Sell your car in Oklahoma City: running, hail-damaged or not running

How Oklahoma City's notice on a dead car plays out

• The notice goes to the property owner. At least ten days before the city acts, it mails notice to the owner of the property at the address on the county treasurer's tax rolls, or posts it on the property if the owner can't be found. If you rent, that is your landlord (Section 35-40).
• Ten days, and a hearing if you want one. The notice gives ten days to remove the car. Within those ten days, the owner may request a hearing in writing; it is held 5 to 15 days after the request (Section 35-41).
• After that, the city can act daily. If the car hasn't moved by then, the city can keep recommending charges for each day and take the car itself (Section 35-42). A sale with pickup inside those ten days removes the car the notice is about.

Where we pick up around Oklahoma City

Selling your car in OKC on your own first? Show it from a driveway you control. City code doesn't allow a car to sit on a street or on city-owned land when the main reason is to show it for sale. Leaving it on someone else's lot takes the owner's or occupant's consent, unless the lot is open public parking with no posted limits (Sections 32-324 and 32-319).

Cash for your car in Oklahoma City

In Oklahoma City, a car that won't run gets 72 hours outside, even on your own driveway. Section 35-37 of the city code makes it an offense to leave a wrecked, inoperative or junked vehicle anywhere in the city, on public or private property, for longer than that, unless it is parked in a garage or other building on private property (Oklahoma City Municipal Code, Chapter 35). The city's Action Center takes residents' reports of abandoned vehicles at 405-297-2535.

A dead battery, a wreck or plain old age doesn't rule out cash for cars in OKC. The instant offer is priced on the car as it sits, with no repairs first, and pickup happens wherever it's parked. If hail or a crash did the damage, our damaged-car guide covers the rest.

The street is no place to park it while you wait. The code calls a car missing a current plate, or with wheels removed or tires deflated, a derelict vehicle, and Section 32-318 bars parking one on any street or city-owned property. Parking with an improper tag carries its own fine: $50, or $100 after the arraignment date (Section 33-64). Between the 72-hour limit and the street rules, a dead car in OKC has few places to wait, so if you're after cash for junk cars in OKC, set the pickup date early. Our junk car page covers selling a car in that shape.

When hail or a wreck is bad enough that the insurer declares a total loss, selling a totaled car covers the payout, what it costs to keep the car, and the salvage title that follows. If the engine or transmission is what stopped it, see selling a car with a blown engine or head gasket or selling a car with a slipping transmission.

Moving from Tinker: ship the car, store it or sell it

Shipping or storing it. Tinker's Personal Property Processing Office explains what your orders let you ship. Find it in Building 469, Room 1, at 7330 Sentry Blvd., open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, with walk-ins Monday through Thursday until 3 p.m. For the car itself, Tinker's moving page points to the PCSmyPOV website. PCSmyPOV has no vehicle processing center anywhere in Oklahoma; its nearest to Tinker is the Dallas VPC in Arlington, Texas, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Selling it. A private buyer coming onto the base to see the car goes through Pass and ID in Building 590, just outside the Tinker Gate on Air Depot Blvd., south of I-40. An instant offer needs no showing at all. If orders are behind the sale, read how to time a sale before a PCS move.

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