or, The Old Gray Mare, she ain’t what she used to be…
As much as my wife loved her old car, and as much as we despise monthly car payments, we finally decided that it was time to move on. Last week we bought a new car for her use. So now I find myself with one car too many, and if there’s anything I hate more than car payments, it’s the hassle of selling old cars.
Have any of you ever donated a car to charity? Have any tips or recommendations? A favorite charity that I can help?
If the car is in decent working condition, you might see whether a local domestic abuse shelter would be interested. People who have fled their homes because of abuse are often without transportation, which makes looking for a job difficult.
There are numerous charities, Salvation Army ,Goodwill etc. You get to write off retail value of car. Blue book I believe. If they fix and sell you write off that amt. I did it twice a few years ago before they got tougher on the deductions.
Blue book on it is only ~$650, so the tougher deduction guidelines shouldn’t be a problem. Like I said, it’s an old car; we bought it brand new in 1990. It’s been well taken care of, though, and still runs fine.
pink: there is a local shelter that I hadn’t considered, because they keep a very low profile, for obvious reasons. Thanks for reminding me.
It’s not that old. My daily driver’s an 81, and I’ve got a 69 as well. Some charities have gotten picky about what cars they’ll take so it pays to shop around.
I donated my (non-running) 1990 MPV to these folks. They were very nice, and gave me all my tax paperwork when they picked up the car the next day. They’re also really flexible about when they do their pickups. I’m not too far from you, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting them to come out for a good, running car.
We donated our old cars to the Kidney Foundation.
These days, though, IRS rules have changed on how you take the deduction (if you itemize). The Kidney Foundation takes cars and then resells them. According to the new rules, if the charity resells, then you can only take a deduction on the actual amount the charity gets for the car.
On the other hand, if they charity you donate to actually uses the car in the execution of its work or gives the cars to its recipients, you can then take the blue book value of the car.
So, whoever you decide to donate to, keep that in mind. If we donate a car again, we will probably give it to our local Wheels for Work organization. They fix up and then give the cars to qualified people who use them to get back and forth to their jobs every day. That will allow us to take the blue book value.
When my Saturn committed suicide (shot a rod through the engine block), I donated it to the local Children’s hospital. They got it towed from the shop and auctioned it. I got a receipt that detailed how much it had sold for to use at tax time. So, I did a good deed, got rid of a headache and will get a teeny tiny tax break as well. It was nice.
I donated an old car to a halfway house that I went through. I figured that the halfway house would sell it, though it wasn’t worth but maybe 1000. It ended up being used by the people going through the halfway house. Last I heard it had served 6 other people, which quite frankly amazes me because the car had a very bad transmission, pieces of 5th gear were floating around in the gear box. They apparently just kept fixing the thing. The people in the halfway house are trying to get their life back. It was nice to be able to help a little.
Just a thought. There are many good places to donate.
Slee
We gave ours to the local PBS station. They were very efficient and accomodating. Ours was a van that still ran but would not have passed CA emission standards testing without extensive work.
I can appreciate that. In 02 I traded my 81 for a 95, and I’m still kicking myself for selling my 67. 
We use stuff until it’s used slap up, and The Wife would have been happy to keep driving it had we not needed more room for kids and groceries. I just meant ‘old’ in terms of book value. No offense to classic car enthusiasts intended.
That’s what I’m after. And I’d rather it go to a charity that will give it to someone who needs a ride than one that will sell it and give a portion of the proceeds to someone who needs some cash.
Thanks for all your responses.
Roonwit, just out of curiosity, did you try to trade-in your old car at the dealership when you bought the new one?
Rawhide Boys Ranch has taken vehicles in for decades and the troubled teens fix the cars up and sell them to support the place. The ads on television say the donors get the value of the fixed and sold vehicle as a tax write off. They’ve been doing a good joc with the teens, and the money goes to support the place.
My neighbour donated her old car. She warned the guy picking it up that it had problems and he shouldn’t start it, but he decided to try moving it a few feet to make towing easier and the engine burst in to flames and set the tree by the curb on fire and the fire department had to come put it all out.
If you like your foliage I’d give it a miss if I were you.
I donated my old car to a local organization to benefit the blind. Very easy, just gave them a call, made an appointment; they hauled it off and did most of the paperwork. Not only that, but they agreed to take an old utility trailer and a riding lawn mower that had been cluttering up the back garage for years. They raised some money for the cause, I got a tax break and didn’t have to deal with the hassle of placing a classified ad, answering phone inquiries, staying home for people who don’t show up, et cetera. Defintely a win-win situation.
Around here (DC metro) you hear a lot of horror stories about how charities don’t do the proper paperwork (they’ll ask you to give the title w/o officially signing it over to the charity - the claim is that it’s easier if they don’t have to retitle it to themselves, then they can just fill in the buyer’s info on the title). Unfortunately, this means if the person who acquires the car doesn’t do the paperwork, then they abandon the car somewhere, the donor is the one who gets contacted by the police about the derelict car they supposedly still own. Happened to a friend of ours - a few months after he donated his car, he got a call saying it had been abandoned in Rock Creek Park. He was able to produce his paperwork proving it was no longer his, otherwise he might have been stuck with towing charges. So be careful whatever you do with it.
Another option I’ve heard of is to find the local trade school and donate the car there for the students to work on. There’s a high school near my house that has an auto mechanic training program and supposedly they’re delighted to receive such donations.