Do you itemize your deductions on your income tax return? If not, you’re not going to benefit at all by donating it. Even if you do itemize, you will get only, roughly, one third of the money back. I think it’s better for you to sell it for what you can get even if you end up donating the money.
I’m always hesitant to sell a used vehicle to a private party, even if taking all of the abovementioned precautions. Sure, you’d get more money for it, but the hassle - and, even sometimes, the guilt - just isn’t worth it to me.
Last month I traded in my 2010 vehicle to Carvana while purchasing a 2023 from them. I got $400. They took care of everything. The process couldn’t have been easier. A true win/win situation in my book.
mmm
Why then go through the hassle of selling it if you’re going to donate the money anyway? As you say, the charitable contribution probably won’t be of any benefit, tax-wise.
I donated my piece of shit old truck back in the day when you were able to write off the entire blue book value. It was a great deal.
As I understand it, now you get to write off what they are able to get when they sell it and you’ll get notice of what that is from them. As mentioned earlier, any of this only works if you itemize.
CarMax or Carvana is a great way to sell a car just because it’s so easy. They may not take such an old beater though.
I sold a 2009 Kia Rio recently w/ over 100K miles that was totaled by the insurance company almost four years ago. The car still ran, the front passenger quarter panel was “multi-bungee-corded” to not scrape the ground or wheel. No maintenance for three plus years, I put some oil into it once. Despite the cracked windshield, rusty wheel wells and obvious body damage I got $500.00 from a local junkyard. Quite easy, they sent a tow truck to me, signed over the title, got my money and that was it.
My understanding is that the charity works with a for-profit company to collect the cars and then to sell or scrap them. The charity may get only a fraction of the revenues. So there may be more money if you sell the car yourself.
About 10 years ago I donated my 1976 plow truck to the Keystone Science School
The truck had seen better days but still worked fine. They used it to plow their parking lots and roads. They may have ended up selling it, donno. They needed it and it was appreciated.
Good 'ole Puddles, got another life.
Perhaps there is an organization that would appreciate it? I think NPR takes um, but I’m thinking local.
If you bought a new car why didn’t you just trade it in? [or did you mean new to you, but not a brand new vehicle from a new car dealer?]
I traded in my truck when I bought my Rogue, but before that I donated cars to Wounded Warriors and to my school’s auto shop. In each case they picked up the car on a flatbed and took it away, leaving me with a donation certificate for my taxes.
Easy peasy.
You’re setting yourself up for failure if you try to list a used vehicle’s flaws or guarantee anything, IMHO. Every vehicle I’ve ever sold has been sold “as is”. More specifically, here is the language I used for my last bill of sale:
“I, the undersigned buyer, acknowledge receipt of this Bill of Sale and understand there is no guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the above-described property. It is also understood that the above-stated vehicle is sold in “as is” condition, with no representation made as to its fitness or mechanical condition.”
I’m not a lawyer, but this seems as rock-solid as you are going to get. I have had at least one buyer who wanted to have a mechanic inspect the vehicle before the sale (at their own expense). If someone chooses to do that, then great. If they don’t, it’s on them.
Take a picture, post it on Facebeook Marketplace section, say everything that is wrong with it even. You will be responding to PMs almost imediately, lots of them. Someone will want to buy it within hours. Someone is looking for your junk.
I just sold a wrecked car that way. Totaled. Too many messages to keep up with, Talked to a local guy who showed up with a trailer and cash in hand, sold in about an hour after posting. Needed something to drive. Found a $1000 POS the same way, bought it in less than an hour. And I live out in the country.
Just as a reminder, in the section quoted, I mentioned said family member listed all known flaws AND UNKNOWNS. So yes, there was substantial “as-is” language. Doesn’t mean the buyer DIDN’T still come back, nearly a year later and complain repeatedly on the phone about two failures, one of which was explicitly spelled out, and the other a common failing due to age. And there were repeated mentions of taking the family member to court.
So yes, the buyer was trying to browbeat him out of a partial refund, or take it back and give a full refund. And probably knew they were in the wrong, but wanted to make such a nuisance of themselves that they’d get something to just go away.
It didn’t work, but originally I was making the point that sometimes, even if you do everything right, selling to a private individual can be more trouble than it’s worth.
Anecdotally only, as I said in my original post to the thread.
Fair enough, but I was pointing out the fact that when you put a vehicle’s faults in writing, you open the door to misinterpretation, misunderstanding, or a buyer trying to take advantage of you sometime in the future. And what if you happen to miss something? Or don’t think to list an obvious fault?
Far better, IMHO, to explicitly guarantee nothing on the bill of sale, say the vehicle is sold “as is”, and to put the bare minimum vehicle description on the bill of sale: vehicle make, model, year of manufacture, and odometer reading. That’s it. If the buyer wants to know the vehicle’s faults before the sale, they are welcome to inspect it or have a mechanic inspect it.
Bottom line is that when you also start listing a vehicle’s faults, you only muddy the waters and undercut the “as is” language. I have sold many vehicles in my life, and have never had a buyer come back to me later. I attribute to that at least partly to the language on my bill of sale.
I did the same. It was super-convenient (they came and picked it up), I got a small tax credit, and I got to support an organization I like!
I didn’t know that one could donate a clunker to NPR. I’ll do that next time, Lord knows they need it. The last two times, I donated to a company that collects old beaters for veterans.
I donated my old, 150K miles Saturn to NPR - as with others, the needed repairs were more than the car was worth. (I had a good and honest mechanic back then.) I had just gotten new tires for it. My daughter’s friend also had a Saturn, so we swapped my new tires for her old bald ones. Plus - she learned how to change a tire doing it.
I’d have felt guilty doing that if I were selling it to a person.
Good question. Our rate on the little we borrowed was 1.9%, so there wasn’t much of an interest savings component - if a dealer would have given me $1k for the car, I would have saved less than a hundred in interest, assuming we carry this loan for the entire 5 years.
Other than that, my general attitude is I only want to negotiate one car at a time, and I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do re: the Chevy anyway.
I agree completely. Only negotiate one vehicle at a time. Even when I’m considering trading in a vehicle, I initially tell the dealer I don’t want to do a trade-in to avoid muddying the waters.
Invariably if I bring up trading in the vehicle after negotiations are complete with the new vehicle, they offer me much less than I could get myself. One dealer was explicit: “We could have given you more for your old vehicle, but you got such a good deal on the new vehicle that we can’t give you any more than [lowball offer].”
“Exactly,” I thought to myself at the time. “That’s why I didn’t mention it before.”
My state’s lemon law covers private sales, unless the amount you sell for is very low. (Maybe $2000?) Because of this, I sold the lemon i wanted to ditch to a dealer.
I sold a beater to a friend who said he’d be happy if he got three months out of it. I think that thing ran for most of a year. I sold another beater to a young guy who worked for the shop where i took my car for repairs. I may even have just given it to him, i forget. That car didn’t run when i transferred the title. He was excited to take it apart.
Except for that lemon, i don’t think I’ve ever sold a car for enough money to really matter. Yes, i drive them into the ground.
I had a 20-year-old F-150 with a rusted-out frame and I contacted one of those online car buyers (Peddle). I had to take pictures from all angles, affirm that it ran, and then they came out with a flatbed and gave me a check for $1200. I’m not sure how much you’d get, but it didn’t cost me anything to get a quote from them, and I was surprised I got more than $100.