Yep, the ol’ Dodge Daytona, nearly 20 years old, has nearly worn out its rebuilt engine and is running on 3 cylinders–not that I drive it much now since I went and got me a new used car. The DD would have cost far more to fix than what I paid.
So…Shall I sell the Daytona to a private buyer “As is,” sell it to one of those places that comes to get it and brings cash, or donate it to charity and take the write-off?
These are the questions that I am pondering late at night.
What do you think? Have you tried any of these options?
The last car that had major repair issues that were to extensive to warrant the repair we sold for scrap. It was a 1988 Mercury Tracer and the only thing it had going for it was that it had a full tank of gas in it before it broke down.
We called one of the ads on Craiglist that advertise they take junk cars for cash. The guy came out with a tow truck. I signed a paper, gave him the title and was handed $200 in cash.
All completed in 15 minutes.
We just got rid of our Beater with a Heater. We bartered it. We needed siding on our garage and got it for $500 cash and the beater. Total on the job was $1400 I think, so we did alright and he got a beater out of the deal.
If you decide to donate, check around a bit and make sure you are donating to a real charity.
Some of the places that take cars for charity are actually just junkyards or auto body shops that justify their ads by donating a trivial amount each year to the advertised charity.
20 year old Daytona that’s missing a cylinder? You could try a charity but I don’t think any would be willing to get it fixed. We had a Dodge Shadow that was still in good mechanical condition but would have cost more than its worth to get fixed, so we donated it. Salvation Army, IIRC.
I’ve donated two cars. One had been in a front-end collision and we couldn’t locate parts, the other still had life in it, but we were tired of the repairs. We took a pretty minimal tax deduction IIRC.
They came out with a tow truck, we exchanged papers, and that was it.
I had a 17 year old vehicle that was in pretty bad shape and decided to go the donation route. I found a place that offered to pick up the vehicle, auction it off, and donate the proceeds to a charity of my choice.
I assumed there would be some overhead for costs but did not clarify that up front and am kicking myself for that. The auction brought in $500 and the charity ended up only getting $86 of it. I could have sold it myself and then just donated the money directly and would have been much more satisfied with the result.
I just also discovered that the state of CA will pay $1000 to “retire” a car like this, as long as I can prove that it’s failed a smog test no later than 180 days after the expiry date of its current registration.
Thing is…that expiry could be a while from now, and I would like to free up the garage for the other cars.
Still pondering. But thank you for your comments.
I donated my old truck - tranny was on its last legs, and I wrote off the “Poor” Kelly Value on my next set of taxes.
I met a gut who owns a towing company. He is the auto donation arm for multiple charities. You call them, you actually get one of his operators. His driver picks up the car, gives you a receipt. The car then goes to an auction, where 80% of the time it is sold to a Mexican used car dealer. The Mexican guys loads up the beaters onto a car carrier and heads back over the border to resell the beaters in Mexico. Once the towing company gets its costs back, it takes a percentage of the remainder and the rest goes to the charity.
While the charity might not get much for your $250 parts car beater, they do get something. They also can not afford to run their own operation.
That’s good info to have. I had no idea. What a pisser.
OTOH, there are charities that fix the vehicle and give it to a needy family. That’s the sort we dealt with.
Another option - if there’s any kind of vocational school near you, I’ve heard that auto-shop classes like to have old cars to practice on. If the school is through a public school district, would that be a deductible donation?
I don’t know, MZ…I’ll see.
Hey, I just called Pick A Part; they’ll give me $300 if I bring it in or $275 if they come and get it. That’s not too bad, given its condition.
Detonate, definitley.
ETA: :smack:
In California the seller of the car is responsible for it passing the required smog test. So worse case scenario, you decide to sell the car, get the cash the new owner takes it and it won’t pass. He comes back and wants his money back.
:smack:
I had hoped my last car would last until I could afford a decent one, then I’d donate it. But alas, it failed utterly yesterday. I barely managed to drive it to the dealership, where they gave me $400 for it, knowing full well that it was little more than scrap. Given my employment and financial situation, I had some help from my father, who has known the salesman for quite a while. The salesman actually said “$100 for the car, $300 for your father’s business”.
So I’d say “donate”.
Would have done the same, but it didn’t work out that way.