Sell your car in Aurora: running, wrecked or won't start
Aurora's property code limits how many cars a house can keep parked outside, and how long one that doesn't run can sit there. If a car of yours is over either limit, or you just don't need it, you can get a cash offer and have it picked up free anywhere in the Fox Valley.
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From the form to an empty spot
- Name the lender, if there is one. With a loan, the payoff is coordinated with your lender and you get whatever equity is left. With a lease, it depends on the leasing company, since some allow third-party buyouts and some don't; tell us which one and you'll get a straight answer first.
- Pick the pickup time. The offer works the same anywhere in the valley, and the pickup is scheduled around your day, at the address where the car is parked.
- Take the car off your I-PASS account. An I-PASS Sticker Tag isn't made to move to another car, and the Tollway charges your balance each time a transponder or vehicle on your account uses the tollway, including the Aurora Toll Plaza on I-88. Update the vehicles on your account online or at 1-800-824-7277; the Tollway also has an in-person customer service center at its Downers Grove headquarters.
Where we pick up around Aurora
Pickup is free anywhere in Aurora, a city on the Fox River that reaches into four counties: Kane, DuPage, Kendall and Will. The same routes run through neighboring Naperville, so an address there doesn't add a day, and they also cover Oswego, Montgomery, North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Yorkville and Plainfield. Whether the car is in a cul-de-sac off Route 59 or a block from downtown, it's one form, one offer and one pickup window.
Don't move the extra car to the street to wait. Under Aurora's city code, a car left in one spot on a street for 48 hours or more can be towed to a public garage on police orders, and the owner pays for the removal and the storage.
How many cars an Aurora house can keep outside
At a single-family or two-family home that isn't a licensed rental, Aurora's property code, last amended in July 2026, allows three vehicles per unit parked on the property. Cars kept in a garage don't count toward that, and a visitor's car is exempt for up to six hours. Where the side or rear yard has a proper parking surface, the city can approve up to two more.
The lawn doesn't work as overflow parking. The same code bans parking on grass or dirt, and it allows front-yard parking only where the zoning ordinance does.
Cash for your car in Aurora
Aurora's code calls a car inoperable once it has gone at least seven days with its engine, wheels or other parts removed, or so damaged that it can't be driven under its own power. A car kept in a closed garage doesn't count. Outside, a car that is inoperable, unregistered or unlicensed can stay on a home's lot for no more than 30 days in any 12 months, and only one at a time. If an inspector finds an inoperable car, the notice gives five days to get it off the lot; after that, the police department can remove it.
Cash for junk cars in Aurora doesn't depend on the car starting. The offer is made on the car as it sits, and the junk car pickup is free.
When crash damage or a blown engine is what keeps it off the road, selling a wrecked car and selling a car with a blown engine cover what a buyer checks and what you have to tell them. If your insurer declared it a total loss, selling a totaled car explains the salvage title that comes next.
Two Aurora-area stops worth knowing
- •Aurora's Division of Property Standards, which handles "abandoned cars or cars parked on grass", is at 77 S. Broadway, 1st floor. It is open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (630) 256-3770 (source)
- •As of September 2026, the state emissions test station closest to Aurora's 60505 ZIP is 4.39 miles away, at 435 Weston Ridge Rd. in Naperville (source)
Asked by Aurora sellers
Where do I replace a lost title in Aurora?
At the Aurora DMV+, the Illinois Secretary of State facility at 970 N. Lake St., Suite B. Duplicate and corrected titles are on its list of vehicle services. Check its hours and appointment rules in the state's facility finder before you go. In neighboring Naperville, the Secretary of State facility is at 1771 W. Diehl Road.
Why do I get emissions test notices at an Aurora address?
Because no Aurora ZIP code is carved out of the test area. As of September 2026, the emissions law takes in all of DuPage County and carves only listed ZIP codes out of Kane, Kendall and Will. Sugar Grove's and Yorkville's are on those lists, but none of Aurora's are. Once you sell, the notices stop when the Secretary of State's record shows you no longer own the car.
What does it cost if Aurora has to clean up a junk nuisance itself?
The same part of the property code that handles inoperable cars gives the city a lien for the cost of the cleanup and the paperwork, such as inspections, letters and title searches. It adds an offender fee that rises each time the city has to step in within the same calendar year: $50, then $150, $250 and $500.
Where can I meet a private buyer safely in Aurora?
The Aurora Police Department set aside four parking spots at its station, 1200 E. Indian Trail, for internet sales. In a March 2018 post, the department said they are the first four spots divided by a median in the center row of the eastern-most lot, signed "Internet Purchase Exchange Location," lit and video recorded. If you sell to us instead, the driver comes to your address and pickup is free.
Title and plate rules are set by the state, and our Illinois selling page covers them.