My old car: Trade it or donate it?

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » June 17, 2011 1:48 pm

We're buying a new (to us) car this weekend. We're stuck on whether to trade our old car in or donate it to charity. It's old and pretty crappy (which is why we had to buy a new one). If we were to try and sell it on Craigslist or something, we'd probably only ask about $500-$700 for it. KBB says it's worth about $1000 to a private buyer.

Thoughts?

springparrot · Post by **springparrot** » June 17, 2011 1:54 pm

We have done both. Guess it might depend on what they are offering for a trade it?

bravedave · Post by **bravedave** » June 17, 2011 1:54 pm

Many cars that are donated to charity merely go on the auction block to bring cash into that charity. Therefore, your tax deduction will depend upon what the auction nets. This might be considerably less that KBB.
A few donated cars go to charities that provide them (re-furbed, if necessary) to needy deserving people. You can get the entire KBB value as your tax deduction in this case.
I only know of one charity that does this, and it's in Maryland. (http://www.vehiclesforchange.org/) But there might be one near you.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » June 17, 2011 1:58 pm

bravedave wrote:Many cars that are donated to charity merely go on the auction block to bring cash into that charity. Therefore, your tax deduction will depend upon what the auction nets. This might be considerably less that KBB.
A few donated cars go to charities that provide them (re-furbed, if necessary) to needy deserving people. You can get the entire KBB value as your tax deduction in this case.
I only know of one charity that does this, and it's in Maryland. (http://www.vehiclesforchange.org/) But there might be one near you.

Yeah--I was reading up on that--only getting the value that the charity could claim. Probably not good in my case.

pbans · Post by **pbans** » June 17, 2011 3:42 pm

Wonder if you could direct donate it to a women's shelter or someplace like that....instead of one of the sketchy car ones....

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » June 17, 2011 4:11 pm

pbans wrote:Wonder if you could direct donate it to a women's shelter or someplace like that....instead of one of the sketchy car ones....

We're still looking into it. We'd like to get it as a tax deduction...but not sure it's making sense. We were originally thinking Autos for Autism.

springparrot · Post by **springparrot** » June 17, 2011 4:24 pm

We donated to Kidney Foundation.....good group

BeachBumJim · Post by **BeachBumJim** » June 17, 2011 4:53 pm

Maybe sell it on CL for the approx $1,000 and take that and donate the cash or buy goods that a charity...such as a local women's shelter or food bank could use?

just a thought.

sonofabeach · Post by **sonofabeach** » June 17, 2011 5:15 pm

I'd sell it and donate the cash to my "buy my family something charity"

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » June 17, 2011 8:18 pm

As bad as it sounds, my goal isn't first and foremost to help a charity. It would be a nice side effect. The more immediate question was if we would benefit more from donating or benefit more from trading. I wouldn't feel right selling it to a person because there's just too much going on w/ it. We *really* need a second car and weren't planning on the expense of a new one for another year or so.

I think we'll do OK w/ it on a trade. Plus also, hubby wants the $ from it to put a stereo in our truck...'cause I get the new car.

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » June 17, 2011 9:03 pm

parting it out would probably return the most money, but it is a lot of work. You already have admitted it's not worth much, just let it go and trade it in. It is the easiest way to get rid of it.

Nighthawk · Post by **Nighthawk** » June 18, 2011 11:24 am

http://www.kars4kids.org

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » June 18, 2011 1:38 pm

We decided to trade it and glad we did. We got $725 for it which helped drive down the cost of my awesome Honda Accord which evidently has subwoofers. Who knew!

SeattleParrotHead · Post by **SeattleParrotHead** » June 18, 2011 6:28 pm

You did good! If you donated it, you wouldn't get a $725 tax reduction, you'd get a $725 tax deduction...
Let's say you're in the 12% incremental bracket... that would be $87 in your pocket....

Congrats on your new wheels!

PartofthePhlock · Post by **PartofthePhlock** » June 18, 2011 6:40 pm

I donated an old BMW to the Goodwill few years back. And claimed the KBB value deduction on taxes with no problems.

AlbatrossFlyer · Post by **AlbatrossFlyer** » June 18, 2011 8:49 pm

I'd trade it in, simply because what ever you get for it is subtracted off the purchase price of the new car and that's what you pay sales tax on. so you're saving a few bucks in the process.

AlbatrossFlyer · Post by **AlbatrossFlyer** » June 18, 2011 8:51 pm

PartofthePhlock wrote:I donated an old BMW to the Goodwill few years back. And claimed the KBB value deduction on taxes with no problems.

IRS has since cracked down on that. you now have to have the receipt of value from the charity to support your charity deduction.

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My old car: Trade it or donate it?

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Re: My old car: Trade it or donate it?

Re: My old car: Trade it or donate it?

Re: My old car: Trade it or donate it?