Can you trade in a broken down car?

Anonymous
This is probably a stupid question, but I know nothing about this stuff! I have an '02 Passat that is in really good condition with low miles but needs an expensive electrical repair that I have no interest in doing (mostly because it seems to need a $2k repair every 6 mos). Can I have the car towed to a dealer to use as a trade in? I'd hate to get nothing for it... Thanks for any help!
Anonymous
Call Carmax--they took my 12 year old Saab with 185k miles on it. They probably would take it.
Anonymous
Ditto carmax. The dealer where I bought my new car would only give me $1k for my ancient crappy Nissan. Carmax gave me a check for $3000.
Anonymous
You can trade it in for a voucher from the federal government. Haven't you heard of the Cash For Clunkers stimulus benefit?
Anonymous
In response to 16:10, yes I have heard of CARS but the gas mileage on my car is too good to qualify.

Thanks for the carmax recommendation, I hadn't thought of it!
Anonymous
You could donate it for a tax write off.
Anonymous
Yes, but they will give you what it is worth. (You can be the best judge of that).

You won't get much as a tax write-off. No charity will actually take it to use as a car (it is broken down). Any charity that takes it will be selling it to an auction house, and you will get as a deduction whatever they get for it.
Anonymous
You can trade it in at the dealer wherever you are buying your new car. I had a 2000 Ford Explorer, Bluebook value about $7500 that needed a new engine (a $7000 repair). We decided to get a new car.

While we were looking at minivans, we mentioned we had an Explorer to trade in. When we finally sat down to negotiate the price, we said "oh, well, actually, the car needs some work." We still ended up getting a few thousand dollars for it on the trade-in. (It would have cost US $7K to get it running, but it doesn't cost the DEALER $7K to get it running again.)
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Yes, but they will give you what it is worth. (You can be the best judge of that).

You won't get much as a tax write-off. No charity will actually take it to use as a car (it is broken down). Any charity that takes it will be selling it to an auction house, and you will get as a deduction whatever they get for it.


I disagree. I donated my old Honda, and you're right....they did sell it immediately at auction. It also went for around $2500, even though it was 11 years old with a cracked radiator tank, both cooling fans broken, the moon roof acting up, and probably a few other things wrong that just hadn't surfaced.

So while it could technically run, it wouldn't go more then a few miles before overheating.
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