Moving and can't sell cars - no one wants them! What to do with the cars?

[mamasaurus]

I have some friends - two parents and their children - who are getting ready to move away in about 4 days. They have a problem, and I'm hoping you all can brainstorm with me on how to solve this.

We live in Hawaii. They are moving to the mainland. They have two cars. They calculated the cost of shipping the cars, and decided it would be better financially to sell them here and buy new cars over there. However, they have not been able to sell the cars. They have tried for many months. Today they went to the car dealers as a last resort and no one wanted them! What can they do about these two cars?

They have thought about asking a friend to keep them and sell them whenever the friend could, giving their friend a "finder's fee" for doing so.

I suggested perhaps donating the cars to a charity to at least gain a tax write-off. But I don't know how well that would work for them. It seems it will work best if a family has a large income and is trying to shield income from taxes. But they don't have a huge income, and last year they didn't have to pay anything anyway.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for them? I hate to see them lose money on these cars.

Thanks!

[PajamaMama]

Well, they can't just abandon them. If they won't get any tax benefit from the donation maybe they can sell them to someone who *would*, for just the amount of the tax benefit, or a little less.

What kind of cars are they?

In that situation I would probably donate them to a high school or technical high school, or to a women's shelter in one of the larger cities, if they're running.

[LEAW]

What island are you on? I have friends who are locals and might be able to give you more specific ideas... but it varies from island to island.

[SleeplessMommy]

Have they tried craigslist.org? (free) Or an eBAY auction? Or, find someone who is visiting Hawaii for a month and would otherwise rent a car. Sell the car to them, then let the visitor figure out what to do.

They could also try to trade them for something, anything they might need after the move. Something small and portable.

[mamasaurus]

Originally Posted by lisa2976

What island are you on? I have friends who are locals and might be able to give you more specific ideas... but it varies from island to island.

Maui.

[mamasaurus]

Originally Posted by PajamaMama

What kind of cars are they?

Range Rover and a VW Beetle - a recent one.

[3_opihi]

Where are they moving to? If they are newer cars, it sounds like it would be cheaper and easier to just ship them.

If they really need to sell them, I would just have a (trustworthy!) friend do it through craigslist or possibly ship them over here to Oahu and try to sell them to a dealership. Maybe they could call the Honolulu VW dealership. Or Servco Toyota- they have a huge used car lot full of newer cars so they might be willing to trade them for cash.