Every month thousands of privately-owned vehicles break down or fail their MOT test, and while many owners will give their breakdown service a call or book in to get the problems repaired, other motorists just want someone to come and take the vehicle off their hands, especially if it’s not worth that much anymore.
More and more drivers are seeing this unfortunate situation as an opportunity raise a bit of money for a good cause by giving their vehicle away to a specialist scrapping and recycling service like Giveacar instead of trying to trade it in at a local car dealership or taking it down to a nearby scrapyard.
Launched in 2010, Giveacar is a small not-for-profit social enterprise that has so far raised in excess of £3.5 million for good causes.
Vehicles (they accept motorbikes, vans and caravans as well as cars) are collected for free and then either cleaned up and sold at auction, recycled for a scrap value or dismantled and sold for spare parts, with the proceeds generated passed on to the donor’s chosen charity.
Giveacar say that their service is popular with people who have just bought a newer, better vehicle who don't know what to do with their old one, Motability customers who have recently joined the scheme and who have recently taken delivery of a new car or Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) and people who have decided to stop driving and give up their driving licence, perhaps because of their age or a medical condition.
All paperwork and behind-the-scenes administration is done by Giveacar, and the donor receives an email a few weeks later detailing how the car was disposed of and how much money it raised for the chosen charity.
Vehicle owners can choose to donate their vehicle to one of the 1600 charities who already work with Giveacar, or they can opt to give the money to a smaller, local organisation (as long as it's a registered UK charity).
Charities that have benefitted from vehicles donated through Giveacar include Scope, Help for Heroes, Cancer Research UK and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
As a non-profit enterprise, Giveacar deducts a service administration fee from the disposal price to cover their operating costs, with every penny reinvested to cover staffing, administration costs and marketing so they can tell even more people about their free service.
Vehicles that raise up to £150 will have a 25% administration fee applied, which rises to 30% for vehicles valued at £150 and over, with the rest of the donation going to the donors nominated charity.
Giveacar have so far raised £3.5 million for over 1600 different charities across the UK through the disposal of over 35,000 vehicles. If you need to get rid of an old car and would like to do some good at the same time, join the thousands of people who have already helped a charity and donate your car today.
There are other charity vehicle donation services that you could also check out, including charitycar and the Car Donation Network.