[FordDude]

The SWMBO has finally agreed to get rid of the POS cheby suburban and better yet we are now looking for a F-150. /forums/images/icons/cool.gif OK to make a long story short we have a '87 surburban silverardo 2wd 350 automatic. No rust, but a few dings and dents, and the interior is fair with the headliner removed. But the problem is that it needs the heads replaced. That will cost me a little over 400 bucks (if the core is good) plus at least a day to do the work. (Need I explain how much I enjoy working on that cheby /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif ) Blue book maxium is 2800, and that is assuming everything is working. /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif But I figure that I could get at least 2k for it. Or should it just donate it? This is the one place that is advertised on the local news radio station that I listen to. Just wondering if anyone has any experience donating a car to charity? BTW the SWMBO wants the money to go to the animal shelter (or something to do with helping pets). fd

 

[bishir]

Gee, a suburban could provide a nice home for a few pets! Want to start a Humane society in your backyard /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[johnpro]

I have donated 3 cars to charity ... a '79 Camaro (totalled by an uninsured driver), a '83 Honda Accord, and a '81 Bronco (full size).

What you do is to figure out what it will save you on your taxes by donating it (usually about %33 of the blue book value). If you can sell it out-right for more, sell it, if not, donate it.

You can deduct the full value of the vehicle, and since there's no vehicle later for the IRS to evaluate, just the receipt from the donee, I've always taken high blue book value Example: The '81 Bronco high blue book was around $4100 at the time I donated it. With the amount of work it needed, I'd been lucky to $1500 for it. It saved me about $1500 on my taxes, so I told Sacramento Children's Home to come get it. They picked up the Bronco and the Honda at the same time

If you want to claim a value over $5k, you must have the car appraised. Most of the places that accept vehicles for donation will apprais a vehicle for free. They appraised my Accord at $7300, which is WWAAAYYY more than I could possibly have sold it for.

 

[Hurtle_II]

Believe it or not I've had trouble donating the last 2 vehicles I got rid of. Both were running and in fair shape.

The kidney foundation passed on both because they were over 10 years old. The animal shelter took 1 but passed on the other because they couldn't find a junk yard that wanted it. That one eventually went to the learning disabled.

Believe it or not they're pretty picky with this stuff.

 

[Billgear]

If it's really bad call the blind Society, they don't care what it looks like *G*

 

[RagTop]

From a financial standpoint the donation route really sucks. You can deduct the car at the maximum fair market value from your gross income. If your tax rate is, say, 30% then you will get 30% of the fair market value of the car. In your case the blue book says $2,800 so you would get a net benefit (assuming the deduction didn't kick you down into a lower tax bracket) of $840. I'm willing to bet you can sell the truck for more than $840 without too much effort. Now, if you are motivated by charity then that's a whole different deal, but you could always sell the truck for $1,800 and donate that to the charity. Problem is they can probably make more by your donating the truck outright. They put about $400 into the heads and sell it for a $2,400 profit. Maybe your best financial move is to put the $400 into the heads yourself and sell the truck for a cool $2,000. You net $1,600.

 

[Teebone]

Let me explain how the donation of vehicles works..you donate the car to a charity of your choice..they turn it over to an auction house..they might get 2K for your Burban..the charity if it is lucky..will receive about 100 bucks..they all work this way..it's the biggest scam to ever hit the American public..if you are in a real giving mood..sell the Burban and hand over the full amount to the charity..you can still claim it as a tax write off and your charity will be that much richer..

 

[packrat]

don`t let sharkmouth hear you guys talking about donating a vehicle to a pet charity--you might fall under his "TREE HUGGER" category and get slapped

 

[67hardtop]

Bill,

That was funny! Thanks. LOL!

 

[Mr_Siv]

my dad donated his old bronco to a school shop class so they could take it apart and such. the teacher was happy because it was a 4wd, and he got more $$ than the bone yard would have given him (it had 300k on it, there wasnt much left). i dont know how the tax deductions worked exacitly (i was about 12 at the time...) but i think he got more than 33% of the worth of the truck.

- Jason

 

[FordDude]

OK now I'm thinking twice about donating the sub. John was the only one who was thumbs up, everyone else was thumbs down except for the wanna-be comedian /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif As they say "A thousand comedians out of work and your applying for the job" /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif Well it looks as if I'm going to be working a a cheby this weekend. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif fd