Getting rid of a car

PotatoNinja

I live in the Seattle area and have a car I'm not making use of any more, and paying insurance / tabs / parking for a gigantic paperweight seems unwise.

A quick google search turns up about 8 million "donate your car / auction your car / salvage your car" websites, all looking vaguely untrustworthy.

I'm looking to get rid of my vehicle. I wouldn't mind a bit of cash in my pocket, but I'm not interested in the time or effort of selling it myself (I wouldn't make that much), and I'm perfectly happy letting my unneeded car feed kids in whatever poor country they're turning unwanted cars into gruel for.

So, anyone have experience using any of these services or sites? Places to go, places to stay away from, things to be aware of?

urahonky

Try out craigslist. You just post your ad up and respond to emails. But make sure you meet in a public place, and bring a friend at all times if you meet a buyer.

PotatoNinja

PotatoNinja wrote: »

but I'm not interested in the time or effort of selling it myself (I wouldn't make that much)

urahonky

Oh heh. Well I thought you meant that it would take too much effort to sell. My bads.

PotatoNinja

urahonky wrote: »

Oh heh. Well I thought you meant that it would take too much effort to sell. My bads.

No worries, I'm lazy and the car isn't in ideal condition. Its worth some cash I imagine, but I couldn't in good faith sell it to someone over craigslist, and I'm not really interested in haggling with a mechanic as to the car's specific value.

*edit* Not sure if its relevant, but "isn't in ideal condition" is meant with tongue in cheek. No frame damage, no structural damage, breaks are fine, engine and / or radiator are problems and I wouldn't want anyone driving it for more than about 5 miles.

stawk

What kind of car is it?

PotatoNinja

stawk wrote: »

What kind of car is it?

Does it matter? Mid 90's 4 door.

stawk

well i am in the market for a rally car :P

Wezoin

I'm not sure if theres a similar program near you, but around where I live (ontario) theres this thing called Teen Challenge, where they help kids who are just getting off drugs/solving other problems in their lives by giving them a car so they can get jobs and get back and forth to them. They give you a tax receipt for the full value of your vehicle (and are generally quite generous in terms of calculating that value.) You get rid of the car, they'll fix 'er up and make sure she's roadworthy, a young person gets a second chance, and you get some money off your taxes. Winners all around.

MichaelLC

Could call a Seattle Goodwill or Amvets and see if they have anyone that takes cars.

Unlike the Canuckistani above, most US donation programs don't use the car; they just sell it and use the money. Either way, if you donate, you'll want to get something in writing about their estimated value.

supabeast

The last time we sold a car on Craigslist it took about thirty minutes for a wholesaler to look at it, whip out a pile of cash and drive off.

Newton

Keep in mind that if you donate your car, you'll only get a tax benefit if you itemize your deductions. If you take the standard deduction, you won't get any benefit from it. Furthermore, you only get to deduct the amount that the charity sells the car for, not the full value of the car itself. You might be sitting on a car worth $1500, but if you donate it, it may get sold for maybe $300-400. Your tax savings would then be the sale price times your tax rate, or roughly $75-100, and you wouldn't even see that until tax time next year.

If you are really interested in helping a charity, this isn't a very efficient way of going about it. The charities don't even sell the cars themselves, a third part typically does, often at an auction. They then keep most of the money and give a small fraction to the charity. Car donation really isn't a very good way to go about helping out a charity or yourself. The only people that are going to benefit will be the people who sell the car. With the resources available to you on the internet, there is really a minimal amount of effort involved in selling a car yourself. A couple hours of work at most for probably at least $1000 plus a reduction in your monthly bills seem worth it to me.

Tal

Last year I donated a car to Cars for Causes .

It was a really painless process. They called to verify the information I filled out on their website, scheduled a meeting time (was at the shell station needing repairs), and all I had to do was be there to hand over the title and keys.

As was mentioned, it would have been more beneficial for me to trade it in / sell it myself (I think...the repairs I need to make might have negated any extra from the trade in, I can't remember) as the tax deduction ends up being minimal. But, if you don't mind, this seemed like a decent enough organization to go through.

Cptn Pants

junk yard, you'll get like $200 bucks maybe. My friend junked his 88 cutless supreme about a year ago and go something like $190 and steel prices have gone up since then.