What we need
- Year, make, model, and trim
- Roughly the mileage
- What the damage is and where it sits
- Whether it runs, and whether it rolls and steers
- Your title situation
- The ZIP code where it is parked
Photos speed this up more than anything else.
How it works
From wrecked car to paid, usually inside 48 hours
Three steps, in this order, every time. No step is skipped and no number moves between them.
Step one
Tell us what happened to the car
Call (602) 559-1918 or send the details to john@trackwala.com.
Mention anything unusual
A missing title. An insurer that declared the vehicle a total loss and let you keep it. An open lien. A car accruing storage fees at a tow yard. No keys.
None of these are problems. They just change which forms we prepare, and telling us up front is what keeps the timeline short.
Be accurate about the damage. Our offer holds because it was built on real information. The only thing that can move it is discovering the vehicle is materially different from the description.
Step two
An offer in writing, before anyone is dispatched
We price the vehicle as a vehicle. Year, make, model, trim, mileage, and the location and type of damage set the number. Weight does not.
That distinction is the whole business. A scrap-based quote on a 2016 Sonata in Fremont came to $475. Our offer was $1,350, and that is what the seller was paid. On a 2020 Highlander XLE we paid $12,500. If your car is newer than about a decade, the difference between these two pricing methods is usually measured in thousands.
What the offer states
The vehicle, the amount, and what the amount includes. Nothing is dispatched until you accept it, and once you accept it the number is settled. We do not renegotiate in your driveway.
$475Scrap quote, 2016 Sonata
$1,350What we paid
$12,500Paid, 2020 Highlander XLE
Step three
Free pickup, and payment before the truck leaves
Most pickups happen within 24 to 48 hours of acceptance.
Pickup is free. It is not deducted from the offer and there is no fee if the vehicle does not run, has no keys, has flat tires, or has not moved in two years. Our trucks are equipped for non-running vehicles.
One company handles the whole visit. The business that quoted you is the business that arrives and the business named on the paperwork. There is no subcontracted driver arriving with a different number.
You are paid in full at pickup, before the vehicle is loaded and gone.
What to have at pickup
- Your California Certificate of Title, the pink slip, signed where indicated
- A photo ID matching the name on the title
- Lender payoff information, or the lien release if the loan is already satisfied
If the title is lost, tell us before pickup day so we can run the replacement in parallel rather than waiting weeks for it.
How long it all takes
Offer to payment is typically one to two days. A recent Fremont purchase closed in ten hours from first contact to money in hand.
What stretches it: a missing title, a lender that is slow with payoff figures, or a vehicle at a facility with access restrictions. We will tell you which of these apply on the first call, rather than after you have committed.
California paperwork
The forms, and who handles what
You sign the title
That is the transfer. Signed where indicated, with ID matching the name on it.
We file the REG 138 the same day
The Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability is the step that actually ends your responsibility for the vehicle. Once filed, tolls, parking citations, and anything else the car accumulates after the sale date are no longer yours. You can and should also file your own copy at the California DMV site. It is free and takes about two minutes.
REG 227 replaces a missing title
The Application for Duplicate or Paperless Title. Call us before you start it, because depending on your situation we can often keep the sale moving while the duplicate is processing.
Owner-retained salvage
When an insurer totals a vehicle and you keep it, your settlement was reduced by the salvage value and the vehicle carries a salvage title. We buy these regularly and the forms are routine for us.
We are not attorneys and we are not the DMV. Information here is general. If your situation is unusual we will point you to the specific DMV form rather than guess. The FAQ covers smog, plates, liens, and total loss rules in more detail.
What we buy
Vehicles we are interested in
Accident-damaged cars, whether or not an insurer was ever involved. Vehicles declared a total loss, including owner-retained ones with salvage titles. Cars with denied insurance claims. Non-running vehicles. Damaged SUVs, trucks, and vans. Wrecked electric vehicles and hybrids, including Teslas, which we buy as a specialty.
Fremont has one of the densest EV populations in the country, and electric vehicles reach total loss thresholds from moderate collisions because any damage near the battery structure escalates past the vehicle's value fast. Those cars retain substantially more value than a scrap quote reflects.
Where we pick up
- Ardenwood
- Centerville
- Niles
- Irvington
- Mission San Jose
- Warm Springs
- Newark
- Union City
- Milpitas
- Hayward
- San Leandro
- Castro Valley
Our two promises
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ready to start
Tell us what happened to the car and we will put a number in writing. No fee, no obligation, free pickup.