Sell your car in Charleston: running, flood-damaged or rusted
Salt water gets into brake lines and floor pans before it shows on the paint. To sell your car in Charleston, SC while the metal is still good, get an instant offer online, and the pickup comes to wherever the car sits, from a West Ashley driveway to a Mount Pleasant lot.
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Getting Charleston County car tax back
- 1. Get the plate cancelled. To refund the unused months on the registration, the Auditor needs an SCDMV receipt showing the plate was cancelled.
- 2. Add proof the car is gone. A copy of the bill of sale works, as does a lender's repossession letter or an insurer's total-loss settlement letter.
- 3. Send both to the Auditor. Email MotorVehicle@CharlestonCounty.org, fax (843) 958-4222, or bring them to Room 105 at 101 Meeting Street or to a county service center.
Where we pick up around Charleston
Pickup covers the peninsula (29401), both bridges and everything past them: West Ashley (29407) and James Island out to Folly Road, Mount Pleasant (29464), and North Charleston, the third-largest city in the state, with Hanahan, Goose Creek, Summerville and Moncks Corner up Highway 52.
Parked on King Street while you wait? Between Spring and John streets, street parking is banned from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights (City of Charleston). Move the car off that stretch before 6 p.m. on those nights.
When the harbor comes up your street
When flooding or high winds look likely, the City of Charleston may open some of its own garages to city residents for free, for set hours, and it announces which ones through its media outlets. County, College of Charleston, MUSC and private garages are not included (City of Charleston).
Since September 2024, city code also bars driving faster than 5 mph on a street flooded more than six inches deep, or pushing a wake past the curb, with a penalty of up to $100, 30 days in jail, or both (Sec. 19-183).
A car that salt water has already been inside can still be sold; the water changes what gets looked at, not whether we buy. Surface rust and rust in seams or brake lines are priced very differently. The steps for a flood-damaged car are in our guide.
PCS orders out of Charleston: ship, store or sell
Joint Base Charleston now goes by Joint Base Lindsey Graham on its own websites. Leaving the Air Base in North Charleston or the Weapons Station in Goose Creek, you can ship the car, store it or sell it.
To ship it, start at the Air Base transportation office, Building 503, Room 101, 101 E. Hill Boulevard. Walk-ins are 8 to 10 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and all day Wednesday. That office explains what your move covers and points you to PCSmyPOV for shipping the car.
To store it yourself, the base's Outdoor Recreation program runs an on-base RV storage lot at $75 a month; ask whether a car qualifies. To sell, get an instant offer and we pick the car up where it sits. Our guide to selling before a PCS has the order of steps.
Cash for your car in Charleston
On a city street, a car left in a legal space for more than seven days, whether it runs or not, counts as abandoned. Once the city posts a notice on it, the owner has 24 hours to move it before the city removes it (city code).
On private property, the city's Livability division investigates complaints about unregistered and inoperable cars. For a car like that, cash for cars in Charleston, SC means an instant offer for the car as it is and pickup from the curb or the yard. See how selling a junk car works.
Broken down with a seized engine or a transmission that slips or has no reverse? See selling a car with engine problems or selling a car with a bad transmission. If a flood tide got inside the car, read selling a flood-damaged car, or selling a totaled car if the insurer has written it off.
The tide, in numbers
- •The National Weather Service sets minor flooding at 7.0 feet on the Charleston Harbor tide gauge, moderate at 7.5 and major at 8.0 (source)
- •The gauge reached the minor-flood mark on 52 separate tides in 2025. The record is 89, in 2019 (NWS records through May 31, 2026) (source)
- •The ten busiest months on record were all Septembers or Octobers. October 2025 tied for second, with 18 flood tides (source)
Asked by Charleston sellers
I got a Charleston County tax bill for a car I already sold. Do I pay it?
Not if you didn't move its plate to another vehicle you own; the Auditor's Office says you may disregard the bill. Car tax here is paid a year ahead and is due by the last day of the month your tag expires, so a bill can arrive after the car is gone.
The Lockwood Boulevard DMV is closed. Where do I take a plate now?
SCDMV closed that branch on February 14, 2020, and points customers to 946 Orleans Road in West Ashley. There are also SCDMV branches at 3790 Leeds Avenue in North Charleston and 1189 Sweetgrass Basket Parkway in Mount Pleasant, the same address as the county's East Cooper Service Center, where the Auditor and Treasurer have offices.
Where can I meet a buyer safely in Charleston?
At a Charleston Police Department Safe Exchange Zone. One is the department's lot at 180 Lockwood Boulevard, and you can make the exchange in the lobby. The other is a marked space at the Team 4 office, 3545 Mary Ader Avenue in West Ashley, which isn't staffed around the clock. Both are on 24-hour video. Go in daylight.
Can you pick up downtown, where street parking is tight?
Tell us where the car sits and we'll work out the logistics around event weekends, school traffic on the Crosstown and flood advisories.
My street floods at high tide. How does pickup work?
Around the tide. Tell us the pattern when you book, and the pickup window gets set for the dry hours; moving the car to higher ground the night before is a normal request. The Weather Service's tide forecast for the harbor gauge is the one to check.
For the title, the bill of sale and the Notice of Vehicle Sold, see selling a car in South Carolina.