I have a 1985 Jaguar XJS that has had numerous and significant modifications and improvements made to it. e.g. special blue printed Chevy V8 engine and heavy duty GM transmission and most engine peripheral parts, e.g. radiator, water pump, battery, eta are high performance parts not found on non-racing cars. Does anyone have any suggestions?
My wife and I now have three children and we she insists that I get rid of this car to save money.
I would like to donate it to a charity, however I am at a loss as how to determine the value of a modified car. Blue book, and such always refer to standard cars and they do not even go back to 1985.
Why Donate?
This doesn’t sound like a vehicle that a charity organization would want. They would probably sell it or give it away.
Sell it yourself and donate the money or keep the money it and put it in savings, or a combination of both.
Your wife, “… insists that I get rid of this car to save money.”
I believe that they changed the rules about donating cars to charities so that unless the charity actually uses the car themselves (probably not the case here), you can only claim whatever the charity sells the car for and considering they usually sell them off at wholesale auctions, it’s not usually a lot.
It won’t be worth as much as it would be had it still had the AJ6 under the hood. I think Jags of that vintage used GM’s TH-350 tranny from the the factory. The 350 swap is prety common with Jags as it’s cheap to do and the SBC improves reliability. Persoanlly I’m not a fan of it, I think it robs the car of some panache. At any rate, depending on condition/mileage. I would expect the value to be about $3500 or so
Modifications add absolutely no value to a car and most cases degrade it. If you find a special buyer who wants your taste then you may get it back for penny’s on the dollar spent on your mods. So keep that in mind when selling it.
But in the end auction value is all you get.
There are now two ways to value the car:
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Auction value. If the donee sells the car at auction, they will provide a receipt. That is the only valid method for this type of donation.
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Inferred value. You can still estimate the value if the charity uses the car or sells/gives it to a needy individual. There are charities that give or sell cars to people who need a car to commute but can’t afford a reliable one on the open market.
As a few others have said, no one probably wants your car under these circumstances. You might sell it and give the proceeds to your favorite charity.
Who can ever bring the two sexes together re spending money on toys vs spending money on weddings and jewelry?
That’s easy- what’s left from the latter can be used on the former. 
I believe that is correct. My daughter donated a 1992 Saturn to the Bible Institute here, and when they sold it, they sent her a paper for tax purposes which listed the amount they received. Good job.
Sorry to hear you are taking orders like that.
Actually, this thread serves a useful purpose. It is going to be brought to the attention of participants of a forum whose purpose is to convince men who aren’t married, to stay that way. A lot of good steel gets tossed because HRM doesn’t like it.
Don’t get me wrong. It may be that their economic situation cannot support that car. However, it is totally different for a man to realize he cannot afford it any more, and toss it, versus Cupcake ordering him to toss it. Without more information, there is no reason to assume this is anything other than she wants his luxuries gone so she can grab all his check for her luxuries.