Its time for me to get rid of an older car that's been fully used up. I'm looking into donating it through Kars4Kids (or another car-donation charity).
This is my 1st try at such a thing, so I'm looking for anyone with advice or experience to share.
Does it work? Does the money really make it to the charities?
I'd appreciate any info you have to share!
Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.
There was a politician named Kunz in Colorado when I was in college with a billboard with the slogan Kunz4Kids.
I did a double take every time I saw it.
I bought my '83 Civic from a very small "dealer" who bought it at auction - It had been donated to Salvation Army by the original owner (in like 2014), and them selling it at some auction was how they got money from it.
mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.
This. Oh God, a million times this. Whoever's responsible for that should be publicly flogged.
mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.
Came here to say this^.
I donated a car to a charity some years ago, it was pretty painless. I called them, they showed up with a wrecker and loaded the car up, I signed over the title and it was gone.
At that time, they would give you a receipt showing the donation, along with the value of the car based on book value that you could use on your taxes as a deduction. It didn't matter if the car was in mint condition or a junker.
However, the rules have changed and now you can only deduct the actual value of the car...if they can fix it up and resell it for a good price that's great, but if they just send it off for scrap you get a deduction for the scrap value.
As with any of these organizations, do some research to make sure they are actually contributing money to the charity of your choice. It's not uncommon for them to only give out a very small fraction of the money they take in.
And, I agree with the others - that Kars for Kids jingle is very annoying.
I just bought a '02 Avalon w/168k miles at auction. It was a donated car via a Veterans Charity. Everything about the car said it was an old man's who cared for it and has since likely died. It had not been driven in a year or more. Probably garage kept as evident by the gentle scrapes on both sides that look to be from hitting the garage door frame.
They listed the car as a Salvage title for no obvious reason. My winning bid was $375.
As mentioned above, the tax rules have changed.
If it were me, I would put it on CL on a Friday for $400 and it will be gone before Saturday afternoon.
I have done this exact thing with 3 different non running cars in the past 3 years. Each one left within 24 hours for actual final prices from $600-$400
02Pilot wrote:mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.This. Oh God, a million times this. Whoever's responsible for that should be publicly flogged.
Haven't heard. Gord willing, I'll keep it that way.
Duke wrote:02Pilot wrote:Haven't heard. Gord willing, I'll keep it that way.mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.This. Oh God, a million times this. Whoever's responsible for that should be publicly flogged.
Woody wrote:mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.Came here to say this^.
Thankfully, I've never heard it.
Woody wrote:Duke wrote:SNL- Torture Experts02Pilot wrote:Haven't heard. Gord willing, I'll keep it that way.mtn wrote: Kars4Kids will never get anything of mine. Ever. Just because of that damn jingle.This. Oh God, a million times this. Whoever's responsible for that should be publicly flogged.
I'm not touching that. 
I wanted to point out that quite a few people here take car donations as well; as we never make a profit we could be called a charity I guess.
One eight seven seven kars for kids, k-a-r-s kars for kids, one eight seven seven kars for kids, doNATE your kar today.
In reply to mtn:
That goddamn song haunts us all. Like the Ducktails theme but in a hellish, nightmare way.
Robbie wrote: One eight seven seven kars for kids, k-a-r-s kars for kids, one eight seven seven kars for kids, doNATE your kar today.
I just reported this post. On purpose.
I listen to a lot of news radio at work and that is every fourth berkeleying commercial. If ever a group of people deserved a slow, tourturous, excruciatingly painful death it's the people who wrote that jingle.
About 20 years ago I used to pick up cars for a couple charities, one for the blind and the other something with cancer. They'd send me a receipt with the car info and value on it. I'd pickup the car, usually a rusted, non running Kcar that I had to pry free form muck and overgrowth, dispose of it in some manner and pass on $75 to the charity. My boss thought it would make nice filler work but it never ended up being worth the aggravation.
Robbie wrote: One eight seven seven kars for kids, k-a-r-s kars for kids, one eight seven seven kars for kids, doNATE your kar today.
1877shuttheberkeleyup
That commercial actually makes me hate both kars and kids.
Used to be a billboard on the way to work...donate your car to the blind. Seems like a terrible idea to me.
oldtin wrote: Used to be a billboard on the way to work...donate your car to the blind. Seems like a terrible idea to me.
Agreed. Stevie Wonder has plenty of cars already.
Hi all, thanks for the feedback. A little Internet searching made me feel that Kars4Kids is more than a little sketch. Example.
So, instead, I'm looking into donating it to my local volunteer fire department for them to practice Jaws-of-Life and other extrication methods on.
Yes doing a little search on the internet will get you a lot of good charity. Which serves as car donation for the kids I just got a list of good charities What you see here (SPAM Removed) is helpful too.
Caution. This thread is from 2017
I bet the guys that run these "charity" deals have a good collection of cars....
if anyone is good at searching can someone find the yearly report a charity needs to file ?
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