Sell your car in Bangor: running, rusted out or dead in the driveway
This page covers the Bangor side of a car sale: what the Treasury Office at City Hall and the Griffin Road BMV branch ask of whoever registers the car next, what the city’s code says about a car that no longer runs, and what happens to the excise tax you paid this year. Pickup is free across Bangor and the towns around it.
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Where a car sold in Bangor gets registered next
- Excise first, at City Hall. Bangor’s town office for vehicles is the Treasury Office on the first floor of City Hall, 73 Harlow Street. A Bangor resident who buys a car in a private sale pays the excise tax there. The title application and sales form the state will ask for are available at the same counter.
- Then the state branch. The city does not complete private-sale registrations. After paying the excise, the buyer finishes at the Maine BMV (DMV) branch on Griffin Road.
- Moving your plates to your next car? Keep the yellow registration from the car you sold and bring it to the Treasury Office. The city uses it to decide whether those plates can go on the new car.
Where we pick up around Bangor
Pickup starts in Bangor (04401) and takes in the towns around it on the same trip: Brewer (04412) over the river, Orono (04473), Old Town, Hampden, Hermon, Holden, Veazie and Glenburn. Farther out, in places like Lincoln, Dover-Foxcroft or Downeast, it depends on the distance and the vehicle. Ask with your location. The answer is yes more often than not, and either way you’ll hear straight whether the trip works.
Car parked downtown? On-street spots in the city’s Downtown Parking Management District are time-limited, from 15 minutes to four hours. If that’s where the car is, say so when you set up the pickup.
Cash for your car in Bangor
Bangor’s code enforcement office is plain about junk cars at home. Its property maintenance checklist says a property should be free of “outdoor storage of inoperable, unregistered, dismantled or extensively damaged vehicles.” The city says it gets hundreds of calls a year from residents with property maintenance concerns. A truck parked for good behind the house, or a car that quit in the driveway and let its registration lapse, fits that description.
It can be sold as it sits. Trucks with frame rot usually still get an offer, though the rot limits the price. A car that won’t run is priced for its condition, and pickup brings the right equipment to load it. If it’s past fixing, you can sell a junk car from a Bangor driveway the same way.
Not sure it’s past fixing? Selling a car with a blown head gasket and selling a car with a bad transmission put the repair bill next to selling it as it sits, and selling a damaged car explains what a buyer checks after a crash.
Before you go to the Bangor BMV branch
- •The branch has been at 396 Griffin Road, Suite 202 since January 31, 2022, when it moved to a space with more parking. The lot is behind the building. From Maine Avenue, use the entrance between the airport shuttle lot and Griffin Road (Secretary of State)
- •It is open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and closed on holidays. The phone number is 207-942-1319, and you can book a branch appointment ahead to skip the line (Maine BMV)
- •The line can be long. The head of the BMV has called Bangor “our highest volume BMV branch, serving nearly 47,000 customers in 2021” (Secretary of State)
Asked by Bangor sellers
What will Bangor's Treasury Office ask my buyer to bring?
For a car bought in a private sale, the city asks for the title signed over to the buyer (when the car is new enough to have one) and a dated bill of sale. The bill of sale has to list the year, make, model and VIN, the buyer's and seller's names and the price. The buyer also brings proof of insurance and the current mileage. The bill of sale comes from you, so put all of that on it.
What happens to the excise tax I paid Bangor this year when I sell?
It becomes a credit toward the excise on your next vehicle, applied at the Treasury Office when you register it. Under Maine law the credit is worth up to the tax you paid this registration year. It counts whether the car was sold or junked, and each transfer costs $3. In the last four months of the registration year, it is capped at half. Maine lets each city decide whether to refund leftover credit, so ask the Treasury Office (207-992-4220) how Bangor handles it.
I live in Brewer or Veazie. Does my excise go through Bangor City Hall?
No. Maine collects excise at the town office where the vehicle's owner lives, so your credit and your next registration go through your own town. In Brewer that is the Tax Office at Brewer City Hall. In Veazie it is the Veazie Town Office.
Can my car sit on a Bangor street overnight in winter until pickup?
Yes, unless a parking ban is on. After a trial in the 2024–2025 winter, the City Council approved overnight on-street parking in winter in May 2025. The year-round even/odd rule still applies: on even-numbered days, park on the side with even-numbered addresses. A City-wide Parking Ban means every vehicle has to move off the street, which a car that won't start can't do. The city sends parking notices through its mass alert system, so sign up before the next storm.
Signing over the title follows Maine law, which our Maine page walks through.