Sell your car in Silver Spring: running or not, on DC or Maryland tags
To sell your car in Silver Spring, MD, get the instant cash offer online, then have the car picked up where it's parked: a downtown garage, a street in Takoma Park or a driveway in White Oak. When the numbers say sell, we make it a same-week errand.
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From offer to handoff
- Tell us about the car and where it's parked. After you accept the offer, pickup is often within a day or two, depending on scheduling; Silver Spring, Takoma Park and Bethesda are rarely a long wait.
- Book the window. Garage, driveway, or metered street: the driver meets you where the car lives, verifies the basics, and pays on the spot.
- Let the PCS sticker lapse. If the car parked downtown on a monthly PCS sticker, don't renew it. It covers only the vehicle it's displayed on, and the county keeps no record of permits.
Where we pick up around Silver Spring
Pickup covers Silver Spring from downtown (20910) out to White Oak (20904), plus Takoma Park. Our drivers also work Wheaton and Kensington up the Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue corridors, Bethesda and Rockville, and College Park, Hyattsville and Langley Park on the Prince George's side. Apartment garages, permit zones, and metered blocks are all workable with a little notice.
On a residential permit block? Montgomery County registers each resident parking permit to the vehicle, so it can't go to the buyer or move to your next car. The county's answer for a seller is a new permit for the next car, prorated from the $20 yearly price.
When the Purple Line reaches Silver Spring
Silver Spring already has a Red Line Metro station and a MARC stop. The Purple Line adds 16 miles of light rail and 21 stations, from Bethesda through Silver Spring to College Park and New Carrollton. As of September 2026, the project puts construction at 90% complete, with passenger service set for winter 2027.
If the car mostly makes trips the train will cover, price a sale now. The instant offer gives you a number to hold against the car trade-in value a Silver Spring dealer quotes. Our guide to trade-in versus private sale walks through that choice.
Cash for your car in Silver Spring
Montgomery County limits how long a car that won't run can sit. An unregistered or inoperable vehicle can't be stored on residential property for more than 30 days, and an unregistered one can't be parked on the street. A notice of violation gives you 30 days to register, repair or remove it; after that, a citation can carry a $500 fine. The county's downtown garages allow any vehicle 14 consecutive days.
An old, damaged or dead car can be sold before that notice comes: get the offer, and the truck comes to the car. If you'd rather sell a junk car in Silver Spring than pay for one more repair, use the junk car offer.
If that next repair is a big one, selling a car with a blown engine or head gasket walks through the fix-or-sell math, and selling a car with a bad transmission does the same for slipping, no reverse, limp mode and CVT failure.
Selling a car that still has DC tags
If you moved here from the District and the car still has DC tags, DC DMV says to cancel the tag registration and surrender the tags when you sell and don't move them to another vehicle. An individual who is the primary owner can cancel online, then mark through the tag number. Old tags can go for recycling to the DC Department of Public Works' Fort Totten Transfer Station on the first Saturday of each month. Cancel the tags before the insurance, or DC charges an insurance lapse fee (DC DMV, as of September 2026). Signing over a DC title is covered in our guide to selling a car with an out-of-state title.
What parking a car downtown costs
- •A monthly PCS parking sticker for the Silver Spring district is $132. The Wayne Avenue and Town Square garages take only their own $195 sticker (MCDOT parking permits)
- •Without a permit, the county garages downtown charge $1.00 or $1.25 an hour, Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (MCDOT Silver Spring facilities)
Asked by Silver Spring sellers
Can you pick up a car from an apartment parking garage in downtown Silver Spring?
Usually, yes. Clearance height is the one real constraint for a tow truck, and downtown it varies: the county's own garages post clearances from 6'7" at the Bonifant-Dixon Garage to 8'2" at the Wayne Avenue and Town Square garages. Tell us the garage and level when you schedule. Often the simplest fix is meeting the driver at street level or in a surface lot nearby.
Where are the MVA branches in Silver Spring?
Two. The Kemp Mill branch (1327 Lamberton Dr.) and the White Oak branch (2131 Industrial Pkwy.) both handle vehicle registration and titling, and White Oak has a 24-hour tag return box. Both are open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. The Maryland MVA, which many people call the Maryland DMV, books branch appointments online.
Which police station in Silver Spring can I use to meet a buyer from a listing?
The Third District Station at 1002 Milestone Drive. Montgomery County Police set up Exchange Zones for online sales at their district stations, in the lobby and the parking lot. The Fourth District Station at 2300 Randolph Road in Wheaton is the other one nearby. Officers won't take part in the sale or act as witnesses.
I use the ICC. What happens to my E-ZPass once the car is sold?
The ICC (MD 200) is Maryland's first all-electronic toll road: gantries over the road read the transponder at highway speed and take the toll from your prepaid balance. A transponder that leaves with the car would keep billing you for someone else's trips, so pull it off the windshield before pickup and remove the plate from the vehicle list in your E-ZPass Maryland account.
If the car has a Maryland title rather than a DC one, the MVA's seller steps are on our Maryland selling guide.