Cash for wrecked and totaled cars

After a crash the car usually ends up in one of three places: a body shop, a tow yard, or your driveway with a crumpled fender and a warning light. If the repair estimate is more than the car is worth, selling it as it is can be the simplest way out. We buy wrecked cars in any state, from a dented quarter panel to a front end that’s gone.

Before you call: the insurance question

This is the step people skip. If there is an open insurance claim, find out who will own the car when it is settled.

• The insurer pays out the full value. Usually the insurer takes the car and the title, and then the car belongs to the insurer, not you. The Illinois “Affidavit in Lieu of Certificate of Title” (VSD 929) is a form only insurers can use after paying a total-loss claim, which tells you the insurer handles that title paperwork, not you.
• You keep the car. Some settlements let the owner keep the wreck. Ask the insurer exactly what paperwork you will hold afterward. A salvage certificate is on Illinois’ list of ownership documents a scrap buyer can accept.
• No claim at all. Then it’s like any other junk car sale: title or agreed papers, two IDs, and we buy it.

Where wrecked cars usually are

At a repair shop. We can take it from there with the shop’s permission once the bill is paid.

At a private tow yard or a city pound. You have to get the car released before anyone can buy it. In Chicago, a city tow can end up at the pounds at 103rd and Doty Avenue; our Doty Avenue pound article covers what it costs to get a car out and how fast storage adds up.

At home. The easiest case. Note that several of the villages we serve treat a wrecked car left in view as a nuisance, some after 48 hours.

What changes the offer on a wreck

A wrecked car is valued the same way as any junk car, with damage taken into account: size and weight, what’s missing or destroyed, whether it still runs, and the papers. Tell us where the impact was and whether the airbags went off. More detail is in what a junkyard pays for a car.

Loading and payment

The driver loads the car where it sits, crumpled panels and all, so you don’t need to make it drivable. You are paid at pickup by cash, Zelle or Cash App, and the tow is free. If the wreck also left you without the title (it happens when the paperwork was in the glove box), start with selling without a title.

Towns we cover

We buy wrecked cars across our area, including Chicago’s Hegewisch by the Bishop Ford, Glenwood off the Calumet Expressway and Chicago Heights on Lincoln Highway. If the car simply won’t start after the crash, see non-running cars; for the pickup itself, see free towing.