Hickory Hills sits on the Tinley Moraine, hilly by Chicago standards, with the Palos Forest Preserves on the west and the Tri-State on the east. It became a village in 1951 and a city in 1966, and its code on parking and vehicles is one of the stricter ones we’ve read. Here’s what it says, and what it means if you’re holding a car that won’t run. The short version of how we buy is on our junk car buyers page.
The rules at a glance
| City code | What it says | What it means for a dead car |
|---|---|---|
| § 30.21(c) | No undrivable, disassembled or stripped vehicle kept on any property except in an enclosed garage | The driveway is not an option |
| § 30.21(d) | An inoperable vehicle in public view is a nuisance and can be towed after 7 days | Roughly a week before it becomes a tow |
| § 30.21(b) | A vehicle without current state registration may stay on a property 7 days at most, unless garaged | Expired plates start the same clock |
| § 41.17 | No parking on any city street from 2 to 6 a.m. | The curb is off-limits overnight |
| § 30.21(a) | Vehicles only on paved areas, never on the parkway | No pushing it onto the grass |
Section 12.02 also lists any abandoned vehicle as a public nuisance, and police tows follow the Illinois Vehicle Code.
Storing it versus selling it
If you have a garage stall to spare, a dead car can sit there legally while you decide. Many households don’t. About 60 percent of Hickory Hills homes are single-family detached houses, and a third are in buildings with two or more units, where a private garage is less common. For those owners, the realistic choice is a repair or a sale.
A sale with us is short. Send the year, make, model and title status, take the call, and pick a pickup time. We’ll collect from a driveway, a garage or an apartment lot, as long as the property manager is fine with it.
Getting here
87th Street and 95th Street are the main east-west roads, and 95th carries US 12 and US 20. Roberts Road, 88th Avenue and 76th Avenue run north-south. Pace routes 379, 381 and 385 serve the city, but there’s no rail station. A cross street is enough for the driver.
Title questions in Hickory Hills
Tell us which papers you have. Illinois rules decide which ones work for a scrap sale, and we’ll confirm before anyone comes out. Missing the title? Our guide to selling a junk car without a title explains what else might work.
Neighbours
Palos Hills shares the city’s southern edge, and its overnight ban is just as strict; see buying junk cars in Palos Hills. North, up toward Archer Avenue, is Justice. Bridgeview meets the city on the northeast, where we’re also junk car buyers for Bridgeview, and Willow Springs touches the northwest corner; see Willow Springs pickups. Everything else is on our list of towns.