Cash for Junk Cars in Missouri | Free Towing Statewide
1-800-We-Junk-Cars buys junk, damaged, and non-running vehicles throughout Missouri. We serve Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia, Independence, and every town in between. Free towing statewide, same-day or next-day pickup in most areas, and cash paid directly to you when we pick up the vehicle. Whether your car sits in the Ozarks or along the Mississippi River corridor, we handle everything from quote to payment.
How Selling Your Junk Car Works in Missouri
Get Your Quote
Call us or use our online form to describe your vehicle. Tell us the year, make, model, mileage, and overall condition. Missouri residents get instant quotes based on current market values. We buy cars in any condition: running, wrecked, flood-damaged, or sitting for years on your property.
Schedule Free Pickup
Once you accept our offer, pick a time that works for you. We tow for free throughout Missouri, from urban St. Louis neighborhoods to rural farms in the Bootheel region. Most pickups happen within 24 to 48 hours. Our drivers come equipped to haul vehicles that no longer run.
Get Paid Cash
At pickup, our driver checks that the vehicle condition matches your description, completes the Missouri title transfer paperwork with you, and hands you cash on the spot. The whole transaction takes about 15 to 30 minutes. You walk away with money in hand and no car taking up space.
What Is Your Missouri Junk Car Worth?
Missouri junk car values typically range from $150 to $800 for complete vehicles, with some higher-value models fetching $1,000 or more. Your offer depends on the vehicle’s weight, year, make, model, and current condition. Running vehicles with desirable parts bring higher prices. Missouri’s climate creates moderate rust concerns, not as bad as the Upper Midwest but worse than southern states. Flood damage from Missouri River and Mississippi River events affects many vehicles in this region. Trucks and SUVs popular in rural Missouri often hold parts value longer than sedans.
The scrap steel market sets the baseline value for junk vehicles. When steel prices rise, so do offers for junk cars. A typical mid-size sedan weighs about 3,000 pounds, while full-size trucks and SUVs weigh 4,500 to 6,000 pounds. This weight directly affects scrap value. The live tracker below shows current scrap metal rates so you can understand the market when evaluating your offer. Keep in mind that your final offer includes labor, towing costs, and processing, not just raw metal value.
Missouri Junk Car Laws and Title Requirements
Last reviewed 2026-10-05 against Missouri state sources. Fees and forms change; the official links below are authoritative.
| Who issues titles | The DOR Motor Vehicle Bureau in Jefferson City. The counters are contracted fee offices under RSMo 136.055, not state-run DMVs. source |
|---|---|
| Duplicate title form and fee | Form 108 with the DUPLICATE box marked and the signature notarized: $8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing fee. source |
| Can you sell without a title? | Yes, to a scrap metal operator on Form 5423, if the vehicle is inoperable and at least ten model years old. source |
| Notary required? | Not on the title assignment. Required on a duplicate Form 108, a Form 4809 lien release, and the buyer's Form SHP-498. source |
| Odometer disclosure required | Model year 2011 and newer, until the vehicle turns twenty. Model year 2010 and older and ten-plus years old are exempt. source |
| Who keeps the license plates | You do. RSMo 301.140.1 expires the registration at transfer and has the owner remove the plates before possession changes. source |
| Deadline to report the sale | Thirty days, on Form 5049 or Form 1957. Exempt: salvage title, junking certificate, sale to a dealer, out-of-state buyer. source |
| Abandoned / inoperable vehicle statute | RSMo 304.155 and 304.157: ten or twenty-four hours on highways, forty-eight hours on private property without consent. source |
| Salvage or junk title trigger | Repairs over eighty percent of fair market value within six model years. A junking certificate ends the title record permanently. source |
| Catalytic converter sale limits | Detached converters only at the buyer's fixed place of business, logged with your ID and plate number, uncut for five business days. source |
Who Issues a Missouri Title, and What the $9 Buys
Missouri titles come from the Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicle Bureau, but the counter you use is a contracted fee office. RSMo 136.055 puts those contracts out to competitive bid and sets the agent’s charge at nine dollars per title and two dollars for notary service, above the $8.50 state fee.
No Notary on the Assignment, One on the Duplicate
No notary is needed to sign a Missouri title over: the Department’s Selling a Vehicle page says seller and purchaser signatures in the assignment area do not need to be notarized. Three other papers do: Form 108 as a duplicate application, Form 4809 when a lender releases a paid-off loan, and the Highway Patrol affidavit. A duplicate costs $8.50 plus the $9 processing fee, a license office notarizes it for $2, and mail-in applications average four to six weeks. RSMo 301.190.6 allows $5 more for expeditious handling.
The Inspection Is the Seller’s Bill Unless the Car Is Junk
RSMo 307.380.1 requires every used vehicle of the type Missouri inspects to be fully inspected at the seller’s expense immediately prior to sale, whatever certificate it already carries. For a dead car that is pointless, so subsection 2 exempts junk, salvage and rebuilding sales. The price is paperwork from the buyer: a notarized Junk, Salvage, or Rebuilding Affidavit (Form SHP-498) that you keep. Emissions reaches only St. Louis City and St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties, where the Department exempts junk and salvage sales anyway.
Two Legal Ways to Sell Without the Title
RSMo 301.227.9 lets a scrap metal operator take a vehicle with no title when it is inoperable and at least ten model years old. Inoperable is defined narrowly there: rusted, wrecked, worn out, extensively damaged, dismantled and mechanically inoperative. The operator files Form 5423 with a copy of your state ID and checks for a recorded lien unless the car is twenty model years old. Subsection 2 also lets the director issue a junking certificate on a bill of sale for a vehicle twenty-six or more model years old, once the Highway Patrol states by letter it is not stolen. Practice is narrower than the statute there: the titling manual tells license offices to take a bill of sale only for a 1954 or older model, so call the Motor Vehicle Bureau at (573) 526-3669 first. Otherwise RSMo 301.210.4 treats the sale as presumed fraudulent and void. Springfield keeps a shorter clock: seven days for a junked vehicle on private property.
Plates, Mileage, and Form 5049
RSMo 301.140.1 expires your registration at transfer and has you pull the plates before possession changes. Mileage disclosure follows model year, not age: required on model year 2011 and newer until the vehicle is twenty, waived on 2010 and older cars at least ten years old. Then report the sale on Form 5049 or Form 1957 within thirty days under RSMo 301.196. The Department puts the fine at up to $200, though RSMo 301.440 allows $500. Salvage titles, junking certificates, dealer sales and out-of-state buyers are exempt. Scrap it yourself and the manual has you write “Destroyed by (name)” and the date on the title face, then mail it to the Destroyed Vehicles Unit.
Abandoned Vehicles Run on Chapter 304
There is no single statewide 48-hour rule. RSMo 304.155 lets an officer order a tow after ten hours on an interstate or state highway inside an urbanized area, twenty-four hours outside one. On private property RSMo 304.157 sets forty-eight hours for a law-enforcement tow; an owner acting alone needs posted signs, ten hours on owner-occupied residential property of four units or fewer, or ninety-six hours elsewhere. Then RSMo 304.156 gives thirty days from the mailed notice before title passes to whoever holds the car, free of prior liens. Columbia layers its own thirty-day abatement notice on top.
Official Missouri sources
- Missouri Department of Revenue — Selling a Vehicle
- Missouri Department of Revenue — Missing Titles / Applying for a Duplicate Title
- Form 108 — Application for Missouri Title and License
- Form 5423 — Bill of Sale For Scrap Metal Operators, Vehicles Ten Years or Older Without Title
- Missouri State Highway Patrol — Junk, Salvage, or Rebuilding Affidavit (Form SHP-498)
- Missouri Revised Statutes Section 301.227 — Salvage certificate, junking certificate, scrap metal operator purchases
Cities We Buy Junk Cars in Missouri
Missouri is 114 counties plus the independent City of St. Louis, and we quote in all of them. Columbia sits where Interstate 70 crosses US 63 in the middle of the state, roughly equidistant from the two big metros, and Springfield anchors the southwest on the Springfield Plateau where Interstate 44 meets US 65. Kansas City and its eastern suburbs, Independence and Lee’s Summit, are served areas on routes we already run, as are O’Fallon out on the western edge of the St. Louis metro, St. Louis itself, and Joplin down near the Oklahoma line. None of those six have a page here. Beyond the metros we work the Missouri River valley, the Lake of the Ozarks, the Mississippi towns below Cape Girardeau and the Bootheel farm country.
The detail that catches Missouri sellers is the inspection rule. State law bills the seller for a fresh safety inspection on the sale of any used vehicle of the type Missouri inspects, which is a dead end for a car that will not start, so the junk or salvage route is usually the cleaner paperwork rather than the lazy one. Geography shows up in the metal. Cars that spend winters on the salted stretches of Interstate 70 and Interstate 44 come to us with rusted rocker panels and brake lines, while vehicles out of the river bottoms more often carry flood and silt damage.
🏙️ Columbia
Don’t see your city? We serve all of Missouri. Call 1-800-935-8652 to confirm pickup at your location.
Frequently Asked Questions — Selling a Junk Car in Missouri
Does my signature on a Missouri car title have to be notarized?
No. The Department of Revenue's Selling a Vehicle page says sellers and purchasers print their names and sign the assignment area on the back of the title, and that those signatures do not need to be notarized. What does need a notary is narrower: a Form 108 duplicate-title application, a Form 4809 lien release from a lender, and the buyer's junk and salvage affidavit. A license office will notarize for two dollars.
How much is a replacement Missouri title, and how long is the wait?
Seventeen dollars and fifty cents. Form 108 carries an $8.50 duplicate title fee plus the $9 processing fee that every Missouri fee office charges. Mark the DUPLICATE box, state the reason, and have your signature witnessed by a notary public. Mail-in title applications average four to six weeks, and the Department's online status inquiry form is meant for applications filed four or more weeks ago. RSMo 301.190.6 allows five dollars more for expeditious handling.
Can you buy my car in Missouri if the title is gone for good?
Often yes. RSMo 301.227.9 lets a scrap metal operator acquire a vehicle with no title once it is at least ten model years old and inoperable as that subsection defines the word. It runs on Form 5423, with a copy of your state ID matching the seller named on that bill of sale, not the owner of record, plus your certification that you have legal authority to sell. Under twenty model years the operator checks for a lien. Call 1-800-935-8652 with the model year and condition.
Do I need a safety inspection to sell a junk car in Missouri?
No, provided it is going for junk, salvage or rebuilding. RSMo 307.380.1 otherwise makes the seller pay for a full inspection immediately before any used vehicle sale. Subsection 2 exempts junk and salvage sales, but the purchaser must give you a notarized Junk, Salvage, or Rebuilding Affidavit, Form SHP-498, which you keep. The car cannot be registered again in Missouri until someone passes an inspection.
Do I have to report the sale to the state, and what happens if I skip it?
Yes, within thirty days, using Form 5049, the Notice of Sale or Transfer. The Department puts the fine for skipping it at up to two hundred dollars, though the chapter penalty in RSMo 301.440 reaches five hundred, and it becomes a class C misdemeanor if omitted to help the buyer avoid titling. Form 1957 works in place of Form 5049. Until the buyer titles it, you stay the last owner of record.
Does my old Missouri car still need an odometer reading on the title?
Probably not. Missouri ties disclosure to model year rather than age. Mileage must be recorded on model year 2011 and newer vehicles until they turn twenty years old, and model year 2010 or older vehicles that are at least ten years old are exempt, as is anything with a gross vehicle weight rating over 16,000 pounds. Most of the cars we buy in Missouri clear every one of those tests.