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DUI vehicle immobilization costs: 10, 30 & 90 days without the car
Our towing and impound guide prices the days right after an arrest. This page prices the longer, court-ordered version that follows a conviction: Florida's mandatory impoundment or immobilization ladder — 10 days on a first conviction, 30 on a second within five years, 90 on a third within ten — and the components around it that no state publishes as a tariff.
Immobilization is a sentence, not a tow
Florida's DHSMV penalty summary states the ladder plainly under § 316.193(6): unless the defendant's family has no other transportation, the court must order impoundment or immobilization of the vehicle — 10 days for a first conviction, 30 days for a second conviction within five years, and 90 days for a third conviction within ten years. The order must not run concurrently with the defendant's incarceration, and the court may dismiss the order for vehicles owned by the defendant but operated solely by employees of the defendant or of a business the defendant owns. Two features of that text decide what the component actually costs. First, the durations are mandatory and published, so they can be tabled exactly. Second, the statute and the DHSMV summary publish no per-day or per-order price for the immobilization itself: the work is done by court-approved vendors, at the defendant's expense, on the vendor's own charges. A page that multiplied the days by an invented daily rate would be manufacturing the largest number in the case, so this page tables the days and leaves the vendor column honestly blank.
Immobilization is also easy to confuse with three neighbouring components, and the distinctions matter because each is priced from a different source. Impoundment at arrest is a police and storage matter, priced in the towing guide. Ignition interlock is a device lease that lets a reinstated driver drive again, priced in our interlock guide — and under § 316.193 the court may dismiss an immobilization order where the defendant proves a functioning certified interlock has been installed on the vehicles the defendant owns or routinely operates, which makes the two components substitutes in some cases rather than a stack. Forfeiture, the permanent loss of the vehicle at felony tiers, is priced separately in our vehicle forfeiture guide and is not a longer immobilization — it never ends.
The Florida ladder and its conditions
The hardship structure inside the order is part of its cost story. The family-no-other-transportation exception in the DHSMV summary, the employee-vehicle dismissal the court may grant, and the interlock substitution all exist because a 10-, 30- or 90-day loss of the household or business vehicle carries costs — missed work, replacement transport, a second vehicle pressed into service — that no agency measures or publishes. Those costs are real, they fall on households rather than defendants alone, and they are described on this page precisely so they are not silently converted into a dollar estimate no source supports.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| Florida — first conviction (§ 316.193(6); DHSMV summary) | Impoundment or immobilization for 10 days, as a condition of probation, unless the family has no other transportation; not concurrent with incarceration |
| Florida — second conviction within 5 years (§ 316.193(6); DHSMV summary) | Impoundment or immobilization of all vehicles owned by the defendant for 30 days |
| Florida — third conviction within 10 years (§ 316.193(6); DHSMV summary) | Impoundment or immobilization of all vehicles owned by the defendant for 90 days |
| Immobilization vendor charge (Florida) | Payable by the defendant to the court-approved vendor; no per-day or per-order tariff is published in § 316.193(6) or the DHSMV summary — not estimated on this page |
| Interlock substitution (§ 316.193, published statute references) | The court may dismiss the immobilization order on proof that a functioning certified ignition interlock is installed on the defendant's vehicles; device lease charges are provider charges, priced in the interlock guide |
Sources: Florida Statutes § 316.193(6), as summarised in the Florida DHSMV DUI and Administrative Suspension Laws penalty summary (10 / 30 / 90 days) and reproduced in published statute references. Last verified: October 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorWhat no authority publishes for immobilization
No Florida source named on this page publishes what a 10-, 30- or 90-day immobilization costs in dollars: not a daily storage rate, not a boot or club fee schedule, not an average vendor bill. Storage-market rates quoted for ordinary impounds are not a court-order tariff and are not used here. The household costs of losing the vehicle — replacement transport, lost shifts, childcare logistics — are likewise unpublished and unestimated. There is also no published figure for the effect of a conviction carrying immobilization on car insurance prices, and none appears on this page.
What can be stated exactly is the exposure the statute creates: a first offender should expect the vehicle to be unusable for 10 days as a condition of probation, a second offender within five years for 30, and a third within ten years for 90 — with the bill for carrying out the order arriving from a vendor whose charges the sentencing documents, not a state schedule, will govern. Plan around the days, which are published, and treat any dollar figure for the vendor work as unknown until the order issues. The surrounding components are priced in our Florida breakdown, our towing and impound guide and our interlock guide.
Common questions
- How long is a car immobilized after a Florida DUI?
- 10 days on a first conviction, 30 days on a second within five years, and 90 days on a third within ten years, under § 316.193(6) as summarised by the DHSMV — unless the family has no other transportation.
- How much does Florida immobilization cost per day?
- No per-day rate is published in the statute or the DHSMV summary. The order is carried out by court-approved vendors at the defendant's expense, on the vendor's charges.
- Can an interlock replace immobilization in Florida?
- The court may dismiss the immobilization order where the defendant proves a functioning certified interlock is installed on the vehicles the defendant owns or routinely operates.
Related cost guides: towing and impound costs, ignition interlock costs, DUI vehicle forfeiture costs, Florida DUI penalties breakdown.
Sources: Florida Statutes § 316.193(6); Florida DHSMV DUI and Administrative Suspension Laws summary. Last verified: October 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.