Vacation Vehicle Breakdown Becomes a Car Donation

One weekend, my husband and I loaded up our old car (an old station wagon) and took a little trip to the ocean, which is about 100 miles from our home.

After a wonderful mini-vacation on the beach and shopping at the many local vendors, we were exhausted and quite ready to return back home.

Unfortunately, that little mini-vacation proved to be too much for the old station wagon. About halfway home we heard a strange clunking sound, lost all power and began to quickly slow down.

We soon realized we had lost the transmission and we were just barely able to pull over to the side of the road before the car had stopped completely.

As you can imagine, we were not too happy about the situation. Finding a place that would tow our car on a Sunday evening was impossible, as was finding a car rental facility that was open. We finally made arrangements for a ride and, three hours after the car gave up the ghost, we finally made it back home.

On the drive back home my husband and I discussed what we were going to do with that old car. It had broken down about 50 miles from home in a small town with practically no services. Not only that, we knew the cost of repairing the transmission was going to be quite high, more than we were prepared to spend on that old car.

We ultimately decided to make a car donation to charity. The station wagon had been with us for years but it was an older car and we rarely used it anymore. We still had two newer cars at home that we could use for our every day running around.

Although we loved that old car we didn’t want the hassle or costs that comes with towing and repairing the car to make it roadworthy again.

Making a car donation seemed like our best option, especially since the car donation service center handled everything from towing the car, to dealing with all the paperwork and transfer of ownership.

Besides, by donating the car to charity, we are able to write the value of the car off on our taxes. This will help reduce our tax bill on next April’s taxes.

My husband and I are happy with the decision we made to donate the car to charity.

We love the idea that any money made from the sale of our old car would go towards helping the National Veterans Services Fund. Our Vets have done so much for our country and we feel that they deserve to have something given back to them.

Making a car donation is truly a win-win situation. No one wants to break down on vacation, especially people in our age bracket. The good thing is we got help in getting rid of an old vehicle while at the same time our car donation was able to help others through the National Veterans Services Fund.

Mandy L.