Car is dead - donate or sell to salvage?

[Anonymous]

My car is dead. The engine is fried. Should I donate the car or sell to salvage? I can't imagine I'll be itemizing my taxes in 2025 (haven't since the TCJA). For either option, where?

[Anonymous]

What is the mileage, year, make and model?

[Anonymous]

I usually donate. Don’t want the hassle of selling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What is the mileage, year, make and model?

2008 Toyota RAV4, <160K miles, but the engine is dead. This model had an excessive oil consumption problem that Toyota probably sent us a letter regarding back in 2015 or so, but XH was in charge of the cars, and he doesn't remember. It's too late now for Toyota to undertake the repair. And I don't think the dead engine is the only problem.

[Anonymous]

Do the research and you'll see you really don't get much of a deduction out of donating a car. You'll get fair market value only if the charity sells it for that. Typically they sell donated cars for less.

[Anonymous]

I would donate, not for the deduction (horrible thought, PP), but just because it's the right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

FCPS will take it.

[Anonymous]

I sold on peddle.com before. It was super easy. Got an offer online, a tow truck showed up next day to pick up the car and give me the check

[Anonymous]

You can plug in the info about the car into Carmax, and they'll make you an offer. We've done that with cars that work, and donated dead ones (the non-profit places have a contract with a company that repairs them and sells them)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the research and you'll see you really don't get much of a deduction out of donating a car. You'll get fair market value only if the charity sells it for that. Typically they sell donated cars for less.

I donated a car to a charity last year and they sent me a receipt to use for tax purposes, but they made it clear that I was supposed to use KBB to determine the value of the donation and fill out that part of the receipt. They didn’t take responsibility for determining the value. (I donated to a charity that fixes up used cars and gives them away to people in need. They don’t sell them.)

[Anonymous]

For those saying to donate, what is the charity going to do with it? The engine is fried. Maybe donate to a trade/vocational school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those saying to donate, what is the charity going to do with it? The engine is fried. Maybe donate to a trade/vocational school.

I’m the one who suggested FCPS. Yes, they will use it in one of their Academy auto tech classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those saying to donate, what is the charity going to do with it? The engine is fried. Maybe donate to a trade/vocational school.

Cars have a scrap value. A junkyard can part it out or sell it to be crushed for scrap metal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those saying to donate, what is the charity going to do with it? The engine is fried. Maybe donate to a trade/vocational school.

Probably the same people who put a half eaten box of expired cookies on buy nothing

[Anonymous]

Donate. WETA will take it.