Cash for Cars in Texas: Sell Your Car, Truck or SUV

Licensed used auto parts recyclers, dealers, and online car buyers like CashSellCar, which buys junk, damaged and running cars, trucks and SUVs across Texas and tows them free. Whoever you sell to, you sign the title over to them, and you file a free VTR-346 transfer notice with TxDMV within 30 days.

It depends on why there is no title. If you are the owner on record and the title is lost, order a certified copy on form VTR-34: $2 by mail or $5.45 in person at a TxDMV Regional Service Center. It is not available online or at the county tax office. If you bought the car and never got a title, the route is a bonded title, starting with the VTR-130-SOF eligibility check ($15). The only no-title sale in Texas law is narrow: a licensed parts recycler may buy a vehicle 13 or more years old that has not been registered for 7 or more years, for parts or scrap only, and the title is then cancelled for good (Transportation Code §501.098). Tell us your situation and we will tell you which applies.

On the back of the Texas title, in the seller's assignment section. Sign it, fill in the date of sale, and write in the odometer reading if the vehicle is model year 2011 or newer. No notary is needed. Give the signed title to the buyer when the vehicle is delivered, along with a signed Form 130-U showing the price.

Form 130-U is the buyer's title application, filed with the county tax assessor-collector within 30 days of the sale. As the seller, you sign the seller section and write in the sales price. TxDMV recommends that the seller give the buyer a signed 130-U, although its FAQ says the seller's signature is not strictly required. Fill in the odometer reading if the vehicle is model year 2011 or newer. The buyer pays the title fee, which is $28 to $33 depending on the county.

Texas does not require a bill of sale when you hand over a signed title, but write one anyway and keep a copy. Put in the date of sale, the price, the year, make, model and VIN, the odometer reading, and the names and signatures of both seller and buyer. It is your own record of when the vehicle left your hands.

No. In a private sale neither the title assignment nor Form 130-U is notarized. You sign the back of the title and fill in the date of sale and the odometer reading. A notary is only needed for certain affidavits, such as the VTR-262 heirship affidavit.

VTR-346 is the Vehicle Transfer Notification. Filing it tells TxDMV you sold the vehicle, so the buyer is presumed to be the owner for parking tickets, toll bills and anything else involving the vehicle after the sale. It is free, you file it online at TxDMV.gov/VTN, and it must be in within 30 days of the sale. It does not transfer ownership, the buyer's title application does that, so file it every time.

The plates stay with you. You can move them to another vehicle of the same class, keep them, or destroy them by defacing them with permanent black ink. Texas law also says the registration sticker is removed when the vehicle is sold (Transportation Code §502.491). Take off your TxTag or EZ TAG sticker too, and remove the vehicle from your toll account.

Only the owner on record or the lienholder can order one, on form VTR-34, and there is a 30-day wait after any earlier copy. By mail it costs $2; in person at a TxDMV Regional Service Center it costs $5.45. TxDMV does not publish a processing time for mail requests, so if you are in a hurry, go in person. If a lien is still recorded, bring the original lien release.

A bonded title is how you get a title for a vehicle you own but have no title for, and that is not recorded in your name. You send the VTR-130-SOF Statement of Fact, a photo ID and a $15 fee to a TxDMV Regional Service Center. If TxDMV approves it, you buy a surety bond for 1.5 times the vehicle's value within a year, then apply for the title at your county tax office within 30 days of buying the bond.

Yes. Selling a car in Texas does not require an inspection. Safety inspections for regular passenger vehicles ended on January 1, 2025. Emissions testing still applies in 17 counties, including Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis and El Paso, but that is part of the buyer's registration, not the sale. We buy cars that failed emissions or have warning lights on.

Yes. Tell us what is missing when you ask for an offer: engine, transmission, catalytic converter, wheels or body panels. Missing parts lower the offer, but an accurate description means the offer holds at pickup.

Yes, once the lien is released. The lender must release it within 10 days of receiving the payoff. With a paper title, the lender signs the release or sends a release letter. With an electronic title, TxDMV mails a paper title to the owner once the lender releases the lien, so allow for that before pickup. Tell us about the loan when you ask for an offer.

Usually, yes. If the estate is not going through probate, the heirs can use form VTR-262, the Affidavit of Heirship for a Motor Vehicle; every heir's signature is notarized, and it is filed with a 130-U at the county tax office. If the estate is in probate, letters testamentary or letters of administration are used instead.

You are paid by check at pickup, when the vehicle is loaded. Towing is free across Texas and nothing is deducted for it, whether the vehicle runs or not.

No. We buy all types of cars, trucks and SUVs in Texas: junk, wrecked, flood- or hail-damaged, non-running, and vehicles that still drive. The vehicles on this page range from a $800 2010 Dodge Charger SXT to a $2,300 2010 Toyota Corolla S.