Sell, donate, or fix?

I have a 1999 Ford Taurus. It’s been a great family car but recently it’s developed some gremlins. My father-in-law and I rebuilt the engine due to a bad oil pump shaft but there are a few remaining issues:

• Heater doesn’t work. Heater core is good, radiator is fine. I think it is the vacuum actuators for the heater doors.
• Speedometer doesn’t work. Probably the sensor.
• Shifting is off. Could be it needs a service, could be it doesn’t know how fast it is going.
• Creaky steering. We replaced both front struts but it makes this creaking sound.

Bonus problem: it stinks. It sat for a while and developed that moldy, BO smell. Not the good gas, exhaust, vinyl mold smell that old cars have.

Here are my options:

A. Sell it. I’d probably get about $500-1000.
B. Donate it. Nice tax break.
C. Fix it. I usually do all the work myself, but these problems are a little too tedious and involved.

What should I do?

Time to say bye bye. Even if you fix the other problems, you’ll be forever suffering from the moldy smell. Them mold spores, they have a half-life of forever.

Donate it! You have better things to do than nursing an oldie like that.

If you think you will get a great tax break, you are probably mistaken. If you donate to a charity that uses the car, you can determine the value. But almost all donated cars are sold. If that is what happens, the charity will send you a receipt and that is your deduction.

Sell it.

Donate it. The tax write off feels as good as does helping out any great charity. Double warm and fuzzies.

Won’t get much of a write-off for a '99 Toreass

Some gift to charity . . .