Los Angeles has more registered vehicles than any city in America, and the collisions follow the traffic. The 405 and the 101 produce a particular kind of wreck: low-speed, heavy-damage, insurer writes it off, and the owner is left with a car that still runs sitting in a driveway or a body shop lot.
Offer in writing before dispatch. Free pickup. Paid in full before the truck leaves.
What is your car worth?
Why Los Angeles
What we see here
LA is also where the gap between a scrap quote and a real offer is widest, because the vehicle mix skews late-model. A three-year-old car with front-end damage is worth many multiples of its weight in metal, and the yards quoting you by weight are not competing for it.
We pick up along the 405, the 101, the 10, the 110 and the 5, and across
the San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys, East LA, South LA, the Westside, Koreatown, Highland Park and Sylmar. Pickup is free everywhere we buy, including vehicles that do not
run, have no keys, or have not moved in a year.
How it runs
Three steps, and the number does not move
1
Tell us about the car
Year, make, model, trim, mileage, where the damage sits, whether it runs, your title status, and
the ZIP in Los Angeles where it is parked. Photos speed this up most.
2
Offer in writing, before dispatch
We price the vehicle as a vehicle, not by weight. Nothing is dispatched until you accept, and
once you accept, that is what you are paid.
3
Free pickup, paid by company check at the kerb
Usually within 24 to 48 hours. Free even if the car does not run or roll. Paid in full before
the vehicle is loaded and gone.
What the gap looks like
A 2016 Hyundai Sonata had been quoted $475 as scrap. We paid $1,350, and the seller had the money
ten hours after the first call. On a 2020 Toyota Highlander XLE we paid $12,500.
$475 → $1,3502016 Sonata
$12,5002020 Highlander XLE
10 hoursFirst call to payment
Figures are from purchases we completed. Every vehicle is different and your offer depends on your car.
California paperwork
The DMV side, handled with you
California has its own rules, and two of them are the reverse of what sellers who moved from a neighbouring state expect.
Plates: it depends whether the car was totaled
On an ordinary California sale, standard plates stay with the vehicle. Personalised and special-interest plates belong to you, so take those off before pickup and you can retain or transfer them through the DMV.
A total loss is different. The REG 488C has a section for the plates, and they are normally surrendered with the application. If you have personalised plates you want to keep, that same section is where you say you are retaining them for reassignment. The form is here.
No notary on an ordinary title
Signing over an ordinary California title needs no notary. You sign where indicated and that is the whole of it, which is one step fewer than Arizona or Nevada.
One procedure is different. If a vehicle is going onto a Nonrepairable Vehicle Certificate and you do not have the California title, the DMV asks for a notarized Application for Replacement or Transfer of Title, form REG 227, as the proof of ownership. That requirement belongs to that certificate. It is not a general rule for selling a car without a title, and it does not apply to an ordinary signed title at all. The DMV lists it under that certificate here.
File the REG 138 within five days
File the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability, form REG 138, with the DMV within five calendar days of the sale. It is free and it takes about two minutes online. It does not transfer ownership. That is a separate step the buyer completes, and the release of liability is what protects you in the meantime.
Once the DMV has it, you are not responsible for parking violations, traffic violations or civil litigation arising after the date of sale. It is not a blanket release. If it ever comes to a complaint, a court decides whether you filed properly, which is the whole reason to file it on time and keep what the DMV sends back. The DMV explains it here.
Salvage paperwork and liens are routine
REG 488C is the Application for Salvage Certificate or Nonrepairable Vehicle Certificate. It is the form that gets filed. What comes back from the DMV is the Salvage Certificate itself, and that is the document that takes the place of your pink slip. When an insurer settles a total loss, filing the REG 488C within ten days of the settlement is the insurer's job, not yours. If you are self-insured, or you kept the car and no claim was settled, it falls to you. The DMV page on total loss vehicles.
We buy owner-retained salvage regularly. If there is still a loan, bring the payoff information
or the lien release.
We are not attorneys and we are not the DMV. If your situation is unusual we
will point you to the specific form rather than guess.
The full FAQ goes into more detail.
Reviews
What sellers say
This site is run by TrackWala, which is the trading name of Blue Ribbon Auto
Sales LLC. These are Google reviews of TrackWala, the company that buys the vehicles, quoted
exactly as they were written.
★★★★★
Wonderful experience from the very beginning to the very end. Offered me more money than any other place. Whole experience was painless. I will definitely be recommending them to others and will plan on using them again in the future.
These guys were so easy to deal with. They
made me an offer, I accepted the offer, and they called me with pick up time. Then they showed up right on time with my check for the agreed on amount. Thank you so much Trackwala.
I had got a quote from a different company that Court horse me into signing the title and the wrong spot before they give me a price once I signed it they give me a price that was real low so I moved on to a different company and when they came to pick the vehicle up since I signed it there it blocked them from selling the car to me so I reach out to this company and he was able to coach me in the right spot to get the title fixed and my girlfriend entered in the wrong mileage which made the car worth more and he quoted the higher price and still honored the higher price even though the mileage was incorrect he's a good man good company I recommend them highly
I have had the best experience with trackwala Sam has been so awesome in preparing everything that was needed he was right on with everything and quick to respond and everything was just a really great experience I would recommend them to anybody
Driveways, street parking, apartment and condo lots, storage facilities, body shops and
tow yards are all routine. If the car is accruing storage fees, say so when you call, because that
changes how fast we should move.
the San Fernando Valley
Van Nuys
East LA
South LA
the Westside
Koreatown
Highland Park
Sylmar
A pickup, paid at the kerb. The same thing happens whether the car is in a driveway, a tow yard or an apartment lot.
We will beat a junkyard quote, and the number will not move
Two commitments, and one question we want you to ask every buyer you call,
including us.
1
Bring us the junkyard’s number and we will beat it
Show us a written quote from a junkyard or scrap yard on the same vehicle and we will
beat it. Not match it. Beat it.
That is not a stunt, it is arithmetic. A yard prices your car by what it weighs. We
price it by what it is: year, make, model, trim, mileage, and where the damage sits. On
anything late-model those two numbers are not close. A 2016 Sonata was quoted $475 as
scrap. We paid $1,350.
2
The price we quote is the price you are paid
Your offer is issued in writing before a truck is dispatched. It does not change when
the driver arrives, it does not get revised once the car is on the deck, and there is no
discovery of a problem on pickup day that costs you a few hundred.
The only thing that can move the number is discovering the vehicle is materially
different from how you described it. Describe it honestly and the number you accepted is
the number you are handed.
Ask every buyer this before you accept
“Will this price change when the driver gets here?”
Ask us. Then ask everyone else you call, and listen closely to the answer. A buyer who
will not commit to the number on the phone has told you what happens next. The most common
complaint we hear from sellers is not that an offer was low. It is that the offer was
lowered in the driveway, after the car was already loaded and saying no had become
difficult.
What counts, so you know before you call.
The quote is in writing. A number someone said on the phone is not something either of us can hold the other to.
It is for the same vehicle, in the condition it is in now. Not a similar year and model, and not the car before the damage.
It is from a junkyard, scrap yard or parts yard. This is a comparison against weight-based pricing, which is the thing we are saying we beat.
You show it to us before you accept our offer. Once a number is accepted, that is the number we pay, which is the other promise on this page.
The one exception, said up front. On a very old, high-mileage shell,
scrap weight may genuinely be close to what the vehicle is worth, and there may be little
room to beat. If that is your car, we will tell you on the phone rather than waste your
afternoon. We would rather lose the sale than talk you into a bad one.
Your wrecked car is worth more than a scrap quote
Tell us what happened to it and we will put a number in writing. No fee, no obligation, free pickup.
