How DNF works

Selling a vehicle

Create a free account and confirm your email address. Then complete five screens:

1. Enter the VIN

Enter the vehicle's 17-character VIN. It's on the registration or title, on the insurance company's letter and on a plate where the dashboard meets the windshield. We fill in the year, make, model and trim for you to check. If the decoder can't read it, enter the year, make and model yourself. Public listings show the last 8 characters of the VIN. Signed-in buyers with a confirmed email and a postal or ZIP code on their profile can request the full VIN in private buyer details. Only one active listing can use the same VIN.

2. Add the location, status and damage

Choose the country and enter the vehicle's postal or ZIP code. We keep only the first three characters, so buyers see the area, never your address. Vehicles in Canada are priced in Canadian dollars; vehicles in the US are priced in US dollars.

Choose the brand printed on the registration or title, such as Salvage, Rebuilt or Non-Repairable, and the province or state that issued it. The registration can be from somewhere other than where the vehicle is now. Each province and state has its own words, and the listing shows the one you choose. Then describe what happened and the damage you can see.

In Canada, DNF lists every vehicle with flood or fire damage for parts only, whatever its brand. In the US, a vehicle with flood or fire damage, or a flood or fire brand, keeps its state's brand and shows a high-risk notice. Its Score stays in the Parts only band. A Virginia title marked "Junk Nonnegotiable - Not for Resale" can't be listed, because Virginia doesn't allow the vehicle to be sold.

3. Say whether it starts, runs and drives

Answer for the vehicle as it is today. Choose Not known when you're unsure.

"Drives" means it moves under its own power. It says nothing about whether the vehicle can be used on the road.

4. Add photos

Add at least 4 photos, including a close-up of the damage. We recommend eight clear daylight photos to show every side of the vehicle. We remove location data from your photos.

5. Set your price, review and publish

Set an asking price or leave it open to offers. Buyers can offer above or below your asking price, and you decide which offer to accept.

Check the preview and the provisional Score, including what would raise it. Confirm that you own the vehicle or have the authority to sell it, that what you entered is true to the best of your knowledge, and that you'll give the buyer the documents your province or state requires. Then publish.

A listing goes live unless it needs moderation first. We review your first listing, a listing with a non-repairable brand (or, in Canada, flood or fire damage), a brand word we can't match to the province's or state's words, and a vehicle or seller a moderator has acted on before. If it's sent back, you'll get a reason so you can make changes and submit it again.

After publishing: add more details

You can add documents, the odometer reading and more condition details after you publish. Tell buyers about airbags, known structural damage, fluid leaks, keys and whether you have the registration or title. If you have them, add the repair estimate and what the vehicle was worth before the damage. You can also record the insurer's salvage deduction. It stays off the public listing; buyers who meet DNF's account requirements can see it in private buyer details after making an offer on that listing.

Documents such as the registration or title, an insurer's letter or a repair invoice stay private. They can help explain the listing's Score; buyers don't see the files.

Your listing stays up for 60 days. From your account, you can put it on hold, mark it sold or relist it.

Receive offers and questions

You get an email when an offer comes in, and you see every offer on your listing's offers page: the amount, the buyer's display name, the checks on their account, and roughly how far away they are. Buyers can also ask you questions through DNF's messages. Neither of you sees the other's contact details before you accept an offer. When fees apply, they stay hidden until both sides' fees are paid.

Accept or decline an offer

Accept the offer you want, or decline any of them. There's no auction clock, and you don't have to take any offer. When you accept one, the listing shows as sale pending and every other open offer is declined.

Arrange the sale

After acceptance and payment of any required platform fees on both sides, you and the buyer get each other's contact details, by email and on your offers pages. From there, the sale is between the two of you: the viewing, the paperwork, the vehicle payment and the pickup. When it's done, mark the vehicle as sold.

If the deal falls through, choose "The deal fell through" on the accepted offer. The listing goes back on sale for another 60 days and buyers can make new offers. Offers declined when you accepted don't come back.

Buying a vehicle

1. Browse without an account

Anyone can look at listings. Browse every listing, or only Canada's or the United States', and narrow them down by place, make, model, year, price, brand, damage, whether it runs and drives, and Score.

Each listing shows its photos, the brand in the words of the province or state that issued it, the damage, the condition and the Score. Everything on it is reported by the seller.

2. Use the Score as a starting point

Every listing has a Score out of 100. It's worked out from the seller's answers on the brand, the repair numbers, the mechanical condition, the damage and the paperwork, and the listing shows the reasons. The Score puts each listing in one of four bands: Parts only, Project, Rebuild candidate, and Rebuilt with a certificate attached. We don't inspect vehicles, so use the Score to choose which listings to look at closely, then check the vehicle itself.

3. Create a free account

To make offers, message sellers or save searches, create a free account, confirm your email address and add a postal or ZIP code to your profile. Sellers see your province or state and the code's first three characters at most, which tells them roughly how far away you are.

You don't need to be a licensed dealer to make an offer. A few US states limit who can buy certain salvage or non-repairable vehicles, and those listings say so. On a vehicle with an Illinois Salvage Certificate, a Michigan Salvage or Scrap title or a Virginia Nonrepairable title, only buyers the state allows, such as licensed recyclers, can make an offer. They add their license number to their business profile first.

4. Make an offer

Offer what the vehicle is worth to you, above or below the asking price. Your offer is in the listing's currency: Canadian dollars for a vehicle in Canada, US dollars for one in the US. You can add a short note, but leave out phone numbers, email addresses and links.

Your offer stays open for 7 days unless you change or withdraw it, or the seller answers first. A new amount replaces your last one, and other buyers don't see what you offered.

You can also ask the seller questions through DNF's messages. Phone numbers and email addresses in messages stay hidden until contact details are released.

5. Complete the introduction

When the seller accepts your offer, the listing shows as sale pending. When fees apply, contact details are released only after both sides' fees are paid. You then get each other's contact details by email and on your offers pages. You arrange the viewing, the paperwork and the pickup yourselves, and pay the vehicle price directly to the seller. DNF collects its platform fees separately through Stripe; it never handles the vehicle payment.

6. Check it yourself before you pay

Everything on a listing comes from the seller, so check what matters before you hand over any money.

• Liens: ask the seller for the full VIN. In Canada, search it in the personal property registry of the province where the seller lives and of the one where the vehicle is registered. In the US, ask to see the title. It should be in the seller's name, show the same brand as the listing, and either list no lienholder or come with the lienholder's release.
• History: run the full VIN through a vehicle history report. In the US, an NMVTIS report covers title, insurance-loss and salvage records, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau's free VINCheck shows whether an insurer reported it stolen or as salvage.
• Recalls: check for open recalls in Transport Canada's recall database or at nhtsa.gov/recalls, or ask a dealer to check the VIN.
• The vehicle: see it in person, and have a mechanic of your choosing look it over.
• The road: ask the registry or DMV where you'll register it what the vehicle needs first. Rules differ by province and state.

Trust and safety has more on meeting a seller and paying.

7. Save a search

Save a search and turn on email alerts to hear about new listings that match it. Each saved search sends at most one email every 15 minutes, and every alert has links to stop it.

Buying in the other country

You can make an offer on any listing in either country. Bringing a vehicle across the border adds steps, and DNF doesn't arrange transport, export or customs. Read buying across the border before you make an offer.

Fees

Listing a vehicle and making offers are free. When fees apply, the seller pays a success fee and the buyer pays an introduction fee after an offer is accepted. We show your full fee, including any tax, and the refund terms before you commit. Both sides' fees must be paid before contact details are released. See the fee and refund terms.