Sell your car in Jersey City: running, damaged or won't start
Selling your car in Jersey City starts with where it's parked: a garage with access hours, a permit block or a driveway. You get a cash offer online, and the car is picked up from that spot. The city rules that apply while it waits are below.
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How the sale works from a Jersey City spot
- Get the number first. Tell us the car, its mileage and where it sits: a garage level, a permit block or a driveway. Low miles on a garage-kept car can raise the number. The offer is agreed before anyone comes out.
- Book a time that suits the spot. Pick a slot inside the garage's hours, or outside your block's sweeping window. The car leaves at that one appointment, and payment is made at the handoff.
- Leave the plates on until it's loaded. The city code bars parking a car on a street without license plates, so take them off once the car is on the truck.
Where we pick up around Jersey City
We buy cars in Jersey City in every neighborhood, from a downtown garage in 07302 or a Newport garage in 07310 to a curb in the Heights (07307). Pickup also covers the Hudson County towns around the city: Bayonne and Hoboken on either side, Union City, Weehawken, West New York and North Bergen along the Palisades, and Secaucus and Kearny.
A trade-in value is credit, not cash. It only counts if you buy another car from that dealer. If you’re giving up the car rather than replacing it, weigh your car’s trade-in value in Jersey City against a cash offer. Our guide to trading in versus selling compares the two.
Cash for your car in Jersey City
A car that won't start still has to follow the street rules. Jersey City's code says a car left on a street for 48 hours or more may be presumed abandoned. A first abandonment offense carries a $100 to $500 fine and up to two years without a license.
If it's towed, the code caps a licensed tow of a regular car at $150 and storage at $30 a day. An owner who won't claim it must sign a certificate that transfers ownership to the City.
We buy junk cars in Jersey City as well as running ones: old, damaged, or parked so long they stopped starting. If it's in a legal spot and a truck can reach it, it can be gone this week. Our junk car page explains how that sale works.
If a car that won't start turns out to need more than a new battery, our guides to selling a car with a knocking or overheating engine and selling a car with a slipping transmission weigh repair against selling. For a car with accident damage, selling a damaged car covers what you have to tell a buyer.
Street rules for a car you're about to sell
In the city code's street-cleaning table, each side of a street is swept on a Tuesday or a Thursday. The Resident Response Center (201-547-4900) has your block's schedule. The sweeping rule isn't enforced on days the city posts as "parking regulations suspended", though hydrant rules still apply. It is also suspended on holidays that include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the third day of Diwali and the first days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Once snow covers the street, no car may park on either side of the city's snow emergency streets, including Summit, Central, West Side and Communipaw Avenues, until they are plowed. A car stuck there can be towed, and the fee schedule lets the tower charge $50 more for a snow-locked car.
The code also bars parking on a street mainly to show a car for sale or to repair it. Trucks and other commercial vehicles can't park on city streets from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., and RVs can't park on a street at all.
What a drive into Manhattan costs
- •At Port Authority crossings, a car entering New York pays $16.79 at peak and $14.79 off-peak with a New York or New Jersey E-ZPass, or $23.30 by mail, at July 2026 rates. Nothing is charged coming back to New Jersey (source)
- •At or below 60th Street, the MTA adds $9 at peak with E-ZPass, minus a crossing credit of up to $3 for Holland Tunnel drivers. That toll is set to rise to $12 in 2028 (source)
Asked by Jersey City sellers
Can I sell my car in Jersey City if it's parked in a garage downtown?
Book the pickup inside the garage's access hours and bring your access card. We schedule around access hours and tight ramps. If the car doesn't run, check that the garage allows a flatbed. If it runs and the clearance is tight, meet the truck at the entrance. The handoff itself is a fifteen-minute errand.
Where is the NJ MVC office in Jersey City?
Jersey City's motor vehicle agency is the NJ MVC Vehicle Center at 438 Summit Avenue, still the NJ DMV to many people. Title transfers, duplicate titles and license plate transactions there are by appointment only. It doesn't handle driver licenses; Hudson County's licensing centers are in Bayonne and North Bergen.
What should I do about Jersey City parking tickets when I sell?
Pay them soon. Each late notice raises the fine by at least $10, and notices keep coming until it's paid or your license is suspended. The city also won't issue a resident parking permit to anyone with unpaid Jersey City parking fines. Pay on NJMCdirect with court ID 0906, or at the court window at 365 Summit Avenue.
What happens to my residential parking permit after the sale?
It can't move to another car. Each permit is issued for one vehicle's license number, and showing it on any other vehicle is a violation. For a new car, apply to the Parking Division at Two Jackson Square, 356 Martin Luther King Drive, (201) 547-5538; it stays open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. A household's first permit costs $20 a year.
What do I do with my E-ZPass tag after the car is gone?
Take the tag out before pickup; it belongs to your account, not the car. Then update the Tags & Vehicles list in your NJ E-ZPass account, or call 1-888-AUTO-TOLL. The nearest walk-in customer service center is at 375 McCarter Highway in Newark.
Title and plate rules come from New Jersey, not Jersey City, and our New Jersey page covers them.