About Us – Kelly Car Buyer
Mike founded Kelly Car Buyer well over twenty years ago with a simple idea: every vehicle has value to someone, even if the big online buyers won't touch it. Two decades later, his daughter Michelle and son-in-law Jim run the business he built, and that philosophy hasn't changed one bit.
Who We Are
Kelly Car Buyer is a family-owned vehicle purchasing company based in Frankfort, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The Family lives in Illinois, Oklahoma and Florida, and the business operates nationwide with an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, built on two decades of fair dealing and honest quotes.
When customers call, Faith or Michelle (mother or daughter) usually answer; not a call center employee reading from a script. Jim handles most truck and higher end vehicle quotes because he knows the vehicle and parts markets inside and out. He can evaluate what a 2006 F-150 is worth for parts, or whether the company can repair and resell it. This is a team that's done this work every day for years, maintaining the relationships and reputation that Mike established.
The business has stayed independent because it provides the flexibility to say yes when the big companies say no. That independence matters when someone calls with a vehicle that doesn't fit neatly into corporate algorithms but still has real value.
We Buy Everything - And We Mean It
Most of what Kelly Car Buyer purchases are indeed junk cars. The majority of vehicles the company buys are headed to the parts market or sold for scrap, where Kelly Car Buyer has built relationships with buyers across the country. A car that won't start in a driveway might have a transmission worth hundreds of dollars to a mechanic in Arizona, or door panels that are impossible to find for someone restoring the same model in Florida.
But Kelly Car Buyer doesn't only buy junk cars. The company also purchases vehicles that run and drive but have fallen into automotive no-man's-land; too old or high-mileage for the big online buyers, but too good to scrap. Maybe it's a 2010 sedan with higher mileage that runs fine but needs new brakes. Or a small SUV from 2012 that a family has outgrown. These vehicles still have real value, either because Kelly Car Buyer can make the repairs and resell them, or because the market the company works in values them differently than the algorithms do.
Where the Big Online Buyers Fall Short
The car-buying landscape is full of gaps. Companies like Carvana and CarMax have carved out a profitable slice of the market; newer cars, clean titles, vehicles that fit neatly into their algorithms. That's great for them, but it leaves a lot of people stuck with perfectly good vehicles that don't check every box on some corporate checklist.
This flexibility is what sets a family business apart from a corporate formula. When Faith or Michelle or Jim answers a call, they're not checking boxes on a screen. They're listening to what someone has and figuring out how to make it work.
Why Kelly Car Buyer Can Often Pay More
The company's national network of parts buyers and vehicle wholesalers means it often has more options than the local junkyard down the street.
For junk cars, Kelly Car Buyer evaluates vehicles based on real parts market data; not just what someone will pay for scrap metal by the pound. That catalytic converter alone might be worth more than what a local buyer offers for the whole car. The engine, the transmission, the doors, the electronics; the team knows which parts have value and where to sell them.
And for vehicles that run and drive but are just too old or have too many miles for the big online buyers, Kelly Car Buyer works with wholesalers and repair shops who value these vehicles differently. They're looking for specific makes and models to repair and resell, or they need inventory for their used car lots. That often means Kelly Car Buyer can offer more than sellers expect for a vehicle that the algorithm rejected.
Give Us a Try
Selling a vehicle isn't usually fun. Maybe it broke down and repairs aren't affordable. Maybe someone just wants it gone to move on to something more reliable. Maybe the online buyers said it's too old, or has too many miles, or doesn't meet their standards.
Call Kelly Car Buyer anyway. The worst that happens is getting a quote to compare with whatever else is out there. The best that happens is getting an offer that's more than expected for a vehicle that seemed like nobody wanted it, with pickup on the seller's schedule and payment in hand.
After over twenty years, Kelly Car Buyer has learned that every vehicle has a story, and every vehicle has value to someone.
We're proudly a Green operation. If we can, we'll fix up your car and resell it to someone who keeps using it. The best Green policy is to reuse what we can.
If your car is totaled, we'll still try to salvage spare parts to keep other vehicles on the road.
If your car is only worth its weight in steel, we'll recycle as much as we can.
We'll also make sure that the many hazardous fluids and compounds in junk cars are dealt with in an environmentally responsible way.
