Western Springs is about as owner-occupied as a suburb gets: nearly 96 percent of households own their homes, and roughly 94 percent of homes are single-unit houses. Almost every dead car in the village is sitting in a driveway or a garage. That’s exactly where the village code starts counting. If you want the general overview of how we work, see Junk My Car Inc’s junk car buying page. This page sticks to Western Springs.
A week, then a nuisance
Chapter 7-9 of the village code makes it unlawful to keep an abandoned or inoperable vehicle in the village and calls such cars public nuisances. On private property the line is seven days: no dismantled, non-operating, wrecked, junked or abandoned vehicle may stay longer than that unless it’s continuously housed in an enclosed building. On village property the limit is 48 hours.
What it means in practice: a car that dies on your driveway on a Saturday is, by the following weekend, a code problem. Garaging it buys time if you have the room. Selling it ends the question.
Three weeks of warning
The village doesn’t tow without notice. Section 7-9-6 requires written notice, delivered in person or by certified or registered mail, at least 21 days before the village tows an abandoned or inoperable vehicle. The owner has those 21 days to move it or fix it.
If that letter is on your counter, three weeks is plenty of time for us. Start with our short quote form, take the offer when it suits you, and pick a pickup day well before the deadline.
Getting the truck to you
The village is roughly framed by Willow Springs Road, Ogden Avenue, the Tri-State and Plainfield Road. Ogden (US 34) runs along the north border and meets I-294 on the west side. Wolf Road is the main north-south street, and the Western Springs Metra station sits on the BNSF line, which carries freight on all three of its main tracks. Give us the nearest cross street and whether the car is north or south of the tracks.
From 3 to 6 a.m. no car may park on a village street without police permission, and after a 2-inch snowfall the streets clear for 12 hours. So the pickup is almost always from the driveway, which suits a flatbed fine.
Over the Western Springs line
East along the tracks, La Grange runs a 2 to 6 a.m. ban and a strict rule on junked cars, covered on our La Grange page. Across the Tri-State to the west, we buy junk cars in Hinsdale, and Burr Ridge, to the southwest, has a page of its own. North of Ogden is Westchester, and to the northwest we pick up in Oak Brook. Not sure selling is the right call? Our guide to the ways to get rid of a junk car compares scrapping, donating and selling. Other towns are on the service area map.