We just finished donating our car to charity through Auto-Donation.com which will handle all the paperwork & liaison to help you get rid of your vehicle. They work with a number of charities so that your donation helps one of your choice. I think it's far better than trying to sell a clunker.
Our '94 Ford Taurus only had ~113K miles on it, and a lot of rebuilt engine/transmission parts, but it only got 19 mpg. When we bought our used Toyota Prius (>50 mpg) the Taurus began to look pretty sad. The car would probably have run for another five years as long as we didn't care about anything that was plastic, upholstery, dashboard, body trim, air conditioning, ventilation, or any other auxiliary equipment.
Edmunds & Kelly swore that the car was worth at least $1200, and we could probably have cleared $750-$995 by Craigslist. But I would've felt bad about selling the car to a hopeful teenager with a limited budget, and you get a lot of whackos at that used-car price point. Oh, and the cruise control didn't work and was of the same model that Ford had recalled for bursting into flames. But Ford swears that year/model wasn't part of the recall. Let's just say that I didn't want to wonder if my umbrella liability policy would include coverage for flaming lemons.
Auto-Donation's website screens cars by VIN and will take just about anything, running or not, although presumably even they have their limits. We filled out the online form, mailed it off (to Clinton ME, of all places) with the title signed over to them, and got a call a few days later from the local towing company. Five hours later the car was gone.
We were told that our deduction amount was limited until they auctioned the car. (Some of you may remember that car donations were subject to widespread deduction abuse a few years ago, so the IRS has considerably tightened up the procedure.) Today we got the tax receipt certifying that it went for $600 at auction. [-]SUCKERS!![/-] Good deal. Painless. Highly recommended.
The last used car we sold (a '90 Honda Civic) was on the road until at least 2007. It'll be interesting to watch for our Taurus around the island, but it's probably been stripped for parts...
In 750 days (when our kid goes to college) we'll probably get rid of our '97 Nissan Altima through these guys too. It's been banged up (it was attacked by a vicious guardrail) and I'd hate to try to sell a car with that type of record, too.
Our '94 Ford Taurus only had ~113K miles on it, and a lot of rebuilt engine/transmission parts, but it only got 19 mpg. When we bought our used Toyota Prius (>50 mpg) the Taurus began to look pretty sad. The car would probably have run for another five years as long as we didn't care about anything that was plastic, upholstery, dashboard, body trim, air conditioning, ventilation, or any other auxiliary equipment.
Edmunds & Kelly swore that the car was worth at least $1200, and we could probably have cleared $750-$995 by Craigslist. But I would've felt bad about selling the car to a hopeful teenager with a limited budget, and you get a lot of whackos at that used-car price point. Oh, and the cruise control didn't work and was of the same model that Ford had recalled for bursting into flames. But Ford swears that year/model wasn't part of the recall. Let's just say that I didn't want to wonder if my umbrella liability policy would include coverage for flaming lemons.
Auto-Donation's website screens cars by VIN and will take just about anything, running or not, although presumably even they have their limits. We filled out the online form, mailed it off (to Clinton ME, of all places) with the title signed over to them, and got a call a few days later from the local towing company. Five hours later the car was gone.
We were told that our deduction amount was limited until they auctioned the car. (Some of you may remember that car donations were subject to widespread deduction abuse a few years ago, so the IRS has considerably tightened up the procedure.) Today we got the tax receipt certifying that it went for $600 at auction. [-]SUCKERS!![/-] Good deal. Painless. Highly recommended.
The last used car we sold (a '90 Honda Civic) was on the road until at least 2007. It'll be interesting to watch for our Taurus around the island, but it's probably been stripped for parts...
In 750 days (when our kid goes to college) we'll probably get rid of our '97 Nissan Altima through these guys too. It's been banged up (it was attacked by a vicious guardrail) and I'd hate to try to sell a car with that type of record, too.
