La Grange packs a lot of rules into 2.5 square miles. Four of them matter to anyone with a car that has stopped running, and together they explain why “I’ll deal with it next month” tends to cost La Grange owners money. Junk My Car Inc is the junk car buyer to call when you’d rather it was gone this week.
Four rules worth knowing
- No street parking from 2 to 6 a.m., any day (Section 6-4-1(e)), except as the village allows.
- Nothing sits on a street, alley or right of way for more than 48 hours in a row (Section 6-4-1(g)). Over that, it can be towed.
- No junked or non-operating vehicle on private property (Section 6-4-1(f)). That covers partially dismantled, wrecked and discarded cars too. The code calls such a car a public nuisance and allows it to be towed. The exceptions are a car inside an enclosed building and a lawful business need.
- Snow means 12 hours off the street after 2 inches or more, unless the street is cleared sooner (Section 6-4-25).
The third rule is the one people don’t expect. A dead car on an open driveway isn’t parked, in the village’s eyes; it’s a junked vehicle on private property. The garage is the only safe place for it, and in a village where about two-thirds of homes are single-family houses, that garage is usually needed for the car you still drive.
Where we usually come in from
La Grange Road (US 12, 20 and 45) is the main north-south street, and it meets Ogden Avenue (US 34) downtown, which puts four US routes at one corner. South of the village, La Grange Road reaches the Stevenson; west, Ogden reaches the Tri-State.
The north end of the village is crossed by three BNSF main tracks carrying commuter, Amtrak and freight trains, plus a CSX and Indiana Harbor Belt line. If the car is north of the tracks, say so when you call, along with the nearest cross street. 47th Street, the line between the village’s north and south school districts, is a handy landmark too.
From the call to getting paid
Our guide to selling a junk car in five steps covers it in detail. The short version: you send us the year, make, model and title status, we phone back with an offer, you pick the pickup time, and you’re paid when the car is on the truck. Several cars in one trip is fine.
On papers: tell us what you have. Which of them count for a scrap sale is an Illinois question, and you’ll have our answer during the call.
Over the La Grange line
Western Springs, just west along the same rail line, has its own clock on dead cars: see selling a junk car in Western Springs. North up La Grange Road is Westchester. East along Ogden we also buy junk cars in Lyons, and southeast of the village are our Summit pickups. Past the Tri-State to the west is Hinsdale. The full list of towns runs all the way to Park Forest and Plainfield.