Has anybody ever donated their car?

[NewJeffCT]

As I had mentioned last week, we have a 9 year old car with high mileage on it. That might scare off a lot of buyers, so somebody had suggested to look into donating the car to charity.

has anybody ever done it, or known somebody that did? How did it go?

Thanks

[LaurenG]

1. We did - just last month.

Goodwill came and picked it up and sold it for $675. It was a 1989 Toyota all wheeldrive that was rusting and the frame was about rusted through.

I get to take that as a deduction now. I'm satisfied as we usually give our older cars to people in need and don't get the deduction. This one had me worried though so we gave it to Goodwill to work out the details with the condition being so poor.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Thanks

Not sure if we'll end up going that way, but we're trying to keep our options open.

[siligut]

2. Yes and it was fairly easy.

We donated an old, but running car, to PAWS. I found the company online, I am sorry I can't remember exactly, but, the company offered several options for where you wanted the donation to go. The towing company called me and set up a time to come by. The tow truck driver had all of the paper work and all I did was sign and help him load the car. We received a $500.00 tax deduction. All and all, I would say it went rather smoothly.

[NewJeffCT]

5. Thanks

Easy is important.

[Burma Jones]

3. I've donated two cars

A 1991 GEO Tracker with 150,000 miles on it and a 1998 Volvo S70 T5 with about 140,000 miles on it


The Tracker was no longer compatible with my lifestyle......when I bought it I was single and when I gave it away, my Wife was pregnant with our first kid, but the damned thing still had its original clutch and did not require any major work....although the canvas top was replaced....


The Volvo was getting expensive to maintain and it was a Manual and I had just got a job requiring me to commute in stop and go traffic.....so I needed to get an Automatic.


I donated the cars through a local charity in DC, some 10 years apart. It went just fine, I signed over the title, they removed the tags for me to return to the DMV and they gave me a receipt for the Blue Book Value which I then handed over to our Accountant at Tax Time.

[joeybee12]

6. Donated a few years back to NPR...

...fairly painless thing to do, however the garage guy that picked it up was always changing when he was going to show, and then not showing...be sure you get your receipt.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear NewJeffCT...

Yes, I did that several years ago. It was very easy and we got a nice tax write-off.

We gave it to our local classical radio station, and they arranged to have it picked up and auctioned.

Our write-off was based on what it got at auction, and all went very well.

I would not hesitate to do it again...

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Dupe.

[ceile]

9. Donated mine to Goodwill

Just call them up and they'll come get it. All you do is sign over the title and leave the keys.

[Tobin S.]

10. I gave an old pickup to a friend one time

Told him to do with it whatever he wished. He was in need of cash and/or a car. The truck needed a lot of work. He sold it for $500 and used the money to buy some things he needed.

[LeftinOH]

11. I donated a 12-year old Honda Civic to a local charity which specializes in this

(Our Lady of the Wayside). The car had several mechanical problems -but was good for parts, I suppose.

[REP]

12. Yes, as have my mom and brother, to the National Kidney Foundation "kidney cars"

They take most cars - but not all SUVs/trucks - running or not. They fix them or recycle them and you get the Blue Book value as a charitable deduction (check current tax law for max you're allowed to claim; it changes).

[AngryOldDem]

13. Very easy.

Called, set up a time, had to have the title and sign it over to them, they came with a flatbed truck, and off it went. A few weeks later I got a receipt for tax purposes. Couldn't have been easier.

My car was 21 years old -- my first car -- and I admit to getting a lump in my throat seeing it taking its last ride. My guess is it was cannibalized for parts. It did serve me well.


EDIT: Whoops, meant to say title.

[struggle4progress]

14. I donated a car about a decade ago. The charity wanted to be sure it was in running condition

and would pass state inspection before accepting it; they eventually sent a letter acknowledging the donation for income tax write-off purposes, indicating it was really a charitable donation and not given in exchange for any goods or services

But it was entirely my responsibility to estimate and document the value of the donation for my income tax purposes; I extensively searched the web for recent offered instances of that make and model in comparable condition, until I had a dozen or so, then picked out maybe the middle 5 or 6 pricewise, averaged the offers, and rounded the average to the nearest $50. The car was about 20 years old, not pristine, and I double-checked my estimated value against the bluebook value, just to make sure I wasn't giving the tax authorities an estimate they'd claim was ridiculous

I saved some documentation about how I estimated the value and the charity's letter with my tax stuff for that year

[Silver Swan]

15. We donated a car to the American Lung Association

several years ago. It wasn't even in drivable condition, but they took it.

Later, we donated a car in (poor) running condition to Volunteers of America.

Both were easy--much easier than trying to get rid of a junker car in another fashion.

[csziggy]

16. We donated my pre-marriage car to the local Vo-tech school

It ran, but was older with high mileage. They loved it since back then (1977) they had few foreign cars donated so far and the students would be able to learn about those "furrin" Japanese cars - it was a Datsun station wagon. The other thing that made me chose the Vo-tech school was that once they had the cars running (or gave up on them) deserving students in the program got them.

The hardest part for us was picking where to donate it. The paperwork was easy, we just drove the car in, handed them the keys and that was that.