Dumb question, but I’ve never had to get rid of a car before. I’m ditching a 91 Geo Prizm. Doesn’t seem to be worth enough money to sell, and it recently failed inspection due to worn tires and I don’t want to put any more cash into it.
I called a local salvage place and they said they’d take it off my hands for free (tow it even), but didn’t offer any cash. It’s an old car, and up until a month ago it was being driven regularly. AC works, etc. Seems like it should be a worth a least a couple hundred in parts, right? Should I keep calling around?
Yeah, it’s worth a couple hundred in parts. Question is, are you willing to keep it at your place as it’s slowly stripped by people coming by for parts? Then you’ll have several hundred dollars in your pocket and an empty shell of a car you need to remove off your property. :)
Whether you get money for the car or not depends on the junkyard and your car. Try calling a few others, but I doubt you’ll get paid. A Geo Prizm doesn’t have much value as junk.
Man, sell it in the paper for 500-1000$. You can get more for a running car than you think, and a '91 model isn’t that old.
As long as the interior is in reasonable condition (ie, hasn’t been left exposed to the elements for weeks or months), and the car starts, i’d say 500$ would be the minimum you would sell it for. Just insist you get paid in cash.
There are lots of charities that might take it. They took my 1986 Mitsubishi Cordia about 5 years ago. It counts as a charitable donation, so it might do you some good and help a worthy cause.
I understand they just sell them & use the cash. I think the IRS rule now is that you have to find out what they actually sell it for and can only claim that as your donation value. When I did it, it was less strict & specific, I just used a brutally honest kelley blue book rating which put it at about $700 (for a tax benefit of $200 or so). Mine actually ran fine, passed inspections, etc. But it had cosmetic damage, leaks, interior wear. You should ask if the inspection failure is a problem. But I’m pretty sure I hear radio ads soliciting cars “even if they don’t run”.
Even if you don’t get any or much financial benefit from it, it was extremely easy for me.
I called a local salvage place and they said they’d take it off my hands for free (tow it even), but didn’t offer any cash. It’s an old car, and up until a month ago it was being driven regularly. AC works, etc. Seems like it should be a worth a least a couple hundred in parts, right? Should I keep calling around?
look on the bright side, you’ve got to pay to get your car scrapped here.
Whenever I think about giving something away for free, that I no longer need, I do this:
I sell it for as much as I can on craigslist or EBay. Then I give half the money to Doctors Without Borders, and use the other half to buy top shelf booze. Or a game. Or a comic book. Or whatever.
Seriously, even if you don’t need the money, you can sell it and give half to charity and use half to buy something. It works perfectly, and you feel good for giving money to charity, but still selfish and capitalist for using the proceeds for a frivolous purchase. It’s win/win!
