It hasn’t been long since the last moaning and whining about my car troubles, but here I go again.
Events that occurred yesterday (as described by the title) have effectively hammered the last nail in the coffin.
I am getting rid of that car for sure.
It’s almost criminal to sell it to anyone (as of yesterday only the headlights and brakes work) - so I am just going to have it towed to a junkyard. Will call up a couple of shops to see if they are interested in salvaging some useful parts in it - but apart from that, it’s ready to be trashed.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t tow it to a junkyard–donate it. There are lots of charities that’ll want it, even if it’s not running. They’ll come tow it away and initiate all of the paperwork on your behalf. A “junker” will be auctioned to a junker lot, and you will receive a tax receipt for the proceeds. It likely won’t be much, but it’d be more than simply towing it to a junk yard (many of which will charge you for the tow).
Chris
Chris offers some good advice. You can probably get a nice deduction from it. A lot of people would also like to read about the process of donating a car also and your results - think Google searches!
Good luck finding a quality replacement. Hondas and Toyotas last forever.
Wow it’s hard to believe that it has gotten to that just brakes and headlights!
Which car are you thinking to get? You probably want to research many things but I’m sure you don’t need a reminder so I won’t post a link
Email me if you need some ideas.
Golbguru,
Sorry to hear about your car and glad to hear you’re safe.
I think the recos to donate are good ones. I’ve donated in the past. However, you may want to check the tax deduction implications since I think the laws changed recently.
I also think selling with full disclosure is acceptable. Remember, there are some very handy people out there who can fix things themselves and don’t mind trying. I had a friend that sold a totaled 11 year old luxury car for $1500, because the buyer thought he could fix it himself and get the value back to $5000.
Anyway, good luck with the next car purchase.
Golbguru,
Have you considered not owning a car and renting one only for the long trips? Seems like an opportunity to due a mathematical analysis of the option:-)
One of my roommates from college did that when he lived in NYC. It worked well for him financially. Of course, NYC has a pretty good public transportation system when one counts buses, subways, and taxis.
Chris is right. Donate it.
I had an old junk car that stopped working; I called a junkyard and they wouldn’t even pick it up for free. I found a charity, they picked it up and 2 months later got my tax forms from them stating that it had been auctioned for $1500. That was a nice deduction for me. (About $500 off my taxes.)
Chris and others: Thanks for the advice. I am in the process of locating a charity who will pick up the car from where we have left it. I need to look into the paperwork and other trivial things (like what to do with the license plates, etc.).
Also, right now the car is in some parking lot of a mall - so I need a solution in which the car gets picked up immediately - before the mall tows it and sends me a bill for it.
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