Sell your car in Portland: running, wrecked or check-engine light on
Get a real cash offer and free pickup, from the Old Port to the towns around Portland. The local parts of a sale are below: the check-engine question Cumberland County's inspection raises, what City Hall asks your buyer for, and what a winter parking ban costs a car that won't start.
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From the offer to City Hall
- Lock in an offer. Use the form or call. If the check-engine light is on, our guide to selling a car with engine problems explains what the usual causes mean for a sale.
- Pickup where it's parked. A side street on the peninsula, a driveway or a lot: the pickup is free and we come to you.
- Keep the old registration. When you register your next car at City Hall, Portland's Treasury asks for the previous registration of a car you got rid of if you want to move its plates or its excise credit.
Where we pick up around Portland
Free pickup covers all of Portland, from the Old Port and the rest of the peninsula east and south of I-295 to the neighborhoods beyond it, and we come to you in the towns around the city too. South Portland and Scarborough get pickups every day. Westbrook, Cape Elizabeth, Gorham and Windham are standard stops, and so are Falmouth and Yarmouth up the coast.
Car parked on the street until pickup? Portland sends ban alerts by text and email: text PortlandParkingBan to 38276, or call the ban hotline at 207-879-0300. Downtown, a limited "yellow zone" ban usually follows the night after a citywide one in a major storm. The city's Elm Street and Spring Street garages charge a $3 ban rate if you enter after 5 p.m. and leave by 8 a.m.
Cash for your car in Portland
A car that won't start is a winter problem in Portland if it lives on the street. A citywide parking ban covers every street in the city, normally from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and a car left out can be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense to a private impound lot. The city's parking ban page puts the tow at $150. The ticket is $130 as of December 2025, cut to $40 once the car is towed. Add $80 if the tow needs special equipment, especially for electric and all-wheel-drive cars.
Cash for cars in Portland, ME covers those cars too: old, wrecked or dead at the curb, they get a cash offer and free pickup where they sit. A car that has spent its last winter on a peninsula street can be sold as a junk car. The city's snow-ban lots and garages only help a car that can be driven there.
If yours can't be driven there because the transmission slips or has lost reverse, selling a car with a bad transmission covers fixing it versus selling it as is. For crash damage, or a car the insurer has declared a total loss, see selling an accident-damaged car and selling a totaled car.
Portland's car offices: where and when
- •Portland registers cars at the Treasury Office, Room 102 on the first floor of City Hall, 389 Congress St. The registration line is 207-874-8491, and City Hall is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays (city source)
- •Treasury takes cash, checks made out to the City of Portland, and debit or credit cards, which carry a 2.65% processing fee with a $3 minimum (city source)
- •The Maine BMV (DMV) branch in the city is at 125 Presumpscot St., open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays; another branch is at 200 Expedition Drive in Scarborough, open until 4:30 p.m. (state source)
Asked by Portland sellers
If I sell to a private buyer who lives in Portland, where do they register the car?
At the Treasury Office in City Hall, which is Portland's town office for car registrations; the Maine BMV (DMV) branch listed above is the state's office in the city. For a car bought in a private sale, the city asks for the original title, a bill of sale, current insurance and the mileage. Its bill of sale has to show the year, make, model, serial number, mileage, date of sale, price and who bought the car, signed by seller and buyer. You don't need a trip to City Hall or the BMV yourself to sell.
Do I get my Portland excise tax back after I sell?
Not as a refund. Under the City of Portland Excise Tax Credits Policy, the excise you paid this registration year becomes a credit toward the excise on your next vehicle, and credit you don't use isn't paid back; it stays with you until that registration year ends. In the last four months of the registration year the credit is capped at half of what you paid, and each transfer costs $3.
My check-engine light is on. Can I still sell my car in Portland?
Yes. The light matters here because of Maine DEP's enhanced inspection for gas-powered cars registered in Cumberland County: models from 1974 on get a gas cap pressure test, and 1996 and newer models get an onboard diagnostics check. Since January 2001, a car that fails the diagnostics check has to be repaired before it gets a safety sticker. None of that has to happen before a sale. A car that can't pass, or whose sticker has already run out, still gets a real offer.
What do I do about my E-ZPass when the car is picked up?
Take the tag out first. The Maine Turnpike's E-ZPass FAQ says to remove it when a car is transported, because the transporter pays the tolls for that trip. A windshield sticker tag stops working once it's peeled off, so it can't move to your next car. Then update the plates on your account. The E-ZPass Customer Service Center is at 2360 Congress Street, off Turnpike Exit 46, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, or call 1-888-682-7277.
Our Maine selling guide has the statewide steps: signing the title, the bill of sale and what happens to your plates.