Sell your car in Lansing: running, wrecked or won't start
Get an instant cash offer on your car, truck or the spare in the driveway, and we pick it up where it's parked, on either side of the Grand River. Lansing still builds cars, too: in October 2025 GM named its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant as the home of the next gas-powered Cadillac CT5. Selling one here comes with a few local rules worth knowing first. They cover where to do title work, where city code lets a car that doesn't run sit, and where to meet a buyer.
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Payoff letter and title
- If there's a loan, get the payoff letter. If the offer clears the loan, the sale pays the lender and you keep the difference. If you owe more than the offer, you bring the gap to closing. Either way the lien is released before or at the handoff, and a payoff letter in hand keeps the sale to one appointment. More on selling a car with a loan.
- Have the title in hand. If it's lost, order the replacement before you set a pickup date. The Secretary of State section above says where to go in Lansing.
Where we pick up around Lansing
Pickup covers Lansing on both banks of the Grand River and the places around it, including East Lansing (48823), Okemos (48864), Holt (48842), Mason, DeWitt and Grand Ledge. It also covers Lansing Township and Delta Township. Both townships' offices use Lansing, MI addresses, but each township has its own rules for a car that doesn't run, covered in the questions below. Driveway, apartment lot, campus street or a gravel drive out past Mason: we'll meet the car where it sits.
Meeting someone about the car? The Lansing Police Department has set aside the south-east part of the public lot at its Operations Center, 5815 Wise Rd., as an Online Transaction Exchange Zone. It's marked with a sign and open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You don't need to call ahead, and anything except weapons can change hands there.
Two Lansing offices print instant titles
What many people call the Michigan DMV is the Department of State, and it is run from Lansing, out of the Richard H. Austin Building at 430 W. Allegan St., near the Capitol. Title work itself is done at a Secretary of State office. The department's own sheet of Lansing locations names two offices that issue instant titles: 3315 E. Michigan Ave., and 8158 Executive Court, Suite 30.
That matters if your title is lost and you want the replacement in hand before pickup day. The same sheet lists three cases with no same-day service: titles from another state, mobile home titles, and titles with a stolen notice on record. If yours is one of those, start it well before you set a pickup date.
Cash for your car in Lansing
Lansing's Property Maintenance Code says no motor vehicle that is inoperative, stripped, dismantled, or in major disassembly or disrepair may be kept on any exterior premises (Sec. 1460.01). The same section lets such a vehicle be removed from private property under the state's towing rules. In May 2025 the city put the same limit into the parking chapter of its zoning code (Sec. 1254.01.06). So a car that doesn't run can sit in a garage, but not in the driveway or the yard.
If you want cash for cars in Lansing, MI that are old, wrecked or no longer start, use our junk car offer. Say what doesn't work and where the car is parked, and pickup comes to that spot, garage included.
When the car is wrecked, selling a car with accident damage covers what a buyer checks and what you have to disclose. If the engine is the reason it no longer starts, selling a car with a blown engine or head gasket sets the repair bill against selling it as is.
Lansing snow emergency levels, for a car parked on the street
- •Level 1: no parking downtown from 2 to 6 a.m., and none at any hour on the arterial, neighborhood and transit routes named when the emergency is declared.
- •Level 2: no parking downtown from 2 to 6 a.m., and none at any hour in the rest of the city.
- •Level 3: no parking on any city roadway, 24 hours a day.
- •A block plowed on both sides for its whole length drops out of the ban. The ban lasts until the police chief announces it is over. This section was last amended in September 2020 (Lansing Codified Ordinances)
Asked by Lansing sellers
Can an unregistered junk car in Lansing wait on the street for pickup?
No. Since March 2025, Sec. 404.15 of the city code bars parking an unregistered motor vehicle on any public roadway, including an alley, street or highway. A violation is a civil infraction. If the car is already at the curb and won't start, say so when you ask for the offer, and tell us exactly where it is.
What happens to a car left on a Lansing street during a snow emergency?
It can be towed and impounded right away. Under Sec. 404.12, you must pay the cost of removal and storage before you get the car back, and a parking fine can come on top of that. The levels above show which streets are closed to parking, and when.
Are East Lansing's rules the same?
No. East Lansing bans parking on any street or alley from 2 to 6 a.m. every day unless the East Lansing Police Department gives permission, and it grants that for at most 20 nights a year per vehicle (Sec. 44-298). On private property, an inoperable car has to be kept in a wholly enclosed garage or other structure (Sec. 14-36). In East Lansing that includes a car that can't legally be driven because it lacks current registration or a valid tag (Sec. 14-31).
What about Lansing Township and Delta Township?
Each has its own code. In Lansing Charter Township, a car that has been unlicensed or inoperative for more than 60 days counts as a junk motor vehicle. It may only be stored inside a completely enclosed building, and the township can remove one from unenclosed property after 48 hours' written notice (Chapter 51). Delta Township has no 60-day grace period. Under its blight rule, Sec. 14-85, any vehicle that isn't currently licensed, doesn't show a current, valid plate, or doesn't run may be parked only inside a completely enclosed building.
The steps that are the same anywhere in Michigan are on our Michigan selling guide.