Cash for Junk Cars in Minnesota | Free Towing Statewide
1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys junk, damaged, and non-running vehicles throughout Minnesota. We serve the Twin Cities metro, Rochester, Duluth, St. Cloud, and every town in between. Free towing, same-day or next-day pickup, and cash payment when we pick up your car. We buy cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans in any condition across all 87 Minnesota counties.
How Selling Your Junk Car Works in Minnesota
Get Your Quote
Call us or fill out the online form with your vehicle’s year, make, model, and condition. We’ll give you a guaranteed cash offer within minutes. Minnesota residents from Moorhead to the Iron Range get the same pricing regardless of location.
Schedule Free Pickup
Pick a time that works for you. We offer same-day and next-day appointments throughout Minnesota. Our tow trucks reach rural areas in Greater Minnesota just as easily as the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. Towing is always free.
Get Paid Cash
Our driver verifies your vehicle and handles the paperwork. You get cash on the spot before we load your car. The whole pickup takes about 15-20 minutes. No waiting for checks to clear or payment transfers.
What Is Your Minnesota Junk Car Worth?
Most junk cars in Minnesota sell for $150 to $750. Complete vehicles in better shape can reach $1,500 or more. Minnesota’s harsh winters speed up rust and corrosion, which hurts body panel value but doesn’t necessarily affect mechanical parts. Vehicles with working engines, transmissions, and catalytic converters bring higher prices. Make and model matter too—domestic trucks and SUVs typically pay more than compact sedans. Location matters less than condition, though Twin Cities vehicles often have more buyer competition.
Scrap steel prices set the floor for any junk car’s value. When steel markets run strong, even completely dead vehicles have solid baseline worth. Minnesota has a well-developed recycling network, with processors throughout the state handling end-of-life vehicles. Check the live scrap price tracker below to see current market rates.
Minnesota Junk Car Laws and Title Requirements
Last reviewed 2026-10-05 against Minnesota state sources. Fees and forms change; the official links below are authoritative.
| Who issues titles | Driver and Vehicle Services, a state division. Deputy registrars, many of them county license bureaus, can issue duplicate titles themselves. source |
|---|---|
| Duplicate title form and fee | Form PS2067A-20 (06/24); $21.50 by mail, being $7.25 duplicate, $2.25 tech surcharge, $12 filing, plus $1 at a deputy registrar. source |
| Can you sell without a title? | Inoperable and 2006 or older; 2016 or older to a licensed dealer; or any model year to a parts dealer dismantling it. source |
| Notary required? | No. Neither the title assignment nor PS2067A has a notary block. A signed lien release card needs none; a release form does. source |
| Odometer disclosure required | Model year 2011 and newer, for twenty years. Model year 2010 and older are exempt from disclosure in 2026. source |
| Who keeps the license plates | The buyer. Plates and unused registration tax pass to the new owner unless you surrender the stickers before the next registration period. source |
| Deadline to report the sale | Ten days. Return the Notice of Sale stub from the title or file the report of sale through DVS online services. source |
| Abandoned / inoperable vehicle statute | Minn. Stat. 168B.011, subd. 2, with the private-property clocks in 168B.04, subd. 2: residential property, immediately. source |
| Salvage or junk title trigger | Insurer total loss, or repair cost over 80 percent of pre-damage value. Unrepairable vehicles get a junking certificate instead. source |
| Catalytic converter sale limits | Detached used converters need the removal date and donor VIN unless EPA certified for reuse; only registered scrap dealers buy uncertified ones. source |
Who Issues a Minnesota Title, and the Ten-Day Clock
Driver and Vehicle Services, at 445 Minnesota Street in St. Paul, is the titling authority. Any of the nearly 200 deputy registrar counters, many of them county license bureaus, can take your paperwork, and most can issue a duplicate title themselves. Minn. Stat. 168A.10, subd. 1 asks two things at delivery: assign and warrant the title, and write the actual selling price on it. Within ten days, return the “Notice of Sale” portion of the certificate or send the same facts to DVS electronically; subd. 2 gives the buyer 20 days to apply.
When Minnesota Lets a Car Go Without a Title
Less often than sellers expect. Minn. Stat. 168A.1501, subd. 7 is the baseline: title plus lien releases, or a public impound lot bill of sale. Subd. 8 opens one door. A dealer licensed under section 168.27 may buy a scrap vehicle of model year 2016 or older in 2026, but only if you supply printed documentation from the commissioner that it has not been registered in over seven years, plus photo ID and a perjury statement. Subd. 9 adds a used-parts route with a seven-business-day hold and no model-year ceiling whatever. Subd. 10, clause (2) exempts an inoperable vehicle of model year 2006 or older outright.
Replacing a Lost Title: PS2067A and $21.50
The form is PS2067A, revision PS2067A-20 (06/24), authorized by Minn. Stat. 168A.09. Two statutes build the fee: 168A.29, subd. 1(a)(4) charges $7.25 plus a $2.25 technology surcharge, and 168.33, subd. 7(a)(2) adds $12 filing, subd. 7(f) another $1 at a deputy registrar. One owner’s signature suffices on a jointly titled car, there is no notary block, and no online filing exists. Subd. 7(b)(2) forbids any fee for surrendering a title for good.
Plates Stay With the Car, and Who Owes an Odometer Reading
Minnesota is not a pull-your-plates state. Under Minn. Stat. 168.15, subd. 1 your right to the plates ends on transfer, dismantling or destruction alike, and the unused tax goes to the buyer, so the plates ride off on the tow truck. Keeping that tax takes surrendering the stickers before the new registration period. For mileage, Minn. Stat. 325E.15 sets no state cutoff; it adopts 49 CFR 580 by reference, exempting model year 2010 and older and running twenty years on 2011 and newer. Damage disclosure applies to every vehicle. No inspection is needed to sell; the only DVS one is the $35 check clearing a salvage brand.
Abandoned and Junk Vehicles Under Chapter 168B
Minn. Stat. 168B.011, subd. 2 has two halves and both must be true: the car lacks vital component parts or is inoperable, and it has sat illegally over 48 hours on government property, or four hours where that land is properly posted. Private property runs far shorter under 168B.04, subd. 2: immediate impound on single-family or duplex residential and posted nonresidential land, 24 hours unposted. Section 168B.06 requires written notice in five business days; 168B.051, subd. 1 allows sale 15 days later, and subd. 1a names Minneapolis and St. Paul outright. Minneapolis chalks a street car, returns after 72 hours, and can fine the owner up to $100.
Salvage Brands, Junking Certificates and Converters
An insurer’s total loss, or repairs over 80 percent of pre-damage value, makes a car a salvage vehicle under Minn. Stat. 168A.01, subd. 17b. Section 168A.151 brands it “salvage” if late-model or high-value and “prior salvage” otherwise, or issues a junking certificate good only for possession and transport. One last trap. Minn. Stat. 325E.21, subd. 13 stops a dealer buying a detached used converter unless it carries its removal date and donor VIN and you produce the title or registration, or a law enforcement report verifying you owned the car before the converter came off. Leave it bolted on.
Official Minnesota sources
- Minnesota DVS — Duplicate Vehicle Title Application
- Application for Duplicate Title, Registration, Cab or Lien Card (PS2067A)
- Buying or Selling a Motor Vehicle — Just the Facts (DVS, March 2025)
- Minnesota DVS — Report Vehicle Sold, Donated or Removed From State
- Minnesota DVS — Salvage Vehicle Process
- Title Certification: Minnesota Titles & Transfers (DVS manual)
Cities We Buy Junk Cars in Minnesota
Minnesota is 87 counties, and the distances between them drive everything. The seven-county metro of Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota, Washington, Carver and Scott is our densest ground, and St. Paul anchors the east side of it with its own page on this site. Up US-10 and I-94, St. Cloud straddles Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties and has a page of its own too. Beyond those two we run Minneapolis and Bloomington in the metro, Rochester in the southeast bluff country, Mankato on the Minnesota River, Duluth at the head of the lake, Moorhead in the Red River Valley, and the Iron Range, Arrowhead and North Shore towns along US-169, US-2 and Highway 61 as served areas without pages.
The season decides how a rural pickup gets scheduled. MnDOT splits the state into six seasonal load-limit zones and posts spring load restrictions with at least three days’ notice; in 2026 the Metro zone was restricted March 3 to April 20 and the North zone March 20 to May 15. A heavy flatbed working a gravel township road during the thaw is subject to those postings, which is why a March pickup outside the metro sometimes lands a day later than one in Bloomington. The rest of the year the climate works on the car instead of the truck: the state spreads over 400,000 tons of road salt a season, and a vehicle that has not moved since the first November application is usually a tonnage car by spring.
🏙️ Duluth
Don’t see your city? We serve all of Minnesota—call 1-800-935-8652 to confirm pickup at your location.
Frequently Asked Questions — Selling a Junk Car in Minnesota
Can I sell my junk car in Minnesota without a title?
Sometimes, and Minn. Stat. 168A.1501 leaves three doors open. Subd. 10 exempts an inoperable vehicle of model year 2006 or older from the title rules entirely in 2026. Subd. 8 lets a dealer licensed under section 168.27 take a 2016-or-older car if you bring printed DVS documentation that it has not been registered in more than seven years. Subd. 9 carries no model-year ceiling at all: a licensed used vehicle parts dealer buying the car for dismantling needs a signed seven-day hold, photo ID and a perjury statement.
What does a duplicate Minnesota title cost, and how fast can I get one?
$21.50 by mail, and often the same day in person. The form is PS2067A, revision PS2067A-20 (06/24). The total breaks down as $7.25 for the duplicate under Minn. Stat. 168A.29, a $2.25 technology surcharge, and the $12 filing fee from 168.33, with $1 more at a deputy registrar window. Most of the nearly 200 deputy registrars print duplicates in the office; the rest send the job to the central office for mailing.
Do I take my license plates off before the tow truck leaves?
No, which surprises people who moved here from a plate-removal state. Minn. Stat. 168.15, subd. 1 ends your right to the plates on transfer, dismantling or destruction alike, and assigns the remaining registration tax to the new owner, so the plates go with the vehicle. DVS prints the same rule and notes that some exceptions apply, so ask your deputy registrar. The statutory one is narrow: surrender the stickers before the new registration period and the unused tax stays yours.
My car is a 2009. Do I still have to certify the mileage?
No. Minnesota does not write its own odometer cutoff; Minn. Stat. 325E.15 adopts the federal regulations at 49 CFR 580 by reference. Those exempt any vehicle of model year 2010 or earlier from disclosure once ten years have passed, and they require disclosure for twenty years on model year 2011 and newer. So a 2009 is exempt in 2026 while a 2012 is not. Damage disclosure is still required on every car.
How long can a dead car sit in my Minnesota driveway?
On single-family or duplex residential property, not long at all. Minn. Stat. 168B.04, subd. 2 allows immediate impound there, while the 48-hour figure people quote applies to government property under 168B.011, subd. 2. Once the car is towed, 168B.051 makes a junk or abandoned vehicle saleable 15 days after notice. In Minneapolis, a street car gets chalked, revisited after 72 hours, and can draw a fine of up to $100.
Should I cut the catalytic converter off before selling the car?
No. Minn. Stat. 325E.21, subd. 13 stops a scrap metal dealer from buying a detached used converter unless it is marked with the removal date and the donor VIN and you produce the title or registration, and subd. 12 bars unregistered buyers unless the converter is EPA certified for reuse. On a car too old to be titled or registered, subd. 13(b) wants a law enforcement report verifying your ownership before the converter came off. Payment then waits five days and arrives by check.
The Twin Cities metro is the center of our Minnesota volume, with Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud on regular routes and I-94 and I-35 carrying most of the miles. Cold snaps kill marginal batteries every winter, and a car that will not start in January is exactly the kind we quote every day. Rural and lake-country pickups are normal work here — a plowed approach is all the truck needs — and road salt is hard enough on rockers and brake lines that a vehicle that sits only loses value.