Sell your car in Nashville: running, flood-damaged or not running
Get a fast cash offer through our buying partner, with free pickup anywhere in Davidson County, whether you're leaving town or just finished with the car. Moving and can't find the title? The Davidson County Clerk's main office prints a duplicate on the spot; its branches mail one in 5 to 7 business days.
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If police recover your stolen car
- Wait for the detectives' call. MNPD's Vehicle Crimes Section calls you to plan how the car will be processed for evidence and released; the impound lot can't release it without that. If the car was also in a hit-and-run, the Hit and Run Unit (615-862-7713) has to release it too.
- Collect it within 24 hours. Pick the car up within 24 hours of being told the hold is lifted and you owe no storage for its time on the lot. The tow fee still applies, because private wrecker companies do every tow in Davidson County. Bring a current photo ID, the physical card rather than a copy, and proof you own it, such as the registration or title. If your ID isn't a driver's license, bring a licensed driver or plan on a tow.
- Then weigh repair against a sale. A car that comes back stripped or damaged may not be worth fixing; selling it as it stands is an option.
Where we pick up around Nashville
Once you have an offer, by form or phone, choose a pickup day; if you're moving, set it before the truck arrives. The pickup costs nothing and happens at your driveway, so you don't drop the car anywhere or need a ride home. The title and keys leave with the car, and if a lender still holds the title, the loan is paid from the sale proceeds; see selling a car with a loan. Pickup covers all of Davidson County, from Bellevue (37221) and Hermitage (37076) to Antioch (37013), plus Madison, East Nashville and everywhere between. Outside the county, it also reaches Murfreesboro, Franklin, Brentwood, Hendersonville, Gallatin, Mt. Juliet, Smyrna and La Vergne.
Headed to the county clerk? The Davidson County Clerk says lines at the main office and branches may close before posted hours when waits run long. Go early, and skip its busiest days if you can: Mondays, Fridays, the 1st and last day of each month, and the day after a holiday.
Cash for your car in Nashville
Metro Nashville has firm rules on where a dead car can wait. Under Metro's property standards, an inoperable, unlicensed or unregistered vehicle can't be kept out in the open on any premises unless the zoning code allows it. It belongs in a garage or a similar building, and an open carport won't do. Every parked car needs asphalt, concrete or gravel under it, never grass. On the street, Metro counts a car in an obvious state of disrepair as abandoned after three days unattended, and a car more than four years old after ten.
Selling can be the simpler fix for a car you don't plan to repair. Cash for a junk car in Nashville starts with the same offer form as any other car, and the free pickup comes to the garage or driveway where it's stored. The rest is on our junk car page.
Not fixing a blown head gasket or a CVT that gave out? See selling a car with engine problems or selling a car with a failed CVT or transmission. If a creek flood or a crash did the damage, read selling a flood-damaged or wrecked car, and selling a totaled car if the insurer wrote it off.
Cars and Nashville's creek floods
Nashville's creeks can rise fast. After midnight on March 28, 2021, 7 to 9 inches of rain brought a rare Flash Flood Emergency to the southern and eastern metro and sent Sevenmile Creek to its highest level on record; the National Weather Service listed I-24 and I-40 among the flooded roads, with many cars submerged. If police have a car pulled out of water, Metro's posted recovery charge is $425, on top of the tow fee. If your car has been under water, our guide to flood-damaged cars covers how to sell it.
Metro charges worth knowing
- •Metro's wheel tax is $55 of the $87 or $91 it costs to register a passenger car in Davidson County (Davidson County Clerk)
- •A police-directed tow of a car rated 7,000 pounds or less is $225, plus a $10 fuel charge, and impound storage for a car, truck or SUV is $40 a day (MNPD Vehicle Impound Section)
Asked by Nashville sellers
My buyer wants to register the car right away. Which Nashville office should they use?
Any of the Davidson County Clerk's six offices. The main office, in the Howard Office Building at 700 President Ronald Reagan Way, is open 8 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. on weekdays. Five branches handle vehicles only, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Green Hills, Madison, the Bodenhamer Building on 26th Avenue North, and two at police precincts, Hermitage and South. The buyer needs a government photo ID, two proofs of residency if Tennessee didn't issue that ID, and the title reassigned to them. No emissions test is needed now: the Metro Council ended Davidson County's program, effective February 5, 2022.
My wrecked car needs the police report for the insurance claim before I sell it. Who has it in Nashville?
The MNPD Records Division, at 615-862-7631. MNPD says all its reports, crash reports included, must be released by that division, and that is where copies for insurance are requested. If police impounded the wreck, the Metro impound lot is at 1201 Freightliner Drive (615-862-7800); have the VIN from your insurance card or the plate number ready when you call.
Can I work on the car in my Nashville driveway before selling it?
Minor repairs only. Metro Codes permits them on residential property when the car belongs to the owner who lives there or to a tenant. Major repairs that dismantle a car's major components are not allowed, and neither is an auto repair business run in a residential zone district. A bigger job has to happen off the property.
I'm selling a hybrid that has a Green Parking Permit. Can I move the permit to my next car?
No. Metro ties each Green Parking Permit to one vehicle's VIN and says it can't be shared with another. If your next car qualifies (hybrids and some very clean or very fuel-efficient cars can), a new permit is $10 a year at any Davidson County Clerk office. It gives free parking at meters in the Downtown Central Business Improvement District, up to each meter's posted limit.
Title signing, plates and the rest of Tennessee's statewide paperwork are on our Tennessee page.