The most likely thing is that the car is disassembled and sold as spare parts, which usually brings in much more money than selling the car itself, especially if the body is old and beat-up. For example, you can probably sell the car's computer or ignition control unit or ABS controller for hundreds of dollars. If someone has a car that runs well and is worth thousands of dollars, he probably won't just give it away for a tax deduction; he'll try to sell it or trade it in. (This is also what happens to lots of stolen cars: they get taken to a "chop shop".)
If the car is of an age old enough to be scrapped or donated, to buy an ECU or other Electronics for a similar car of a similar age probably means the replacement bits are worth more than the car is, which would make the whole exercise uneconomical, further increasing the number of scrap cars and thus, number of replacement ECUs, thereby increasing supply and reducing price.
I agree.. how do scrap yards manage to make money by breaking up cars? Surely there are so many different materials, contamination must be an issue and modern cars don't even have that much metal.
How do car-breakers make their money? That's the Pricenomics article I want to read.
"The official position is that car owning is a sumptuary sin." It still is, and so new cars are taxed about 100%. Take any U.S. car, triple its price, and that's the cost in Uruguay. Old cars (2005 and older) can be five to ten times more expensive than in the U.S. (my 2002 small Renault Twingo sells for U$ 9.000)
The same thing that happens to any used car that is sold in general. There is nothing related to charity once the car is on the used car lot and for sale. Just some of the sale price are kicked back to the charity.
I'm a religious Giants fan, and it makes me think sadly about Duane Kuiper's voice on the "Kars for Kids" ads on the radio, with the kids songs. I didn't realize it was for religious education.
To be clear, when I meant a religious fan, I was joking (in that the SF Giants are my primarily religious belief). Didn't have the additional context - thank you.
from the title, I was really hoping they would talk about what happens to the cars _after_ auction...