Sell your car in Rapid City: running, hail-damaged or on PCS orders
Get an offer on your car online in minutes, with free pickup at your door anywhere around Rapid City. Leaving Ellsworth Air Force Base on orders? The sections below cover what your orders pay toward the car, the nearest vehicle processing center for shipping it, and the base’s own resale lot.
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Ellsworth road conditions on pickup day
- 01Check the condition that morning. Call the base road line, (605) 385-ROAD (7623). Ellsworth’s Road & Weather page explains each color.
- 02GREEN or YELLOW: watch the speed limits. GREEN means normal speed limits and traffic rules. YELLOW cuts every limit by 10 mph and sets parking areas at 5 mph, so allow the truck extra time.
- 03RED: choose another day or an off-base spot. Travel on base is limited to essential travel, with a 10 mph limit on general roads and 5 mph in family housing and parking areas.
Where we pick up around Rapid City
Pickup is free anywhere in Rapid City and Rapid Valley, in Black Hawk, Summerset and Piedmont, in Box Elder (57719) right outside Ellsworth’s gate, and out through the hill towns to Hill City, Hermosa and Sturgis. The car doesn’t have to be at your home: a storage lot, the driveway of a house you’ve already moved out of, or a neighbor’s place all work, and you’re paid at the handoff.
Box Elder address? Check which county it’s in before a trip to the treasurer for a duplicate title or a lien release. Pennington County notes that some Box Elder addresses fall in Meade County, and a vehicle is registered in the county where you physically live. Meade County’s treasurer is at 1300 Sherman Street, Suite 107, in Sturgis, open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays (605-347-5871).
What your Ellsworth orders cover for the car
Start at the base’s Traffic Management Office, the personal property office. It’s in the Rushmore Center at 1000 Ellsworth Street, Suite 2400B, directly above the Military Personnel Flight, and it can tell you what your orders pay for. On a move within the continental U.S., getting the car to the new base is largely your own cost, and the military pays you back for mileage through MALT, the Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation. On overseas orders you may be able to ship or store one car you own or lease at government expense; as a rule, only one car can go that way.
If you’d rather sell, there are two ways to do it here. On base, the Auto Hobby shop runs a resale lot where you can list the car for a monthly fee (the figures are below). Or get an offer from us: the quote takes minutes, pickup is scheduled around your duty schedule and report date, and with your paperwork ready the sale can close in days. Our guide to selling your car before a PCS move goes through how to weigh a sale against shipping or storage.
Cash for your car in Rapid City
The National Weather Service office in Rapid City says large hail is the severe hazard its area sees most often, particularly near and just east of the Black Hills, and that golf ball-sized hail is common in summer (NWS Rapid City, reports from 1955 to 2023). A car with hail dents can get an offer from us, and so can one that no longer runs; pickups go ahead in snow too. If a car that won’t run sits in rural Pennington County, the county’s ordinance enforcement office is the one that inspects inoperable vehicles and junk there; it doesn’t serve property inside Rapid City limits. If the car is past fixing, cash for junk cars in Rapid City starts with our page on how to sell a junk car.
Hail dents are covered in our guide to selling a hail-damaged car, and if the insurer declared the car a total loss, selling a totaled car walks through the buyback and the salvage title. A car that stopped running with a blown head gasket or a seized engine has its own guide: selling a car with engine problems.
The base office, the nearest drop-off and the lot fee
- •Traffic Management Office: weekdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed weekends, federal holidays and wing family days; 605-385-6597 (Military OneSource).
- •No vehicle processing center in South Dakota or any neighboring state. The closest on the PCSmyPOV list is the Denver VPC at 14777 E. 35th Place in Aurora, Colorado, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the last car taken at 3 p.m. (PCSmyPOV).
- •$15 a month on the base resale lot. That’s the Auto Hobby’s fee to advertise a car there; boats, RVs, campers and trailers are $20 (28th Force Support Squadron).
Asked by Rapid City sellers
Which office handles car titles in Rapid City?
Title work in South Dakota goes through the county treasurer. In Rapid City that’s the Pennington County Treasurer’s office at 900 Concourse Dr., open to in-person customers 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. It processes lien releases and helps with duplicate title applications. As of September 2026 the office says a cybersecurity incident has put it back on a traditional line, so everyone who comes in is served first come, first served. Its phone, 605-394-2163, isn’t answered from noon to 1 p.m. or after 3:30 p.m.
Where can I file a report of sale in Rapid City after hours?
At a South Dakota DMV Now kiosk. Two in Rapid City are open around the clock: at the former county administration building, 130 Kansas City Street, and at the state’s One-Stop Complex, 221 Mall Drive, inside the Department of Revenue’s main entrance. The kiosks can file a report of sale and print a seller’s permit, but only for someone with a South Dakota driver’s license or ID who is the owner on the title. Kiosk questions go to the DOR Motor Vehicle Division at (605) 773-3541.
Can you pick up a car on Ellsworth Air Force Base?
Gate rules can make it harder for a commercial truck to get onto the base, so an off-base address, such as a driveway in Box Elder, is often the easier spot. If the car has to leave from base housing, call Ellsworth’s Visitor Control Center at the Liberty Gate, the main gate, at (605) 385-2895 before you set a time and ask what the driver will need. The base’s own page lists its hours as 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends (as of June 2026).
Can I get my car looked at on base before I decide to sell it?
If you hold a DoD card, yes. Ellsworth’s Auto Hobby, in the Skills Complex at 2750 George Drive, handles most maintenance and minor repairs. You can leave the car with its mechanics or rent a stall and do the work yourself. It’s open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sundays, Mondays, family days and holidays (605-385-2900).
For the statewide selling steps, see our South Dakota selling guide.