Sell your car in El Paso: junked, wrecked or just done with it

Signing a private sale over in El Paso County

• 01Fill in the whole first assignment. The title has to be in your name on its face, and the county wants every line of the first assignment on the back completed: the buyer's printed name and address, the odometer reading, the date of sale, and your signature and printed name (El Paso County).
• 02Sign the 130-U with the price. You complete the seller's certification on Form 130-U, fill in the sales price, and hand it over with the title. The county figures the buyer's 6.25% sales tax on the bill of sale or the car's standard presumptive value, whichever is higher.
• 03Go with the buyer to file it. The county advises sellers to go along to a county tax office or contracted office, so the transfer is completed and you are released from liability. The main Ascarate office at 301 Manny Martinez Dr. is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 4:30 (county tax offices).
• 04Keep the plates, and move them in person. Texas plates stay with the seller (see our Texas selling guide). To put them on another car you own, El Paso County says you must notify the tax assessor-collector in person.
• 05File the transfer notice. Submit Form VTR-346 by day 30 after the sale. The TxDMV says a notice filed in that window means you can't be held responsible for the buyer's parking tickets and toll violations.

Taking the instant offer instead? The driver verifies the car at pickup and completes the title transfer paperwork, and you still pull the plates and file the VTR-346.

Where we pick up around El Paso

Pickup is free throughout El Paso County, inside the city limits or out, from a driveway, a curb or a repair shop's lot. A car on Fort Bliss is the one case to plan around, because of the gate rules in the Fort Bliss section below.

Due for emissions, or failed it? El Paso County is in the state emissions program: gasoline cars 2 to 24 years old are tested every year, an OBD test here may cost no more than $11.50, and a car that hasn't passed can't have its registration renewed (TCEQ; program overview). The test belongs to the registration, not to the sale, so the next owner deals with it before registering the car here. Waivers and time extensions exist for owners who qualify.

Junk cars and cash for cars in El Paso

El Paso's junked-vehicle chapter reaches further than most. Besides a car that is wrecked, dismantled or discarded, it counts one without an unexpired license plate attached, and one that has not run for more than 72 hours in a row on public property or 30 days on private property (Sec. 9.08.020). If it is visible from a public place or right-of-way, that car is a public nuisance (Sec. 9.08.010).

The city's environmental services department sends notice by certified mail, and you get 10 days to move the car or request a hearing in municipal court, where the car is presumed not to run unless you show otherwise (Sec. 9.08.030). The fine can reach $200 (Sec. 9.08.070), and once a junked car has been hauled away under the chapter, the code forbids anyone to rebuild it or make it operable.

One rule here is unusual. A cover custom-fitted to that model ends the nuisance, if it is water- and mildew-resistant canvas with no tears or holes, tied down and covering everything but the tires, with all four tires inflated and on the ground. Parking the car behind trees or shrubs does not count (Sec. 9.08.010).

A sale ends the problem outright. The offer covers cars that don't run, and the tow is free; the junk car page explains that sale, and what a junk car is worth covers what moves the number. If the car still has its plates, leave them on until the driver arrives and take them off at the handoff, since a car without them fits the chapter's definition of a junked vehicle.

Five days on the street, then a tow

• •Five days counts as storage. A car that stays at or near one spot on a street, alley or other right-of-way past five days in a row is presumed stored there, and police can remove and impound it (Sec. 12.80.150).
• •Not on the parkway. Parking on the parkway, the strip from the curb back to the lot line, is banned, and so is parking in front of any public or private driveway or within 15 feet of a fire hydrant (Sec. 12.44.020).
• •No curbside repair jobs. You can't park on a public right-of-way to wash, grease or repair a car, except for repairs an emergency forces (Sec. 12.44.090).
• •Tow charges have a ceiling. For a tow done without your consent, a company may charge at most $100 for a vehicle rated at 10,000 pounds or less, plus up to $25 for dollies or go-jacks. Reach the car before it is hooked up and there is no charge; hooked up but not yet moved, it is released for half the fee (Sec. 12.54.020).

Mexican plates, Juárez trips and buyers heading south

A car registered in Mexico can't simply be signed over here. CBP lets a nonresident bring a car in for personal use for up to one year; if it doesn't meet U.S. safety and emission standards, it must be exported within that year and may not be sold in the U.S. (CBP). Before a car bought outside the U.S. can get a Texas title, it must meet every federal and state import requirement, pass a VIN inspection by a law enforcement auto theft investigator, and come with customs and safety paperwork such as DOT Form HS-7, plus a certified English translation of its ownership document (TxDMV). In El Paso County that VIN inspection, Form VTR-68-A, is booked in person through the tax office's enforcement division, 915-273-3416 (El Paso County).

Because the county borders Mexico and New Mexico, it also runs a Vehicle Registration Abuse Program aimed at El Paso residents who drive on plates from another state or country, with a hotline at 915-546-2181 (Illegal Plates).

Is your Texas car on the other side? Bring it back before you sell. A car taken out of the U.S. for private use can return duty free once you show CBP it was owned and registered here, and a state registration card is one accepted proof (CBP).

Selling to someone who will drive it south for good? That is an export. For a land crossing, CBP wants the original title or a certified copy, plus two copies, at least 72 hours before the car leaves, and the car itself presented at the port. A car with a lien also needs the lienholder's signed release to export, written on the lienholder's letterhead (CBP). Hand over a clean signed title, keep a copy, and file your VTR-346 right after the sale.

Selling before a move from Fort Bliss

• 01A county tax office is on post. El Paso County runs one at the Soldier Support Center on Pershing Road, Building 505, Room A115, open Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 12:30 to 4 p.m. (county tax offices).
• 02A civilian buyer needs a pass. Without a DoD ID, a buyer gets a Community Access Pass after a criminal background check at the Buffalo Soldier Visitor Control Center, open around the clock, or at Chaffee, from 5 in the morning to 9 at night on weekdays. Passes go only to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and lawful permanent residents, so meet anyone else off post. You can also sponsor a buyer by emailing the access application from a .mil address 72 hours to 14 days ahead (Fort Bliss). A pickup driver is a visitor too, so give an off-post address unless access is arranged.
• 03Out-of-state plates are fine. The county lets service members stationed in Texas keep current plates from their home state or last duty station until they expire (military titling). Titled in another state? See our guide to out-of-state titles.

Shipping, storage or a sale timed to a report date: our PCS-move guide lays out all three.

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