Have you ever considered donating your car to a charity? I’ve been curious about car donations for a while, and I wanted to know what that meant for my taxes. And what do those charities do with my car, anyway? Cars.com has a Vehicle Donation Program that will donate 75 percent of the vehicle’s value to charity. I looked up my state in the program and found 10 organizations to which I could donate my car. It also allowed me to enter the charity of my choice. To use Cars.com’s program, you complete the paperwork online, print it and mail the forms in. Then the program will call to set up the vehicle possession — not the haunting kind. The burden of reporting the taxes properly is still on the donor. Speaking of taxes, the first thing I’d probably do is select a charity to see if they’d take my car and make sure the charity is legit with the IRS. To do this, you can call the IRS at 877-829-5500 or go to the IRS website. The IRS says that most churches, synagogues, temples and mosques aren’t required to apply to the IRS to be recognized as a qualified organization, so call and double-check if you’re going that route. On the IRS website I found a handy-dandy (if a little long-winded) pamphlet about vehicle donations. It explained that one of three things usually happens when a vehicle is donated to a charity. The first is the charity uses the vehicle for its work, for example, delivering meals. The second option is the charity donates the vehicle to someone in need or sells it at a greatly reduced price to someone in need. In these two instances you can deduct the vehicle’s fair market value from your taxes. How do I find my vehicle’s fair market value? Luckily, Cars.com has its Kelley Blue Book calculator to help you figure it out. The third option is the charity auctions the vehicle and banks the money to use as it sees fit. Things get a little tricky here. In this case, you can only deduct the gross proceeds from the sale from your taxes. So, if your vehicle sells for $1,200, the most you can claim is $1,200. Sometimes, the charity will fix your car up before auctioning it, and I’m sure there are many other circumstances in which the charity might use your car. For these types of transactions, contact the IRS for procedures and clarifications. Make sure you know what the charity is going to do with your vehicle and fill out the proper forms. Again, www.irs.gov. You can’t do enough checking. When you’re done checking and double-checking, you get to fill out some forms. Be aware that an official from the charitable organization will likely have to fill out some paperwork too, so be prepared. Then you will arrange the vehicle’s exchange. Make sure to have the title handy. Yes, donating your car to charity looks complicated, but not necessarily more complicated than listing your car for sale or a long negotiation at a car dealership. And the feel-good component of donating your car to charity is priceless.
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The 2012 Nissan Titan continues to soldier on for another model year with only minor updates, including a new Sport Appearance Package.
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The light-duty 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 receives a few modest updates for the new model year, including appearance tweaks and new trim packages.
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The 2012 Chevrolet Silverado Heavy Duty lineup reclaims best-in-class towing and hauling numbers plus it adds an all-new Z71 off-road appearance package.
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TORRANCE, Calif., August 30, 2011 – Over the past four years, the Lexus Eco Challenge, an educational program and contest, has inspired and empowered more than 20,000 middle and high school students to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. For their efforts, more than $3 million has been awarded to students, teachers and schools across the nation. This fall, students are invited to participate in the fifth annual Lexus Eco Challenge for a chance to win part of $500,000 in grants and scholarships. Lexus, the luxury automaker, has once again joined with Scholastic Inc., the global children’s publishing, education and media company, to create the eco-friendly educational school program.
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Kia Motors America brings back its Soul ad campaign featuring a trio of music-loving hamsters. The Soul urban passenger vehicle was presented in 2009 and caught the eye with fun ads featuring hamsters. A new campaign launches this weekend with the debut of a new 60-second spot for the significantly redesigned 2012 Soul. Summer hit ‘Party Rock [...]
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Ahead of the world premiere of the new MINI Coupé at the IAA International Motor Show, BMW is launching a campaign to engage more fans of the tiny car before the launch of the new two-seater model, the latest one in the MINI family. The marketing initiative dubbed ‘Another Day. Another Adventure,’ developed by Amsterdam-based [...]
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Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday released the first pictures of the new face and future look of the Ford brand with the sleek and edgy Ford Evos Concept, a plug-in hybrid with four gullwing doors.
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The high-performance 2011 BMW 1 Series M has a twin-turbo six-cylinder engine and a two-passenger backseat, making it an excellent candidate for a Car Seat Check. The M is only available as a coupe. For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. Here’s how the BMW 1 Series M did in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check: Latch system: These might be my new favorite Latch anchors. The BMW 1M has two easy-to-use sets that sit in plastic housing in the seat bight, where the back and bottom cushions meet. They have hinged plastic covers that can be flipped up when it’s time to use the anchors. Lots of Latch anchors have covers, but hinged covers aren’t the norm. I appreciate any help I can get in not losing those anchor covers. Two tether anchors sit on the rear shelf behind the head restraints. They’re also easy to use. Booster seat: The backseat has large bolsters that pushed our high-back booster seat in front of the floppy seat belt buckle. It was difficult pulling the buckle out from behind the booster because it’s a tight fit back there. Convertible seat: The accessible Latch anchors made quick work of installing both the forward- and rear-facing convertible. Both seats fit well in the BMW 1M. Infant-safety seat: To get this rear-facing car seat to fit, we had to move the front passenger seat so far forward that the passenger’s knees were pushed against the glove box. How many car seats fit in the second row? Two Editor’s note: For three car seats — infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats — to fit in a car, our criterion is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.
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BreAnn Ahara, one of our newest reviewers at MotherProof.com, wrote this 2012 Toyota Camry preview. Toyota put on quite a show Tuesday when it launched the all-new 2012 Toyota Camry. The automaker unveiled the family-friendly sedan on a movie set at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, within a miniature musical number that would make Broadway proud. The new Camry was driven out with banners flying, bands playing and choreographed dancers dancing. The amount of fanfare was somewhat shocking, considering that the new Camry looks similar to the Camry most of us already have in our driveways. The exterior is slightly more angular, but most people wouldn’t recognize it as a new body style if they saw it on the road today. Along with a slight exterior change comes a price change. Toyota is lowering the price of five of the eight available trim levels. The LE model sees its price drop $200, to $22,500. The premium XLE gets a $2,000 drop, to $24,725 — a 7.5% decrease! Quality and safety features in the 2012 Toyota Camry include 10 standard airbags, which nobody else in the midsize segment can claim. Also available are backup and blind spot monitors. The all-new Camry has an estimated fuel economy of 25/35 mpg city/highway and 28 mpg combined. The more powerful SE and XLE have an estimated fuel economy of 21/30 mpg and 25 mpg combined. The Camry Hybrid touts an impressive 43/39 mpg and 41 mpg combined. I drove the new Camry around Los Angeles, including a trek onto Griffith Park’s curvy and steep roads. The Camry hugged the curves nicely and made short order of the steep hills. Also, the sedan was able to keep the ride smooth, quiet and comfortable, something I’ve come to expect from a Camry. Toyota says the 2012 model’s interior is roomier than in previous years, but the overall exterior size did not change. During my test drive, the interior felt comfortable and spacious. But let’s face it: Without two car seats in back, most seats appear spacious. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one of these for a week to load it up with car seats and strollers to truly put Toyota’s claims to the test.
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