
Call 1-800-935-8652 or request an instant offer online. Tell us your vehicle’s year, make, model, and condition. We’ll give you a firm cash quote within minutes. Our offers reflect Florida’s active salvage market and current scrap metal prices.
Schedule Free Pickup
Pick a time that works for you. Same-day service is available in Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and Miami. Next-day pickup covers most rural areas. Our tow trucks come to your home, workplace, or wherever the vehicle sits at no charge.
Get Paid Cash
Our driver verifies the vehicle matches your description and completes the Florida title transfer paperwork with you. You get cash on the spot before we tow the car away. The whole process takes 15 to 30 minutes.
What Is Your Florida Junk Car Worth?
Florida junk cars typically sell for $150 to $750. Complete vehicles in better condition fetch $500 to $1,500 or more. Several factors determine your car’s value: weight affects scrap metal payout, while working engines, transmissions, catalytic converters, and electronics add to the price. Florida’s humid climate and salt air cause rust and corrosion, which can reduce value compared to vehicles from drier states. But the state’s large population creates strong demand for used parts, especially for Honda Civics, Toyota Camrys, and Ford F-150s that crowd Florida roads.
Scrap steel prices set the baseline value for any junk vehicle. When steel prices rise, so do offers for junk cars regardless of condition. A typical sedan contains 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of steel, while trucks and SUVs weigh more. The live scrap price tracker below shows current Florida market rates. These prices shift based on global steel demand, so getting quotes when prices are up can mean an extra $50 to $100 in your pocket.
Florida Junk Car Laws and Title Requirements
Last reviewed 2026-10-05 against Florida state sources. Fees and forms change; the official links below are authoritative.
| Who issues titles | FLHSMV holds the title record, but you file at a county tax collector office or an approved license plate agent. source |
|---|---|
| Duplicate title form and fee | Form HSMV 82101. $75.25 for an electronic title, plus $2.50 to print paper and $10 for fast title. source |
| Can you sell without a title? | Yes, on HSMV 82137 to a licensed salvage dealer or registered metals recycler, if under $1,000 and 10+ model years old. source |
| Notary required? | No. Florida title forms are signed under penalty of perjury; a notary is only one option for verifying a VIN. source |
| Odometer disclosure required | Yes. Model year 2011 or newer is exempt after 20 years; model year 2010 or older is exempt after 10. source |
| Who keeps the license plates | You do. The plate is issued to the owner, and the seller must remove it; moving it to another car costs $4.50. source |
| Deadline to report the sale | 30 days. The seller files HSMV 82050; a buyer who titles late pays a $20 penalty under s. 319.23(6). source |
| Abandoned / inoperable vehicle statute | s. 715.07 for private property, where the owner authorizes the tow; s. 705.103 requires a 5-day posted notice on public land. source |
| Salvage or junk title trigger | Uninsured: repairs at 80% of replacement value. Any insurer payout to replace the car is a total loss, percentage or not. source |
| Catalytic converter sale limits | Only a registered secondary metals recycler may buy a detached converter. A converter still on the car is exempt. source |
Where Florida Title Work Actually Happens
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles keeps the title record, but you rarely deal with the state directly. Under s. 319.32(2)(b) the $4.25 application service charge goes to the county tax collector handling it, and tax collectors may contract with private license plate agents that add charges. Every FLHSMV title form is headed “submit this form to your local tax collector office.”
Signing the Car Over and Filing HSMV 82050
You fill the transfer section in with the buyer, price, date and mileage. Odometer disclosure runs on a model-year split: s. 319.225(4) exempts a 2011 or newer vehicle only after 20 years, and a 2010 or older vehicle after 10. Then file form HSMV 82050, the Notice of Sale, which s. 319.22(2)(b) requires within 30 days and which caps your civil liability. Your buyer has 30 days from delivery to apply for a title before s. 319.23(6) adds a $20 penalty. Take the plate off first; s. 320.0609 issues plates to owners, not vehicles, and charges $4.50 to move one.
Replacing a Lost Florida Title
A lost, stolen or damaged certificate is replaced on form HSMV 82101 (Rev. 01/13/21) at a tax collector office with photo ID. The published fee is $75.25 for an electronic title: $70 by statute, $4.25 service charge, $1 security materials. Paper adds $2.50, fast title $10. A lien does not block the duplicate; it just goes to the lienholder unless they countersign the release box.
No Title at All: Derelict Certificate or Bonded Title
A scrap car with no paperwork has two routes out. Form HSMV 82137 covers a vehicle worth under $1,000 and at least ten model years old going to a licensed salvage motor vehicle dealer or registered secondary metals recycler. You complete section 1 with a copy of your driver license; the transporter and dealer finish the rest at pickup, and the dealer takes your thumbprint if you are not the owner of record. Section 319.30(2)(c) makes the dealer report it to NMVTIS and hold it three full business days before dismantling, or ten days if a lien under three years old is on record. The certificate costs $5.50 at the counter, being the $3 title fee under s. 319.30(8)(i) plus the $2.50 service fee under s. 320.04(1)(a), and the title record is cancelled permanently. For a working title instead, s. 319.23(7) lets FLHSMV issue one against a surety bond for twice the vehicle’s value, on HSMV 82026 and HSMV 82033.
Salvage Titles and the Certificate of Destruction
Wrecked vehicles split two ways on form HSMV 82363. An uninsured vehicle is salvage once repair cost reaches 80 percent of replacement cost; an insured one is a total loss whenever the insurer pays to replace it, percentage or not. Either way the owner has 72 hours to forward the title. For a late model vehicle, seven years or newer and worth $7,500+ before the damage, 90 percent makes the department declare it unrebuildable and print a certificate of destruction instead. Older or cheaper total losses get one too when only parts or scrap value remains. It may be reassigned twice at most, and that vehicle is never titled again.
Converters, Dumped Cars and City Rules
Leave the converter bolted on and the metals rules do not apply: s. 538.26(5)(b) restricts a converter only when it is not purchased as part of a motor vehicle. Detached, s. 860.142(3) limits buyers to registered secondary metals recyclers, and s. 538.26(6) bars the recycler from processing or moving it for ten business days. For a car dumped on your property, s. 715.07 lets you authorize the tow yourself once the tow-away-zone sign has stood 24 hours; the towing firm, not you, notifies police within 30 minutes. On public land it is s. 705.103, which requires a five-day posted notice. Cape Coral goes further, allowing an inoperable or unregistered vehicle only inside a fully enclosed structure.
Official Florida sources
- FLHSMV Fees — Title, Registration and Record Fees
- HSMV 82101 — Application for Duplicate or Lost in Transit/Reassignment for a Motor Vehicle, Mobile Home or Vessel Title Certificate
- HSMV 82137 — Application for an Original/Duplicate Derelict Motor Vehicle Certificate and Request to Cancel Title
- HSMV 82363 — Application for Salvage Title or Certificate of Destruction
- Selling a Vehicle in Florida — FLHSMV Consumer Education
- City of Cape Coral — Common Code Violations (inoperable and unregistered vehicles)
Cities We Buy Junk Cars in Florida
Florida is 67 counties and a long drive from end to end. Pensacola is closer to Mobile than to Miami, and we price pickups that way. Coverage runs the I-10 Panhandle and Big Bend through Tallahassee, the First Coast around Jacksonville, the I-4 corridor linking Tampa, Orlando and the Space Coast, the Gulf counties of Lee, Charlotte and Collier, the Treasure Coast, and the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach block in the southeast. Two markets have their own pages here, Cape Coral in Lee County and Lakeland in Polk County. Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale are served areas on the same terms, along with the smaller towns between them.
The shape of the state does more scheduling work here than population does. Monroe County is the extreme case: US 1 and the Card Sound toll road are the only ways off the island chain, so a Marathon or Key Largo car rides north to a mainland yard and we price that run in before quoting. Inland Polk and Hardee pickups are the opposite problem, long but uncongested. The underbody is the other Florida variable. A car that spent twenty years between Ocala and Naples has never met a salted road, so frames, subframes and brake lines usually come off straight, and we weigh that in the offer. Saltwater flooding is the one thing that cancels the advantage outright, and after a surge season there is a lot of it on the Gulf side.
🏙️ Lakeland
Don’t see your city? We serve all of Florida—call 1-800-935-8652 to confirm pickup at your location.
Frequently Asked Questions — Selling a Junk Car in Florida
Can I sell a junk car in Florida if the title is gone?
Yes, and Florida has a form built for it. If the vehicle is worth under $1,000 and is at least ten model years old, you and a licensed salvage motor vehicle dealer complete HSMV 82137, the derelict motor vehicle certificate application, and you attach a legible copy of your driver license. If you are not the owner of record, the dealer also takes a right thumbprint. FLHSMV then cancels the title record permanently.
What does a duplicate Florida title cost right now?
It is $75.25 for an electronic title. You file HSMV 82101 at a county tax collector office with photo identification. Printing and mailing a paper certificate adds $2.50, and same-day fast title service adds $10 on top of that. A recorded lien does not stop the duplicate from being issued, but it is mailed to the lienholder unless the lienholder countersigns the release box on the form.
Do I have to report the mileage on a 2004 car in Florida?
No. Section 319.225(4) splits the rule by model year: a 2010 or older vehicle stops needing odometer disclosure after ten years, and a 2011 or newer vehicle stops after twenty. A 2004 is well past its cutoff. Disclosure also never applies to a vehicle rated over 16,000 pounds GVWR or to anything that is not self-propelled, such as a utility trailer.
Who keeps the license plate when the tow truck takes the car?
You keep it. Florida issues the plate to the owner rather than the vehicle, and section 320.0609(2)(a) makes the seller remove it before disposing of the car. You can move it to another vehicle in the same classification for a $4.50 transfer fee or hand it back at a tax collector office. Leaving it bolted on keeps the registration, and the exposure, in your name.
What happens if I skip the Notice of Sale?
You stay on the hook. Section 319.22(2)(b) gives you 30 days after delivering the vehicle to notify FLHSMV, and form HSMV 82050 is what satisfies that notice. Until it is filed, the state record still ties your registration to the car, so tolls, citations and civil claims arising from the buyer's use can come back to you. Filing it also strips your registration off the vehicle.
Can I take the catalytic converter off and sell it separately?
In Florida, almost certainly not. The Catalytic Converter Antitheft Act at section 860.142(3)(a) bars anyone but a registered secondary metals recycler from knowingly buying a detached converter. Under 860.142(4)(a)4. and (4)(b), possessing one without proof of ownership is a third-degree felony unless you are a registered recycler, a salvage motor vehicle dealer, or exempt under section 538.22. A converter still bolted to the car is off that restricted list. Price the whole vehicle instead, on 1-800-935-8652.
From Jacksonville down I-95 to Miami and across I-4 through Orlando to Tampa, Florida is one of our highest-volume states, and coastal humidity makes acting early worth real money on any car sitting outside. Panhandle pickups from Pensacola to Tallahassee run on the same free-towing terms.