naisme

I currently have a van sitting in a parking spot behind the apartment building. It has sat there since early January. It doesn't turn over, something about a battery might be dead? I ride to work every day, and now with the warmer weather there are extended trips, and rides with friends.

My question, I haven't used a vehicle, other than my brother's for a week while house sitting, how do you "dump" a vehicle? I have thought of donating it, but I don't make enough to really get the tax write off, but the thought of doing something "good" with it is a positive.

Newspaperguy

I'm not sure I follow this. I don't get a big paycheque, but the charitable donations I make will show up noticeably on my income tax.

If the value of the vehicle is too much to claim on one year's taxes, could you ask the charity to give you a number of receipts, each with an equal portion of the amount? For instance, if the vehicle is worth $10,000 but it doesn't pay for you to claim that much, ask for five receipts of $2,000 each and submit one a year. Check into your tax code to find out if this is possible where you live.

himespau 

I just called a scrap yard who was happy to haul mine away. No cash changed hands, but I got rid of it.

wahoonc

You could sell is as is where is, donate it, or sell it for scrap. I kind of prefer the scrap idea to get another vehicle off the road...

We have donated a couple of vehicles in the past to a charity that fixes them up and sells them to people that really need a car.

Aaron

himespau 

My car wasn't running (as yours does not appear to be) and I didn't think it would be worth anything to those charities (cost more to haul away/fix than it was worth - mine had a bad alternator, bad environmental sensor/wiring, and probably a cracked head or head gasket on a 12 year old car), which is why I suggested the scrap route.

sauerwald

I sold it, and donated the bulk of the proceeds to charity.

indybiker01

Respectively,

Getting another car off of the road does not outweight the benefit of donating it to goodwill (who will pick it up for free and get it running) and get it to a person who needs it to I don't know drive to a job.

This is why I disagreed with scrapping all of the cars under the clunkers program. People need those types of cars. At the very least they should have branded the titles to where they could be sold one more time to someone that needed a vehicle and capped the selling price to 3,000. The dealer would have 700 bucks to fix it up, 1300 for selling it, and 1,000 would go back to the government. The vehicle would be branded as salvaged/junk so when it was traded it the car would then have to be scrapped. People make a living working on these cars as well.

We dont live in a country where you work 2 miles from your home and walk to work. Mass transit may or may not be a good idea (not going to debate it) but in a lot of areas it isnt available/prelevant.

I am not trying to start any arguments as I see both sides to the argument. If you can go car free then I tip my cap at you.

poormanbiking

If its a van turn it into a storage locker. Have it hauled to a distance near work or farther distance you ride. Hold extra change of clothes or articles you need but don't want to carry with you. I figure it much be paid for so use it at the expense of plates, insurance would be real cheap or let it drop.

Robert Foster

Here we have pick a part places that will buy the car running or not. You will get something for your trouble unless you have to have it hauled a long way.

travelmama

+1

tsl

I let the city tow mine from the side of the road to the impound, then ignored all notices demanding I retrieve it.

DX-MAN

9-23-04; the day that will live in my memory -- the day my last car went to the boneyard, in exchange for $35 cash.

A little 4-cyl. hatchback, 27mpg, that developed a curious crankshaft issue, namely pretzeled. Drove it three times in the seven weeks prior to its departure, none of them to work.

I did miss it, for a little while.... By November, though, I was gladly trailering groceries.

Roody

I've gone carfree a few times. The last time, the car was stolen. When it was finally found and towed to an impound lot, I told them they could have it, since it wasn't worth much more than all the fees. Whoever stole that piece of crap did me a huge favor.

Robert C

I had been out of the country for a couple of years and I came back for two months in the summer where gas prices had shot up to about $4/gal. The car was non-opped (certified that is was not being stored or operated on public roads) and I just decided that I was not going to pay to register it to drive it for two months with gas prices that high. For short trips I could use my bicycle (which was about 17 miles each way per day) and for longer trips I did register, and use, my motorcycle (It gets a lot better milage).

Then I Left and, rather obviously, came back. While gas prices had come down a bit I still saw no reason to deal with the expense for the benefit I got out of it. My car is still on my fathers ranch were it gets used for the assorted duties that a jeep is good for (while a tractor can do everything it is doing, there are jobs it is more convenient for).

So, I use the pushbike and the motorcycle. I wear a full safety suit on the motorcycle, which makes using it a bit inconvenient; that is intentional. The result is that when I start suiting up, or preparing to suit up, to ride the motorcycle I ask myself if there is a way I can make the trip on my bicycle. In most cases the answer is, yes.

gerv 

Where did you live out of the US? Did your experiences abroad affect your decision?

naisme

I want to thank all the thoughts, I'm still pondering the repair, but some of the suggestions I have done in the past. I have had two "junkers" hauled to the impound lot and ignored their demands, but the parking tickets were on my record and had to be taken care of. It seems parking it some where might be considered abandonment and get it hauled, so all the stuff I didn't want to haul would be gone too.

I was more interested in the donation aspect. As far as my not being able to claim them on my taxes is more because I just use the EZ form rather than mess with the longer forms. I tried not filing but that gets you in a whole other world of trouble... wonder if they would get me for the ten years of not smoking and paying cig taxes, or the half year of not driving and paying gas tax.

Robert C

I moved to XinYang City, Henen Province, P.R. China in 2006. I loved it; however, I returned in 2009 to complete my MBA. Like I have mentioned elsewhere, I have one semester left. If I can find a job that pays a reasonable wage I hope to return upon graduation.

One of the smartest things I did there, bicycling wise, was to join the local bicycle club. We went on nightly 25km fitness rides and on the weekends we went on 100km local tour rides. I also went on multi-day solo rides, those were a bit of a challenge.

It did have an affect because I, first, saw that I was able to ride long distances pretty easily. Second, car-free was a normal way to live.

Several years ago, about the late 80's, I lived in Chico CA, USA, car free; however, I was cheating, I had a company car. Even with the company car nearly all of my personal transportation was on my bicycle. I then moved, changed to a company that did not provide cars (but provided very generous milage and commuting pay) and I started just using my bike for sport. I got injured pre-running a race course and that ended my riding for several years.

The injury still hurt while I was riding in China; but I came to realize that it was bearable. Here in the states I have been using my recumbent quite a bit (except if I am using multi-modal, in which case the recumbent is not allowed). However, when I first got the recumbent, as a result of the accident, I was not even able to use it. So, I am better and I am using the bicycle more. So, yes, the time in China did help, I came to realize that the pain had diminished to the point that I could ride again.

undisputed83

I figured the $310 a month, plus $86 insurance... plus another $100 in gas wasn't really worth it. So I voluntarily surrendered it. I'm waiting for it to get auctioned, and to see what the deficiency balance will be. I'm expecting it will probably be 6k to 7k... and I hoping to "settle" for around 2-3k... I'm not sure if that strategy will work.

I'm becoming quite radical. I don't trust the government, I think banks are extremely greedy, and I would rather live my life on my own terms as much as I possibly can.

crazybikerchick

Donating sounds like a good plan to me, regardless if you get a tax credit or not.

Google comes up with some ideas
https://www.vehiclesforcharity.org/

Smallwheels

I sold my last car for $29 less than I paid for it. It was a 2007 Honda Fit Sport with just 2766 miles on it after twenty-one months of ownership. It was fortunate for me that fuel prices were on the rise then. Nobody local wanted it until gas prices were at $3.50 per gallon. It took six months to sell it.

I still sunk $3944.00 into it for insurance, fuel, taxes, and a covered parking space in a storage facility near my apartment. That's about $1.43 per mile driven.

The first couple of days I felt a bit vulnerable. Then one day while looking outside where it would have been parked, I began to giggle. I felt free. That was a good day.

Sixty Fiver

I donated my old car to a charity and a tax receipt and signed over my bulletproof little Sentra to my ex.

Just picked up another Sentra and it is odd to see a car in the driveway but I will need it for work reasons and it will make hauling frames back and forth from the shop so much easier.

If the shop was in the city I could use my trailer but it's a 70 mile round trip.

wrobertdavis

The final "break" occurred when my wife was hit broadside and the car was totalled. We collected the insurance money and signed the car over to the insurance company.

I had been trying to do everything by bicycle as much as possible for the previous year. Now I was forced to do it all the time. We have one remaining car, but my wife drives it. Now I commute by bike about 70-100 miles/week, rain or shine.