Community Corner

A Quick Goodbye: How I Donated My Rotting Car And You Can Too

Donating your car is super easy. And this article is entertaining, so you should read it.

Three months ago my car drove its last mile. 

The "Check Engine" light came on for the millionth time in two months and it just didn't make sense to keep checking the engine. Because an engine check always means at least $200 out the window to the mechanic.

The Spaceship, as I endearingly called it, was a 1999 black Dodge Intrepid. And for as much as I hated that car at times, it did rack up 215,000 miles before calling it quits. Pretty impressive for a last-millenium-American-hunk-of-plastic. 

Sidenote: the 1999 Dodge Intrepid is seriously the longest car in the history of the planet. I could park next to a mini-van and see both ends of the Spaceship sticking out farther than the van. 

Anyway, I bought a new (used) car in early April — a reliable 2005 Toyota Camry LE. Even my mom calls it a "grandpa car." And since then, the Spaceship had been gathering dust and bird poop in my driveway.

Without a "Check Engine" light on, the car was worth $800 at best. With who-knows-what-problem going on under the hood, it could easily have had negative value. I thought about trying to sell it as-is. Or at least taking it to a mechanic to figure out what was up and what my options were.

A few people suggested donating the car, which sounded like a decent option, I just didn't know where or how to begin. I didn't really want to give up the potential few hundred bucks I could have made, but the pain of somehow getting the beast to the mechanic then finding a buyer sounded worse than missing out on the money.

I listen to the Giants on the radio a lot. Without a doubt the worst radio commercial of all time is the one they play the most between innings — Kars 4 Kids. If you haven't heard it, consider yourself lucky. The song will haunt you. Click here if you want to check it out, but you've been warned

But the fact that the Kars 4 Kids jingle had been burned into my temporal lobe actually turned out to be a great thing. One day in early June, likely while listening to the Giants lose, the Grammy-snubbed tune came on the radio and a neon billboard illuminated in my brain. 

~~LET KARS 4 KIDS HAVE THE SPACESHIP~~

Of course I knew the phone number from hearing the radio commercial 10,000 times, but I checked out the company online. Because I'm a 20-something and who likes actual human interaction these days anyway? All I can say is my experience from start to finish with Kars 4 Kids was the polar opposite of the torture that is listening to their radio commercial.

Filling out the donation form online takes no more than five minutes. A Kars 4 Kids representative called (kalled?) me the next morning and the tow-away service was scheduled for the following day. 

In all, the process required no more than 13 minutes of work on my part and my car was picked up and hauled off on time. 

On top of that, I get a $400 tax deduction and a voucher for a hotel stay in the city of my choice. Sure it might be some weird timeshare semi-scam, but whatever.

Now one thing to consider when donating your car is the group that your charity is benefitting. Kars 4 Kids helps Jewish youth. As a Holiday Jew myself (Passover is clearly the best day of the year), I had no qualms with the destination of the value of the Spaceship.

In the future I'll probably be smart enough to part with my car while it still has some value, but considering the situation, I'm glad I picked Kars 4 Kids. 

The Spaceship's blastoff was more of a slow tow-away than a fiery launch, but for a car with an A/C policy of full-blast-or-bust and a steering wheel that started violently shaking at 55 mph, it was an appropriate exit.

RIP Spaceship.

For more info on Kars 4 Kids, check out the charity's official website. 


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