Anyone Ever Donate A Vehicle?

[PRA4SNW]

Due to the amount of rot that I have found in the undercarriage, I think it is time to consider selling / scrapping / donating the ST.

I am wondering if anyone have ever donated a vehicle before. This is something that I don't know very much about. Is a vehicle that can't pass state inspection even donatable? What is the process? What type of write-off should I expect?

 

[Evox]

If I remember, it's not much. If you have space, skill, and time, you will make much more selling the parts. What year is your ST?

'04 and '05 instrument clusters in good shape are worth $200-$300 on eBay. If the interior is in good shape, seats and interior parts are worth money. The bumpers and body panels are worth money, and those are all easy to remove.

Go a little deeper, and obviously, you can sell the engine and transmission and other parts off the truck. Over a year, you could probably make a few thousand dollars just selling the parts. After you're finished, a scrap yard will come to pick up your truck and hand you a check for the scrap.

It will take some time and effort, but the truck is worth way more than what the government will give you in a deduction. If you want to donate that money to charity, you'll be able to donate a lot more. ...and cash donations to a non-profit are 100% deductible.

 

[PRA4SNW]

If I remember, it's not much. If you have space, skill, and time, you will make much more selling the parts. What year is your ST?

'04 and '05 instrument clusters in good shape are worth $200-$300 on eBay. If the interior is in good shape, seats and interior parts are worth money. The bumpers and body panels are worth money, and those are all easy to remove.

Go a little deeper, and obviously, you can sell the engine and transmission and other parts off the truck. Over a year, you could probably make a few thousand dollars just selling the parts. After you're finished, a scrap yard will come to pick up your truck and hand you a check for the scrap.

It will take some time and effort, but the truck is worth way more than what the government will give you in a deduction. If you want to donate that money to charity, you'll be able to donate a lot more. ...and cash donations to a non-profit are 100% deductible.

Thanks for the advice. It's an '02 with every option, I believe. Everything seems to work fine except for the CD changer, which all of the popular fixes that I tried did not work. Driver seat bottom is toast, I would expect that most of them are. 140K on the engine, runs okay.

I like the idea of dismantling and selling off the parts, not sure if I have the time to deal with all of the buyers - maybe EBay is a good solutions for that?

I guess that I will wait to decide until after next inspection time in August. See what my mechanic has to say about it.

 

[curtis james]

if ya like your trac you could find one with bad motor or trans and for around a grand or less you can find one in solid shape and use your motor and have a ton of extra parts. i love my trac so that is what i have done. i have 2 donor trucks and last one was in Georgia and its so nice i want to fix motor, but there getting harder to find and ya got to travel to states that are not as brutal on weather.

 

[Evox]

if ya like your trac you could find one with bad motor or trans and for around a grand or less you can find one in solid shape and use your motor and have a ton of extra parts. i love my trac so that is what i have done. i have 2 donor trucks and last one was in Georgia and its so nice i want to fix motor, but there getting harder to find and ya got to travel to states that are not as brutal on weather.

That's one thing we have going for us outside the salt belt. My '04 ST has no rust. The frame and body are as solid as the day it rolled off the assembly line. We can actually get all the life out of a vehicle that it has to offer.

 

[Evox]

Of course, on that rare occasion where we get a few inches of snow, which also comes with ice on the road, we're stranded. For us to get snow, conditions almost have to be perfect. Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico has to meet a cold front from the north. At just at that meeting, we get snow which slightly melts and then freezes on the roads. If the cold front from the north wins out, it turns into road ice you can skate on. If the southern front wins, it turns into drivable slush by afternoon.

No matter what, it's not economically practical for us to keep the equipment on standby to deal with it. We've had one multi-day event in the last 20 years. In 2009 it snowed serval inches, and the northern cold front won. All that pretty snow turned hard as a rock and hung around for a couple of days before things returned to normal.

 

[Doug Kaye]

donations used to be a better deal, but people abused the process..
now the tax writeoff is limited to exactly what it sells for at auction. If the car sells for more than $500, then the receipt is your writeoff amount, otherwise it's $500.

It's very easy though, most public radio stations will take a donation, and many other charities.
I donated 3 cars - Econoline, Geo Metro, and Sienna. The first two I claimed market value, about $1500 each. The last one I got just the $500..

 

[EddieS'04]

Here in TX, I heard that any tax credit is what the charity can get for it. Or it will be a fixed amount as per the Gov. Only after they get rid of it. Then they will send you your tax credit amount.
I don't know for sure, but. The explanation I got was because we don't have state income tax, only Federal.
I will accept that I may be wrong.....

 

[PRA4SNW]

Here in TX, I heard that any tax credit is what the charity can get for it. Or it will be a fixed amount as per the Gov. Only after they get rid of it. Then they will send you your tax credit amount.
I don't know for sure, but. The explanation I got was because we don't have state income tax, only Federal.
I will accept that I may be wrong.....

Here in NH, we are also a no sales or income tax state, so it will be interesting to see what our rules are regarding vehicle donations.
We have the Kars For Kids TV and radio ads on every 5 minutes, probably like most places.

 

[Evox]

It's not a tax credit; it's a tax deduction. If the charity sells it for less than $500, you can claim $500. If they actually sell it for more, you can claim that amount.

But again, this is only a tax deduction, not a tax credit.

Of course, check with your own accountant and don't take financial advice from anyone like me on the internet.