Can You Export a Salvage or Non-Running Car from the USA?

This is the single most misunderstood point in vehicle export, and US Customs and Border Protection has been explicit about it for more than twenty years. When Customs published the current rules, it answered the question directly:

"Customs is not concerned with the condition of the vehicle exported, but rather the type and status of the documentation for the vehicle."

CBP restated the same position in its own 2020 ruling, and its public guidance says the certificate of title is the core requirement "regardless of the vehicle's economic value, physical condition, or operating order."

So a dead engine, a missing key, flood damage, a stripped interior or a rolling shell does not change whether you may export the vehicle. What changes the answer is which ownership document your state issued for it.

US export rules for used vehicles are set by 19 CFR 192.2. The regulation lists the acceptable ownership documents in a deliberate order, and CBP is emphatic that you work down it rather than picking the one that suits you. Its own guidance tells exporters to "begin at 19 CFR 192.2 (b)(1) and then progress through each subsection until the exporter arrives at the section and subsection(s) that apply."

In every case below, Customs wants the original document or a certified copy, plus two complete copies.

For a vehicle leaving by sea, both the documentation and the vehicle itself must be presented to Customs at least 72 hours before export. Not one or the other. The vehicle has to physically be there.

That differs from a vehicle driven or trucked across a land border, where the paperwork goes in 72 hours ahead but the vehicle is presented at the time of export.

There is a subtlety here that most published guides get wrong, and it is worth understanding because it explains why your forwarder talks about the vessel cut-off rather than the sailing date. The regulation says 72 hours before export. The statute it rests on, 19 U.S.C. 1627a, says presentation must happen before lading for anything moving by vessel or aircraft, and sets no hour count at all. In practice ports enforce the 72 hours against the vessel's cut-off, which is why missing a cut-off by an hour can cost you the sailing even though the ship has not moved.

Customs designates where and when you present. There is no national address for this: port directors set the locations and publicise their hours, so the answer is specific to your port of export.

People are often surprised by this one. Most exports under $2,500 are exempt from Electronic Export Information filing. Used self-propelled vehicles are not. The rule at 15 CFR 30.2(a)(1)(iv) requires EEI "regardless of value", and names used vehicles specifically.

A $600 scrap car needs an ITN exactly like a $60,000 one.

Three further points that matter operationally:

1. The clock is 72 hours, not 24. General ocean cargo gets its filing citation to the carrier 24 hours before loading. Used vehicles are 72 hours before export, and CBP has confirmed the 72-hour requirement continues to apply.
2. You cannot file after departure. Used vehicles must always be transmitted before departure, so the postdeparture option is unavailable.
3. If the filing system is down, the car waits. There is no downtime workaround for used vehicles: the rules state the filer "shall not export until the AES is operating and an ITN is acquired", and the usual downtime citation may not be used.

The ITN then has to appear, clearly visible, on the loading paperwork. That requirement is why a terminal will turn a vehicle away when the paperwork arrives without it.

A vehicle that cannot be driven aboard has to be loaded another way, which is where handling charges come from. That is a commercial question rather than a regulatory one, and it is worth asking about before you buy: the cost of moving a non-runner varies by terminal and by carrier.

On terminal access, the legal position is narrower than most people assume. A Transportation Worker Identification Credential is required for unescorted access to a secure port area. Someone without a TWIC may still enter with compliant photo identification under escort, and each facility's security plan has to describe how it escorts visitors.

In practice, escorting costs the terminal labour. Many vehicle terminals will therefore not escort a walk-up delivery, or will charge for it, or will simply require the vehicle to arrive through a carrier or forwarder. Check with the specific terminal before you drive. Delivery requirements differ by terminal and by carrier, including how many copies of the title they want.