Need help on selling or possibly donating a car... *short read*

[kitkit201]

Hopefully this doesn't come off as an ad, but if it does MODS, please lock it and sorry

Hey everyone, my parents need some help and I don't know what to do now. I live in the bay area, CA

Right now, we have a 1986 honda Civic 4 door auto that needs some work.

Here is a snippet of my ad on craigslist.org

Clean, blue, 4 door, Automatic trans, Honda Civic 1986 with a little less than 147,000 miles on it. Very well maintained, and a great commuter car as it saves on gas. Car shifts smoothly and runs very good..

Some Recent Fixes:


* 1 year old remanufactered automatic transmission
* Rebuilt Carburator and reline vacuum hose with new headgaskets and resurfaced existing engine block
* Brake shoes with lifetime warranty
* Resurfaced brake rotors
* Recently fixed Axle shaft assembly

I am not posting it as an ad, but right now, the car is having some blue smoke come out of it's muffler when I start it and according to California law, the only way I can sell a car to someone else other than in your immediate family is after it passed a SMOG check. (you know how notorious CA is on emissions).

So we have a couple of choices, (that I am aware of)

1)Either try the smog check, (but it will likely not pass and we will lose out on the SMOG check)
2)Or donate the car to some charity and deal with it that way.

The thing is, my dad put a lot of money into the car, and he would hate to see it donated and get nothing out of it, so is there something that we can do about it?

Thanks for the input in advance,
Wilson

 

[HappyPuppy]

Have them donate it to a church or charity and write off the bluebook value on their taxes.

 

[kitkit201]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Have them donate it to a church or charity and write off the bluebook value on their taxes.

can they still write it off on their taxes even though they already paid for their home? My parents were saying something like they couldn't get any value from it since the house has been paid for.

 

[aswedc]

Sell it to another state?

 

[Eli]

The question is, why did he spend so much money on an car/engine that is worn out without fixing all of the problems?

It needs rings.

Fix them, or take the loss.

Actually, the problem is kinda vague. Does it only happen when you start it and the engine is cold?

If so, take it through SMOG.. just make sure it's nice and warm.

If it happens everytime you hit the gas, and the head has recently been gone through, then the rings are worn out, and you basically need a rebuilt engine.

Since it has some new parts, you could always try and part it out. The tranny should be worth something.

 

[kitkit201]

Originally posted by: Eli
The question is, why did he spend so much money on an car/engine that is worn out without fixing all of the problems?

It needs rings.

Fix them, or take the loss.

Actually, the problem is kinda vague. Does it only happen when you start it and the engine is cold?

If so, take it through SMOG.. just make sure it's nice and warm.

If it happens everytime you hit the gas, and the head has recently been gone through, then the rings are worn out, and you basically need a rebuilt engine.

Since it has some new parts, you could always try and part it out. The tranny should be worth something.

well some of the problems were fixed and the car ran fine for about 3 months and then more problems came about, sorry i wasn't too specific enough.

 

[kitkit201]

anyone else can help today ??

 

[toant103]

try to sell it in another state.

 

[Mo0o]

I thought donations were tax deductible

 

[Sluggo]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
I thought donations were tax deductible

They are if you itemize deductions.

Apparently his parents have paid off their home and take the standard deduction now instead of filing a Schedule A and itemizing their deductions and claiming the interest paid on their mortgage.

 

[bdjohnson]

Assuming you can fix the smoke problem and smog it for a reasonable amount of money you should do that because if you can get the car working it is probably worth enough money to recover the expenses.

 

[thedarkwolf]

There is bound to be a family member that can use it. Just give it to them. Have anybody turning 16 soon? That would be the perfect car for them to destroy since the car is worth squat.

 

[VWhed]

place an ad offering it up for parts and "let the vultures swarm" tell them bring their own tools and pull the stuff themselves . I did this with a car once and when nobaody wanted anything else I called the local Sanford and Son to come and pick it up. It is actually quite amusing to see someone take greasy car parts home in their parent's new car. hahaha

edit: btw, do you guys have public auto auctions out there? Maybe you could unload it there?