Sell a junk car in East Chicago, Indiana Harbor included
Can I sell my junk car in East Chicago, Indiana, and be paid on the spot?
Yes. Top Dollar Junk Cars buys cars that are junked, crashed or no longer running across East Chicago, on the Indiana Harbor side and the west side. To sell a junk car, call or send the form; we tow it free and pay by cash, Zelle or Cash App as it's loaded, once Indiana's title rule is met.
Fewer than half of East Chicago's homes are detached houses: 41.0%, against 29.0% in two- to four-unit buildings and 22.2% in larger buildings of five units and up (Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). That means the car you want gone may well be at a two-flat, in an apartment lot or at the curb. East Chicago is one of the Indiana towns in the full list of places we collect from, and this page covers the roads in, the papers and the city rules on dead cars.
Getting a tow truck from Cicero Avenue to East Chicago
It's about 18 road miles from our Alsip yard to the middle of East Chicago, and about 15 in a straight line. These are the roads the truck uses, and what each one tells us about your pickup.
- Cicero Avenue and the Tri-State (I-294)
- Out of the yard and onto the tollway for a short hop. Every Indiana run of ours starts this way.
- 147th Street and Sibley Boulevard (IL 83)
- The long middle stretch, east along the IL 83 corridor through Dolton and Calumet City. That's still Illinois, so a car there sells under Illinois paperwork rules rather than the Indiana ones below.
- Hohman Avenue and Chicago Street
- A short cut through Hammond, East Chicago's neighbor to the west and the first Indiana city on the way in.
- Chicago Avenue (SR 312)
- A short piece of SR 312, which runs on through East Chicago as East and West Chicago Avenue, a handy reference if you live off it.
- Indianapolis Boulevard (US 20) and Columbus Drive (US 12)
- The final stretch. Indianapolis Boulevard carries US 20 and shares a stretch with US 12, and Columbus Drive is US 12 in town. Tell us which of the two your street comes off.
- Cline Avenue (SR 912)
- Not on the usual run in. It links the Toll Road and the Borman, crosses the Cline Avenue Bridge and serves the lakefront steel mills, so mention it if your car is out toward the industrial side.
None of those miles cost you anything. How the free pickup works covers the rest of the process, from the call to the loading.
Paperwork for selling a junk car in East Chicago
Most people expect the hard part to be the price. In Indiana it's usually the paper. State law won't let a recycler take a junk car unless the seller hands over one of two documents:
- The certificate of title, or a BMV duplicate if it's been lost ($15, per the BMV fee chart). This works for a car of any model year.
- A BMV certificate of authority, applied for on State Form 55018 for $4. This one works only if the car is at least 15 model years old.
So a newer car with no title has to go through the BMV first. Buying one under 15 model years old with neither paper is a Level 6 felony for the buyer under IC 9-32-9-29, as amended by SEA 65 in 2024, and IC 9-22-5-18 spells out the seller's side of the same duty. We won't do it. Tell us whatever you've got, a registration, an insurance card, an old bill of sale, and we'll say on the call which BMV route suits your car. The no-title selling guide has more on both.
Indiana Harbor, the west side and the mills
East Chicago is known as the Twin City because it grew as two sections: Indiana Harbor on the east and East Chicago proper on the west. Marktown and Sunnyside are Harbor neighborhoods; Roxana is on the west side. Naming yours on the call saves the driver a guess.
Industry shapes the map. Historically more than 80% of the city's land was zoned for heavy industry, and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor Works and U.S. Steel's East Chicago Tin plant all sit inside the limits. Water covers 12.78% of the city's 16.155 square miles. Homes fill the pockets in between, so give the exact street and the nearest cross street. If typing is easier, the form up top takes the same details.
Selling your only car? You wouldn't be alone: 16.7% of East Chicago households have no vehicle (Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). The city runs free East Chicago Transit buses on its Crosstown, West Calumet and Griffith Plaza routes, and the South Shore Line stops at East Chicago station.
East Chicago's rules for a car that won't run
From the city's abandoned vehicle ordinance and its parking chapter:
- A day on private property. An owner or occupant may not let a partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked or unplated vehicle stay on the property for more than 24 hours, and nobody may leave one on any property for more than 72. An enclosed building, a lawful business need or city storage are the exceptions (§ 93.097).
- Never on the street. No such vehicle may be left on any street or highway, and abandoning a vehicle anywhere in the city is barred (§ 93.096).
- Removal. A car its owner has left on open land for at least 30 days with no storage arrangement is abandoned (§ 93.095), and the Board of Public Safety can remove and impound it (§ 93.098).
- Snow. Designated snow routes must be free of parked cars from 6 to 8 a.m. after a fall of more than 2 inches (§ 72.060). Where "No Parking, Snow Removal" signs go up by 4 p.m., cars must be moved by 7 the next morning or face a tow (§ 72.061).
- Alleys. Temporary stops to load or unload only, with 10 feet left open (§ 72.063).
Twenty-four hours is a short leash. Highland, directly south of the East Chicago South Shore station, allows a junk vehicle 5 days in public view and stickers it before towing, while Gary, the neighbor to the east, bans nonoperating cars on any premises, public or private. Back at the yard, Alsip's limit for an abandoned car in public view is 7 days; the Alsip page has its rules.
Asked by East Chicago car owners
My car is parked on Broadway in Indiana Harbor and snow is coming. Will it be towed?
It can be. Once more than 2 inches have fallen, § 72.060 bans parking from 6 to 8 a.m. on both sides of Broadway between Guthrie and Indiana Harbor Drive, and cars left there are ticketed and towed. Ring us the day before if you can; we often manage a same-day pickup.
East Chicago says my unplated car can't stay in my yard for more than a day. Is that right?
Yes. § 93.097 gives an owner or occupant 24 hours before an unplated, wrecked or nonoperating car on the property breaks the rule, unless it's kept in an enclosed building. If yours is already past that, call early in the day.
Do you pick up in Marktown?
Yes. Marktown is part of Indiana Harbor, inside East Chicago's limits, and the tow there is free like anywhere else in the city. Give the driver the street address and say whether the car is out front or round the back.
Can I leave the car in the alley behind my two-flat until you come?
Better not. East Chicago allows alley parking only for a temporary stop to load or unload, with 10 feet left open and no driveway blocked (§ 72.063). Keep it on the lot or the driveway, and tell us where it is so the driver can plan the loading.