Sell your car in Grand Rapids: running or not, rusty or wrecked
Looking for cash for cars in Grand Rapids because yours stopped running, or selling a daily driver before the snow? Two city rules decide where that car can wait: the odd-even street parking that starts each November, and how long a car that won't run can sit in the yard. Both are below, with the Secretary of State offices where the transfer gets finished.
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How a Grand Rapids inoperable-car case moves
- Notice of Complaint: 7 days. Code Compliance mails the owner a letter and allows 7 days before an inspector checks. If the car is gone by then, the case closes as compliant.
- Notice to Abate: 7 more days. If the car is still there at the inspection, this second notice follows, then another inspection. After that the city can send a vendor to remove it. The owner can appeal the notice to the Housing Appeal Board.
- Warning, then tickets. If the vendor is turned away, a Warning of Prosecution allows 14 days to respond. Up to three civil infractions can follow, 60 days apart (City enforcement process).
Where we pick up around Grand Rapids
The driver comes to you anywhere in Grand Rapids and its suburbs, Wyoming, Kentwood and Walker included, and out as far as Rockford and Byron Center. Leave the car in a driveway, an apartment lot or the back of a pole barn, and name the spot.
Secretary of State offices: the buyer finishes the title at a Secretary of State (SOS) office, Michigan's version of the DMV. The state lists offices at 3601 28th Street SE and 3472 Plainfield Ave. NE in Grand Rapids, and at 1056 Rogers Plaza SW in Wyoming. Visits can be scheduled at Michigan.gov/SOS or by calling 888-767-6424 (Michigan Department of State, July 2025).
Where a car can wait from November 1 to April 1
On Grand Rapids streets posted with seasonal parking signs, the rule runs from 12:01 a.m. on November 1 to 11:59 p.m. on April 1. From 1 a.m. to 6 p.m., park on the side whose house numbers match the date: odd side on odd dates, even side on even dates. From 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., either side is fine. The ticket can come whether snow is on the ground or not (City of Grand Rapids).
Two more rules catch a car that just sits. Posted snow routes allow no parking from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. in the same season (Sec. 10.40), and a car left in one spot on a public street for 48 hours can be impounded at any time of year (Sec. 10.54). A car with a dead battery is on the wrong side every other day, so get it into a driveway before November 1.
The rules exist so the city can sweep and plow. Salt goes on the city's 19 first-attention routes, the busiest streets such as Division Avenue, Leonard Street and Fulton Street. Side streets typically get no salt and are plowed once 3 inches or more have built up (City of Grand Rapids).
Cash for your car in Grand Rapids
City code counts a car as an inoperable vehicle when it can't move under its own power, or when it is wrecked, disabled, partly dismantled or junked (Sec. 9.107). Once one has sat on private property for more than 7 days, anyone can report it to Code Compliance. From spring through fall, city inspectors also survey designated neighborhoods for them (City of Grand Rapids).
A car like that, or one that is just old or damaged, can still be sold as it is. The driver collects it from the yard, the garage or wherever it stopped. If it has sat since last winter and isn't worth fixing, start with our junk car offer.
If a crash is why it sits, selling an accident-damaged car covers what a buyer checks and what you disclose. If the trouble is mechanical, the pages on a blown engine or head gasket and a slipping transmission both compare the repair bill with selling the car as it is.
What a parked or broken-down car can cost here
- •A seasonal parking ticket is $20, rising to $40 after 10 days and $60 after 90. A snow-route ticket is $30. (City fine schedule)
- •When the city removes a nuisance vehicle, the fee is $185, or $230 the second time. A Notice to Abate is $110. These fees took effect July 1, 2026. (Nuisance Code fee schedule)
- •If the city has to do the work, its cost plus an administrative fee becomes the owner's personal debt and can be assessed as a lien against the property until paid. (Sec. 9.111)
Asked by Grand Rapids sellers
Does the odd-even parking rule apply on every Grand Rapids street?
No. It applies only on streets posted with seasonal parking signs. Some streets use one-side parking instead, where the posted side is off limits all season, and some have no parking at all. The city's Public Works pages have a map of the affected streets, and residents can ask the city to review the rules on their block.
Can I keep a car without current plates in my driveway while I sell it?
For a week, yes. After 7 days, city code allows just one operable car without a current plate or registration outdoors, and it has to sit behind the house. Storing an unplated or inoperable car on a vacant lot isn't allowed at all. Keep any car off the lawn, too: parking in the front yard of a home in a residential district is banned, though a surfaced driveway is fine.
I have unpaid Grand Rapids parking tickets. Do they matter when I sell the car?
Yes. City code presumes that whoever was the registered owner when a ticket was written parked the car, so tickets from before the sale are yours to settle. With six or more unpaid city tickets, the city can impound the car right away if it's left unattended on the street, though never from private property. You can pay through GRPayIt online, by mail to the City Treasurer at 300 Monroe Avenue NW, or at the windows on the Monroe Level of City Hall.
Where do I check on a Code Compliance case about my car?
Code Compliance is at 1120 Monroe Ave NW, phone 616-456-3053. Cases can be looked up online in the city's Citizen Access system by site address, parcel number or case number.
The parking and yard rules here are Grand Rapids city code; signing the title over is state law, covered on our Michigan selling guide.