Sell My Car in Houston

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• You have plenty of options for selling your used car in Houston.
• Carmax is our pick for the best car buyer in Houston and Peddle is the best place to sell a junk car in the city.
• Online dealers often provide competitive cash offers for drivable vehicles.
• Various companies purchase junk cars and they usually have free towing services.

As the fourth-largest city in the U.S., Houston is home to a wide range of potential car buyers. Not all options are equal, though, so our team has ranked the best places to sell your car in Houston. We’ll give recommendations below for top spots to sell your car online and in person.

Sell My Car in Houston: Top Choices

The best places to sell your car in Houston include CarMax, Houston Auto Sales Inc., Carvana, and Drivetime. Our options include online dealers, local dealers, and private sale marketplaces. All of these companies are known for hassle-free buying processes and regularly offer competitive rates.

CarMax

CarMax is one of our top choices if you want to sell your car in Houston or elsewhere across Texas. You can use the company’s website to get an instant cash offer, but you must visit a location to finalize the sale. CarMax has five locations spread across the Houston area, so most residents won’t be too far from a dealership.

Our team compared instant cash offers for used vehicles from a variety of online dealers, including Carvana and CarMax. We found that CarMax usually gave us the best offers, many of them being $1,000 more than the rates offered by competitors. Because of this, CarMax is a great choice if you’re looking to get the best price for your used vehicle.

Read more: CarMax sell my car review

Houston Auto Sales Inc.

Houston Auto Sales Inc. offers a wide selection of used cars, largely because it purchases vehicles directly from owners. From older Hondas and Toyotas to more recent Nissan models, you’ll be able to find a quality trade-in vehicle at Houston Auto Sales Inc. The company is based in Houston and maintains an impressive 4.8-star rating from over 400 reviews on Google.

You can go to the Houston Auto Sales Inc. dealership to get an offer in person, or you can head to its website to get a Kelley Blue Book (KBB) offer. With the second option, you can get a quote without leaving your house. Houston Auto Sales Inc. is located along the Southwest Freeway.

Carvana

Using Carvana to sell your car in Houston is extremely easy, as the farthest you’ll have to travel is down your driveway. Start the process by getting an instant cash offer on Carvana’s website, where you must provide the car’s license plate number or vehicle identification number (VIN).

If you like the offer you receive, a Carvana representative will come to your location, inspect the vehicle, and take the car away after you sign the paperwork. You’ll either get a check at this appointment or receive a direct deposit one to two days later. Alternatively, you could use your trade-in’s value as a down payment on a new vehicle from Carvana.

Read more: Carvana sell my car review

DriveTime

As with Houston Auto Sales Inc., DriveTime partners with the KBB to provide instant cash offers online. If you decide to accept the offer, you’ll need to head to one of DriveTime’s local stores. DriveTime has three Houston locations: one off the North Freeway, another along the Southwest Freeway, and one near the Gulf Freeway.

Reviewers on Google give DriveTime 4.8-star ratings at each of its Houston-area locations, and all three stores have at least 1,800 reviews. The company combines an online process with strong in-person service, making it a compelling choice to sell your car in Houston.

Facebook Marketplace

If you want to get top dollar for your car, we recommend selling it to a private buyer through a platform like Facebook Marketplace. Selling your car privately takes extra work, but you’ll likely get more compared to if you sell your car to Houston dealers, in person, or online.

You can use other platforms like eBay Motors or Craigslist to sell your car, but Facebook Marketplace is nice because it’s a social platform. That means you can scope out your buyers a little bit to make sure they won’t cause problems or scam you. Keep the following in mind for a smooth private sale:

• Create a bill of sale
• Gather maintenance records
• Gather the title and registration
• Create an attractive listing with good photos
• Share phone numbers and emails, but nothing more
• Meet buyers and allow them to have the car inspected
• Finish the sale and transfer the title
• Cancel your registration with the department of motor vehicles (DMV)

One downside to using a marketplace like Facebook is that you can’t trade in your old vehicle to get a new car. The four options recommended above to sell your car in Houston all provide trade-in values if you choose to get a new vehicle right away.

Sell My Junk Car in Houston: Top Picks

If you have a junk vehicle, you might not be able to sell it to a company like CarMax or even online through Facebook Marketplace. Car recycling companies and junkyards will likely buy it, though, even if only for scrap metal. Below are a few places to sell your car in Houston or a nearby city like Pasadena or Sugar Land, even if it no longer runs properly.

Peddle

Peddle is a national car buying company that focuses entirely on junk cars. One nice thing about using the provider is that you can go online and get a cash offer in a few minutes. If you like the offer, Peddle will arrange for one of its carriers to pick up your vehicle for free and pay you in cash or by check. Peddle has purchased over 2 million vehicles and has a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot from over 100,000 customers.

Cash For Cars

Cash For Cars has over 200 locations nationwide, including a spot in Houston. The company will buy cars of almost any condition, whether or not they run. It also provides free towing services, so you don’t need to worry about transporting a clunker if it won’t start. According to its website, the company can pick up your car in as little as 24 hours after you accept the offer. The Houston location of Cash For Cars has a 3.8-star rating on Google reviews.

Adam Car Buyer

Adam Car Buyer has been in business for over 20 years and is another great place to sell your car in Houston. The company has an impressive 5.0-star rating from over 200 reviews on Google, showing that drivers appreciate the company’s services. Simply provide Adam Car Buyer with details about your scrap car via a phone call or online and you’ll get an offer. If you like the offer, the company will tow your car for free if it’s no longer drivable.

Junk Car Buyers-R-Us

Junk Car Buyers-R-Us has been purchasing junk cars in greater Houston since 2010. The company can buy flooded, broken down, rusted, and wrecked vehicles from the year 2000 or later. Like other junk car buyers on our list, this company will tow your vehicle for free. Junk Car Buyers-R-Us has a 4.9-star rating from over 80 reviews on Google.

Sell a in Car Houston: Conclusion

Whether you’re selling a lightly-used Lexus or a 20-year-old Chevrolet Silverado or GMC Sierra, you have many options to sell your car in Houston. We recommend comparing multiple cash offers from different dealers and companies to find the best value for your old car.

Sell My Car in Houston: FAQ

Below are a few frequently asked questions if you need to sell your car in Houston.

Our Methodology

In order to help people make informed decisions about where and how to sell their cars, our expert review team is committed to providing precise, accurate, and objective information. For our research, we evaluated each company on the same criteria across the following categories:

• Cost: Our team conducted a secret shopper study to assess the offering prices of each provider. We also considered any fees or additional costs charged by companies during transactions.
• Platform: We evaluated each provider’s online platform, rating them based on ease of use, speed, and available options. 
• Transaction support: Because there are many other steps involved in selling a car online beyond simply listing it and accepting an offer, our team evaluated companies based on their support for transactions, such as whether they require a seller to travel for an in-person evaluation, if they manage loan payoffs, and more.
• Customer experience: We scoured online reviews on websites such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot in order to gauge the opinions and experiences of real customers. Our team used proprietary metrics to normalize ratings across the industry in order to assess customer sentiment in context.
• Industry reputation: To assess their standing within the auto sales industry, we considered each company’s rating with the BBB along with its years of service. We evaluated these factors using proprietary metrics to get a more accurate representation of specific company reputations compared to industry norms.