Donating your car

[VveTTe917]

Tweethas anyone donated a car to say a charity or know someone who's done this? I wanna get rid of my 01 Hyundai that needs a new engine, prolly worth $1000 trade in as is. How does this process work tax wise.

[trip]

Tweetyeah, you call em up, they pick it up, u get a receipt, u write it off

no hassles, easy as pie

[VveTTe917]

Tweetbut would I get ripped off money wise or are they very fair? Cause I know most of them take your car and sell it in an auction.

[mick-G]

TweetThere is a company that does it. all you have to do is call them they take the car and give to you a receipt that you can use as a tax deduction. Id take my name off the title first.

[T-Man007]

TweetYou have to see what the donation amount is. For example, if your car is worth $1,000 and your take bracket was 25%, you would have to get $4,000 worth in donation to get the money back. That's how it works. Basically, you take your income and deduct your donations and they figure the taxes off the lower amount. You DO NOT get dollar for dollar in tax savings. I do a lot of charity things with my coporation to take the write offs. Sometimes, enough write offs can drop your tax bracket. But, if you are in the middle of a tax bracket, then a $1,000 donation is only going to save you (at 25%) 250 dollars in money paid to the IRS.

I think you would be better off doing one of two things:
1- you take it to Hyundai and sell it to them. They can put an engine in it cheaper than anyone. You would proabably get a higher trade in value with them than anyone too.
2- you put a new engine in it and keep driving it. There are people who will put a rebuilt engine in your car and offer you a 3 yr/36k mile warranty. Seriously. You just have to find them. There was a dude I worked with who had this old ass jeep CJ but he refused to sell it. He put a totally rebuilt motor in it for like $1,500 and the dude gave him a 3 yr/36k mile warranty. He said there were a few places that would do it, but this one was the best price.

I guess you have to weigh the options. If it was me personally and I could get a rebuilt engine for $2k or so and get a warranty on a 5 year old car, I would do it. Just think about it, it would cost you a lot less than buying a new car, which losed value when you drive off the lot. It would be better than buying a used car with no warranty, and not to mention, probably cheaper. And, it would be the same car so you already know the condition of everything else. What if you buy a used car and the tranny goes out? You are right back to where you are.

But, if you do get a new car, get the extended warranty. I got one on my Hyundai over 5 years ago and they extend the 5 yr/60k warranty to 10 yrs/100k. I took my car in and they replaced the alternator, the speed sensor and some other stuff all for free. I was past 5 years and over 60k in miles. It was well worth the $1,200 the extended warranty cost me. I have piece of mind for another 35k or 4.5 years. Also, besides oil changes, I take my car to Hyundai for all my services. I've compared the prices and they aren't that much different. Most mechanics in this city charge $65 to $75 per hour. But, what I do get is a track record of all my services recorded in Hyudai's database. So, if something does go wrong, they can't tell me 'well, how do we know you kept up with your scheduled maintenance?'. It's all right there in their records. Also, I when I leave my car with them, they ALWAYS give me a loaner.

Anyways, that's my toughts on the subject.