Ha! WanderingEng I dig your style. I have a 1993 two-door Honda Civic Hatchback, manual transmission, 183,000 miles. When someone heard that there's only 180 odd thousand miles, they said, "Oh, she's just stretching her legs." I'd love to get another 50 or 100 thousand from her. I'm 24, so the newer car is still a ways off for me. I drive this one carefully and do regular maintenance. I'm planning to switch out the distributor myself real soon, and I think I'll have my mechanically inclined friend nearby though, in case I bite off more than I can chew. Great thread RD
Donated it to one of those charities? What do/did they do with donated cars exactly? I sometimes see billboard signs soliciting car donations (and old cell phones for that matter)... what good are those?
I think most of them are sold at auction. From the owner's point of view, they make a large, immobile tax and legal liability disappear, providing a recepit for use as a tax deduction. From the charity's point of view, I expect they get a monthly check for allowing their name to be used by the reseller. A GAO study suggests that the charity receives a fairly tiny portion of the sale price, and a lot of the proceeds pay for billboards and other promotion. My e-mail confirmation came from "habitatforhumanity@arscars.com" and ARS makes grand promises to non-profits, but it's free money for the charity so I doubt they scrutinize the income very closely.Donated it to one of those charities? What do/did they do with donated cars exactly?
Most sources of funding for non-profits either take a lot of time away from the work they want to be doing (fund-raising events) or come with burdensome reporting requirements that are going to keep one or more employees tied up doing paperwork instead of what they signed up for (pretty much any government grant). If not seeing the bulk of the money from donated cars is the worst thing about doing car donations it's still a good arrangement.
I agree: everybody wins, but not everybody wins equally. I probably spend half my breath here arguing that such arrangements are good, or at least better than any plausible alternative.
That looks great! The 2008s are coupe styling, but I like the look of a hatch, too. Before my Civic I had a Dodge Neon. I got rid of that around 72,000 miles, and I could feel all the miles on it. I swear my Civic feels just as good as it did new. Part of my hesitation with getting a new car is jinxing myself and replacing a rock solid car with a lemon. Reading your post, maybe I should keep this as a running around car and add a second car.
Ha, that sounds luxurious. But if you're car is solid as is, I'd give second thought to replacing it outright.Reading your post, maybe I should keep this as a running around car and add a second car.
Yea that's my one and only. She was a once-week-for-groceries when I got her two years ago. Edit to add: it rocks that my mechanic offered me 3.5k for it while working on it. I surmised it was exactly so he could tune it up. The body is in great shape, except for a little rust in the tire well.