Donating a Vehicle to Charity

[Murgatroy]

Anyone ever donate a vehicle to a charity?

 

I have an older Explorer that blew a timing chain and has just been sitting for about a year. We stopped driving it a while before it blew and just used it for random trips with the dog.

 

We are in the process of closing on a house now, and our apartment complex is deciding to be a pain as they know we will be breaking our lease in a few weeks. As such they have demanded that we get our 'extra' vehicles off the lot as they have recieved complaints. My 'extra' vehicles are both parked in the back 40 where no one else parks and there are a dozen empty spots. But like I said, they want to be a pain.

 

I will move one car to work, but as the truck doesn't run, I don't want to pay to have it towed. To pay to have it towed again to the house when we close in a few weeks.

 

I could sell it, but with the engine effectively dead, everyone would offer scrap value. To avoid all of that hassle, I am thinking of donating it to charity.

 

Anyone have any experience with this, or have a good charity to recommend?

 

The title is clear (once I find it) and the body is in great rust free shape.

 

My other option is to throw it on Craigslist and wait for the vultures to swarm, and that is what I don't want ot deal with.

[monkeylizard]

I did many years ago. It's easier to call a scrap yard and have them haul it off, then give the proceeds to a charity of your choice as a cash donation. Get an estimated price from several different scrap yards.

 

Here's the full IRS publication:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/pub4303.pdf

 

And here's the Cliff's Notes version:

https://www.charitywatch.org/charitywatch-articles/tips-for-donating-a-car-to-charity/42

Edited May 27, 2015 by monkeylizard

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

Anyone ever donate a vehicle to a charity?

I have an older Explorer that blew a timing chain and has just been sitting for about a year. We stopped driving it a while before it blew and just used it for random trips with the dog.

We are in the process of closing on a house now, and our apartment complex is deciding to be a pain as they know we will be breaking our lease in a few weeks. As such they have demanded that we get our 'extra' vehicles off the lot as they have recieved complaints. My 'extra' vehicles are both parked in the back 40 where no one else parks and there are a dozen empty spots. But like I said, they want to be a pain.

I will move one car to work, but as the truck doesn't run, I don't want to pay to have it towed. To pay to have it towed again to the house when we close in a few weeks.

I could sell it, but with the engine effectively dead, everyone would offer scrap value. To avoid all of that hassle, I am thinking of donating it to charity.

Anyone have any experience with this, or have a good charity to recommend?

The title is clear (once I find it) and the body is in great rust free shape.

My other option is to throw it on Craigslist and wait for the vultures to swarm, and that is what I don't want ot deal with.

A charity is great, but if you decide to sell/scrap definitely sell on CL!! I had a car get totaled in a wreck on 24. I got double selling it compared to what the scrap yards were offering!

[No_0ne]

I did many years ago. It's easier to call a scrap yard and have them haul it off, then give the proceeds to a charity of your choice as a cash donation. Get an estimated price from several different scrap yards.

 

Here's the full IRS publication:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/pub4303.pdf

 

And here's the Cliff's Notes version:

https://www.charitywatch.org/charitywatch-articles/tips-for-donating-a-car-to-charity/42

 

What he said - the car is going to wind up in a scrap yard anyway, as a rule any legitimate charity isn't going to mess with repairing/rebuilding donated cars, they're going  to want to liquidate them by the fastest and easiest possible means ...

[monkeylizard]

I know that Goodwill will supply donated cars that function to people who need them to get to work and such. Since yours is busted, either scrap it or like Mrs. monkeyman said, try Craigslist. More hassle, but maybe more money.

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

I know that Goodwill will supply donated cars that function to people who need them to get to work and such. Since yours is busted, either scrap it or like Mrs. monkeyman said, try Craigslist. More hassle, but maybe more money.

It was fairly simple. I was honest in my add, mentioned frame damage and everything. Took lots of pictures. The guy came with a flatbed and $700 cash. He said he knew his young son would wreck his first car so he was gonna patch it and that's it. Granted not every person is a dream buyer BUT if you're honest about what's wrong, most people are smart enough to plan. No matter what you decide, good luck!

[Murgatroy]

I have been using CL for years. Bought dozens of cars from there. Sold a dozen too.

 

The point is, we are in the middle of closing on a house, I work two jobs, seven days a week. I don't have time to deal with Craigslist. I am not out to make a lot of money off of the truck. I would honestly like to keep it and put an engine in it, since the body is in nearly perfect shape, which is why I still have it.

 

If our landlord had waited two weeks, I wouldn't care and I would wait it out. But as it sits, I don't relish the idea of paying to tow the truck somewhere, to pay to store it for a few weeks, to pay to tow it to my new house. There is nothing in the lease stating how many vehicles we can have, but as I will be breaking the lease in less than thirty days, I don't want to start a major hassle today.

 

My thought was that a charity could come pick it up, and do some good with it, and I could write it off on my taxes. I thought that might be better than getting paid $200 by a scrapper to come haul it off. For the love of god it has $800 in barely used tires on it.

 

And no, I don't have time to part it out either.

[Pain103]

http://www.1800donatecars.com/. I just remember the Heritage for the Blind commercials from the radio. Don't know anything about them but if you are just trying to offload the vehicle it may work for you.

[Murgatroy]

I have a guy coming to pick it up on Sunday.

 

Thanks for everyone's help.

[bud]

. Edited August 7, 2015 by bud

[Murgatroy]

I was complaining about the situation at work, and a coworker said he would buy it.

 

While the cost of the vehicle is a sore point in my home*, it is not going away and leaving me empty pockets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* I spent all of my life <30 paying cash for everything. My wife is higher maintenance than I am, and after several years of driving the gamut of <$3k cars, she demanded something that wasn't a 'schmuck car.' Her exact words. So I went to a car lot and paid too much money to buy her a pretty blue Explorer, because that was the one she wanted. Nay, HAD to have. Married men know exactly what I am talking about.

 

Fast forward several years and my dear wife, whom I love very much, calls me at work panicking about the 'magic genie lamp light' on the dashboard. Again, her words. Turns out that for the last year, maybe two, I had been giving her the oil change discount cards that our local tire slinger mailed me, she hadn't been taking them up on the regular $15 oil change. As she just assumed that I changed her oil when I changed mine. As we work separate shifts so our daughter is never left alone, I never drive her truck, thus I never heard the loud ticking of the time chain that had been under oiled for ~50k. 

 

So once again, I did the only thing a logical married man can do.

 

Legally.

 

I bought her a brand new car. Unfortunately it is a rarity in this world to find a car with 'manual windows, no radio and no A/C!' and the salescritter misunderstood 'cheapest no option grocery getter on the lot' to mean the highest optioned Sport package... Oh, and the wife even got to pick her color... But they priced it at a bare bones, and threw in a service package. Which means that now, I get a nice phone call from our local service manager when my wife brings her car in for service.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Murgatroy

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

Maybe you should teach her how to change it? Once I learned how to change the oil and filters, I do my own. For my Bronco and my Sequoia. I find it relaxing, maybe she would too. Just a thought.

[runco]

For work I have to follow the metal trades on both scrap value and raw steel.  Scrap is fetching a low price, probably the lowest in 10 years.  I sold a four door mercery topaz directly to a scrap yard using my trailer to haul the car and it brought roughly $0.10 lb back in 2010 (also a low year), a average car weighs around 3K lbs.  Give or take, expect best scrap value to be close to that now, and I say your vehicle probably weighs slightly more. 

 

The reason scrap is at a historical low, the US dollar is a extremely high against the world currencies, has been for the past 6 mos.  This is causing all U.S. exports to be very high.  The U.S. exports a lot of scrap steel, but since its so expensive in foreign currencies, no one is buying.  Thus making a glut of scrap steel on the U.S. market.  Then good ole supply and demand principals step in. 

[Murgatroy]

Maybe you should teach her how to change it? Once I learned how to change the oil and filters, I do my own. For my Bronco and my Sequoia. I find it relaxing, maybe she would too. Just a thought.

Not going to happen. She won't even learn to change a tire. Drive a manual? Ha, no.

 

My daughter knows how to change oil, spark plugs, and tires. Not to mention she has helped me throughout the decades long build of Chaos, my project car. Last year I made her remove and replace the fenders with only lifting help. I am not worried about her and vehicle maintenance in the future. As a matter of fact, the only thing I am worried about with my heathen in the future is that she thinks that Chaos will be her first car. She won't. She get's Harmony, the `13 Mustang. And she is unhappy about that, she wants the turbocharged firebreathing Celica that is slammed to the ground.

 

The heathen will be nine in a couple of months. And she knows how to shift, if not work the clutch. I make driving interactive.

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

Well that's a shame. There are pictures of me half way inside the engine bay of my 79 bronco changing the fuel filter. Literally just legs sticking out. I also helped change the carb before we ended up having the engine rebuilt. To each their own. Vehicles and guns have ended up being the two things that we enjoy together.

There was the breaking point of realizing the engine had to be rebuilt. A hot and humid night with the oil pan off and a mad monkey and me crying. Both of us stuffed under the Bronco. LOL Wow, the things that poor truck has seen. Anywho, at least you can share it with your daughter!

[Murgatroy]

Well that's a shame. There are pictures of me half way inside the engine bay of my 79 bronco changing the fuel filter. Literally just legs sticking out. I also helped change the carb before we ended up having the engine rebuilt. To each their own. Vehicles and guns have ended up being the two things that we enjoy together.

There was the breaking point of realizing the engine had to be rebuilt. A hot and humid night with the oil pan off and a mad monkey and me crying. Both of us stuffed under the Bronco. LOL Wow, the things that poor truck has seen. Anywho, at least you can share it with your daughter!

Our summer project is rebuilding the 3SGTE that came out of Chaos with a melted piston. The heathen is excited.

[peejman]

Long before we got married, I made my wife change the oil in her car and I also made her change a perfectly functional tire just to prove she could do it (to me and herself).  That was before cell phones had decent coverage and we both drove plenty of places where getting a flat at night might not end happily.  She didn't know it at the time, but successful completion of those tasks was a condition of our continued association...   ;)

[Mike.357]

never mind,  should have read first, LOL

Edited May 29, 2015 by Mike.357

[NextExit]

The IRS has really changed the rules for tax write offs to charity.  Years ago, I donated my Saab with a salvage title and the transmission slipping.  They gave me a tax form showing a $3300 value. :stunned:  Can't do that anymore.    I just drive mine til it's dead then scrap it.   Don't have time to deal with the Craigslist "no shows" and tire kickers offering me half my asking price.  Besides, I buy all my vehicles with blown head gaskets and fix them.  If I get 2 years out of them, I'm happy.  It's been 5 years since I fixed my Rover and 2 years since I fixed my Volvo.  :pleased: