Has anyone ever donated a car?

[ChiTownZee]

Has anyone any experience with donating a car to charity or school? DH and I are thinking of going that route with his old acura, but I'm not sure what the best way to go is.

 

[believe]

We donated our car. We bought a newspaper and started calling the numbers listed for those looking for donations. Some will only take them if you can actually start them or they don't have any major problem because they don't have a mechanic on hand. Ours was donated to the Kidney foundation, we just signed the back of the title over, removed the license plate and left it in the title in the glove box. Shortly after we received a letter in the mail for tax purposes. It was a very painless process.

 

[wdwnutze]

We donated a car also. I think my DH looked online to find a place to donate it to. He found an organization that takes the cars and gives them to different organizations. Our went to an AIDS organization. They leave you a receipt to use for your taxes.

 

[cgcw]

We donated DH's old Honda Civic to Make-A-Wish. The dealer was going to give us $100 for it as a trade but we were able to take much more than that on our taxes as a donation. It was very simple. All we had to do was leave it out for them and they came along with a tow truck and took it away. I would do it again without hesitation if I was in the situation again.

 

[DonnaS]

We donated our last Camry to a battered women's organization. They fix up the cars and then auction them off. It worked out great.

 

[Dopey Sharon]

I donated my son's car to a cancer foundation. Very simple...called them, signed the title and they picked it up the next morning. They left me the paperwork for my tax deduction. I originally called Purple Heart...they never picked up the car. After a month, I gave up on them and called the cancer foundation.

 

[Grog]

I originally called Purple Heart...they never picked up the car. After a month, I gave up on them and called the cancer foundation.

Deja vu. I was originally going to donate an old car to PH but after calling them three times, and being told they would come and get it, they never did. I ended up giving it to the American Diabetes Association who came and picked it up within a couple of days.

 

[nativetxn]

We "sold" ours and the company got the great deal. We got 50 bucks.

My husband just was afraid that if he tried to deduct the "donation" of a car, he might trigger an IRS audit, he is very paranoid about that happening.

I wanted to donate the car but he sold it for "junk".

 

[mskani]

I donated my non-running '93 Escort last November to charity. I left the title in the glove box and they picked the car up. Around February, I got a notice from the police saying that the car was impounded and that I had to go to court. It turns out that someone got the car started and it was ticketed for having an "improper" registration. Long story short, the judge told me to get the car title revoked (I mistakenly thought that signing the back of the title was sufficient) and bring in verification on June 5th.

Even with all of this hassle, I think that donating vehicles is an excellent way to help organizations (in addition to getting a much needed tax write-off in return) and now that I know exactly what to do to protect myself, I would not hesitate to make another donation.