Vehicle donations in Canada should be a simple and cost-free process. As the donor, you have several donating options. Check your options carefully - not all donation programs are equal in integrity or service. Donate a Car Canada is all-Canadian, providing ANY charity to choose from. 'Have a cause you love? We can process your car, truck, and (seasonally) motorcycle. For free! The net sale proceeds will go to your charity of choice.
How vehicle donations work
The simplest way to proceed with your vehicle donation is to click any of the buttons on our webpage. That click will take you to an online form for your donation. The form is simple to understand, and it only asks for information we really need to process your car or truck promptly.
Not having success with the online form? No problem! Give us a direct call at 1-877-250-4904. Our phone team will be happy to talk with you. They'll walk you through the form if you like, but will also be happy to just fill it all out for you.
Done that step? Leave it to us. We'll contact a nearby towing company and arrange for your free and timely pick-up. Don't worry: no one will show up for the vehicle until they've called to arrange best timing with you.
The tow guys will come for your auto, process it, and send us payment. The dollar outcome is subject to (always!) fluctuating metal prices in Canada. Once we have payment from our tow agent, we'll forward the proceeds on to your charity.
What does the charity have to pay?
Not a thing! We have written agreements with our supported charities that they will issue tax receipts in a prompt manner. Apart from that, the work is all taken care of by us here at DACC. Many of our charities receive thousands of dollars each year; some of the lesser-known organizations would be grateful for a little extra from you!
The difference you make
Vehicle donation in Canada has a multi-layer impact. First, it allows you to have a recycle or re-sale ready vehicle picked-up and processed at no cost to you. But the benefits don't end there. The charity of your choice will certainly benefit. And so will the environment (clean, thorough recycling practices matter). The longer reach? Many of our supporting tow agents are small, local companies: keeping wheels on the ground with a steady stream of work matters, too.
So, give us a click and let us get you on your way with your vehicle donation today!
Spring maintenance as a topic for a vehicle donation site should probably be about vehicle clean-up? But there's something about the season that invites a check-in on other dusty corners.
"Road trip!" This has been the go-to vacation mode for our family of five. We recently donated our faithful old Buick Rendezvous through the Donate a Car Canada program, but didn't want to let it go without a little nod to some of the adventures it accompanied us on.
USA, here we come!
I hadn't realized, until I started scrolling through old road trip pictures, how far and wide our '09 Rendezvous actually took us. Not only did it get us down to the New Mexico Whitesands, it also explored parts of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington State with us.
It's pretty likely that our three teenagers were less enthusiastic than their parents were about these treks. Ok. It's a lot likely. There was just so much bribery and cajoling and compromising. I mean, how are you supposed to keep 5 people happy? All at once? When you're travelling hundreds and hundreds of kilometers each road trip? I don't think we ever really figured that out, and I couldn't find very many pictures of smiling teenage boys in my file. But the SUV sure served us well!
Giant array = giant dismay
'Not sure what the "Very Large Array" is? Yeah. I wasn't either. It's this:
Yup. A big field full of dishes. My hubby had seen them in a movie and was pretty stoked about detouring to "just drive by" on our way North and out of New Mexico.
One thing we know for sure about road tripping as a family is that I should, 100%, never-ever-never navigate. I mean, I can read the map and do a reasonable GPS-voice impersonation, but do not (do not!) listen to me if I decide to follow my "gut."
Because 3 out of 3 boys were totally not into visiting the Very Big Array, I was determined to souse out the quickest path to and from that field. The map showed two options: main highway, and a secondary route. It looked highway-ish. My gut said, Definitely follow that highway-ish red line on the map - it's so.much.shorter. than the real highway. My gut was wrong. Really so completely wrong.
Warning signs
To be fair, our frame of references for "rough road ahead," and "Beware: rocks on road," road signs are Rocky Mountain signs that simply note that a beautifully winding mountain highway might get a little seasonally dodgy.
Fair warning: if you come across these signs in New Mexico it means the road is made entirely of giant stab-y, tire-piercing stones. That actually pierce your tires. And leave you stranded between apparently abandoned homes along a completely abandoned road in a wholly abandoned desert.
The short cut red line that led to the Very Big Array was not a short cut. Especially not once we'd emptied the entire contents from the vehicle in order to get at and mount the spare tire, and then (after re-packing all of our belongings) limped our way 80 more miles to the array, and then on to the main highway. The array itself? Yeah, it's probably 15 minutes off the main highway. We added hours and hours to our travel time by taking the short cut.
Canadian hitch-hiker
We paused at the array. It seemed only fitting to pay it some kind of respect given all we'd sacrificed to get to it. And then nursed our poor Buick and its broken foot to the highway, praying to the tire gods that the spare would hold until we could get to any kind of civilization to buy a replacement tire for our shredded original.
The spare did not hold. It wheezed out a protesting gasp a few miles down the highway. And we were stuck. In the States. In New Mexico.
So, I went and stood in the middle of the highway. All 5'2" of mom Me. I hailed a passing truck (with a beautiful human and her dog and her threats of, "Do you know how lucky you are? No one ever stops for hitch hikers in New Mexico!") and got dropped off at a suspect looking town up the highway. The broken down shack of a garage that called itself the tire place happened to have two gentleman on the yard. I (don't judge me) pleaded our case and (I said don't judge me!) jumped in the truck with one of them and another spare tire, praying a) the spare would fit the Buick, and b) that I'd live to see that happen.
On the road again
I lived! And the spare fit. And it got us all the way to the next nearest city (none of the towns en route had anything close to a tire shop...but they definitely had some interesting places that looked like they were probably "We're totally a tire shop!" fronts for much scarier businesses...). There? We found that sanctum we all know as WalMart. And we just happened (we could do another blog on "Road Trip Coincidence: Miracle? Or plain dumb luck?") to roll up with enough time in the day for them to swap our small town spare for a less-small-town proper tire. Very big array? Very big adventure, I'd say! And I'm sure my kids would totally agree. Offered enough bribes.
Giving up the Rendezvous was no small thing for us. Canon Beach, Oregon, Seattle, Vancouver, Everywhere Alberta. Coeur d'alene, Idaho. Oh. Yeah. Coeur d'alene. Don't get me started on that short cut.
Do you have a beloved old vehicle that needs to go? Give us a call!
"Buick Rendezvous, 2009. Broken down on Northbound Metis trail. Parked on the shoulder." Had you told us 50,000 kms ago that our trusty Buick would get us all the way to March of 2019 we would not have believed you for a second! We knew this was the final service call we'd make for this faithful SUV, and it came with a flood of memories.
SUV or half-ton truck?
When our family was ready to transition from a minivan to something smaller, , the Rendezvous was our go-to. This was the fanciest vehicle we'd ever had (Heated seats and mirrors that adjusted themselves? So fancy!). We loved it!
Storage space in the SUV wasn't optimal, but that didn't stop us from using the poor ol' girl like she was an F150. Over the years we've moved many friends from one home to another. We've hauled lumber and gardening soil and trees. She got the kids through years of hanging out with buddies (read: that vehicle hauled a lot of bodies, weird combinations of sporting and gaming equipment, and debris).
Road trippin', Buick-style
We're a road tripping family - because who can afford to fly with 3 kids? Well...who can afford to fly them and feed them? Since we had to choose between the two, we opted to feed them. They seemed to appreciate that. When the kids were still travelling with us the drives would take us South of the border in search of sun and warmth and adventure.
One of our most memorable trips was taken in the Buick. That hearty black wonder got us all the way down to New Mexico, USA. I don't think we ever (like, never) got all of the White Sands, NM sand out from the carpet fibres and various nooks and crannies of that vehicle? We had dramatic tire trouble (that's a story of its own...) in an effort to short-cut our way to the Giant Array (again, more on that next week), and just about drove the boys nuts with the various other "short cuts" we took in an effort to show them their continent.
Gettin' it done
Winter after winter, long after our sons had purchased their own vehicles, the Buick got us through one tight spot after another. The kids went from kiddos to adulthood while we had the Buick. With 5 adults, our family has a pretty big vehicle foot print. Work and play demands mean that everyone has their own car...and with that many vehicles in one family , there are a lot of roadside breakdowns, parking lot boosts, and wonky electrical issues. The Rendezvous was the one vehicle that never broke down. We'd leave it parked curb-side for weeks or months at a time, giving it a negligible drive around the block just to ensure we kept the motor functioning and the parking authorities at bay. And every time we needed it, it started right up and got whomever was in a last-minute pinch to where they needed to be.
One last trip
Until just a week or two ago. I'd done the obligatory run around the block/move the vehicle and make it look like someone loves it drive. It started up fine and had that warm and mechanical-gas-y smell of a neglected vehicle. I love that smell. It reminds me of grandpa's old blue K-Car. The one that used to sit out on the farm, years after it had stopped driving. A magical, all-blue automotive playground for the grandkids.
Then, one of our boys had car trouble, and without giving it a second thought, he grabbed the Buick keys and headed off to work. The ol' thing didn't get very far before it coughed a little and gave it up at the side of the road. There would be no more last minute saves by that seasoned Buick.
For our family, that leads to the easy next-step: donation. The SUV doesn't owe us a thing. From thousands of miles of road trip comfort to truck-like weight-bearing to icy parking lot rescues, it has more than earned its end of life rest.
Five quick minutes on the Donate a Car Canada website and we were in their system for free support. We got our tow timing call the next day, and before we knew it, the Buick was out of sight.
That hardworking auto will keep its generous legacy going by turning into a cash gift for Inn From the Cold, our family's charity of choice. Fitting for a vehicle that kept us warm and safe over so many kilometers.
You have Our Gratitude
Thank you Aaron from Medicine hat for donating a 2003 Honda Odyssey to Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society
Thank you Mark from Calgary for donating a 2002 Saturn SL1 4D to Alberta Cancer Foundation
Thank you Boardwalk from Calgary for donating a 2001 Mercedes-Benz SL 500 to Victoria Cool Aid Society
Thank you Allan from Calgary for donating a 2005 Ford Escape ZXW Wagon to Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society
Thank you Bryan from Bowen Island for donating a 2006 Pontiac Vibe to Trans Canada Trail Foundation
Thank you Brenda D from Ottawa for donating a 2012 Dodge Caravan to Children at Risk
Thank you Laurel from W Vancouver for donating a 2001 Infiniti QX4 to ALS Society of BC
Thank you Tiana from Whistler for donating a 2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring to ALS Society of Canada
Thank you Denise from Surrey for donating a 1998 Dodge Caravan to Alzheimer Society of BC
Thank you Glynis from Winnipeg for donating a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan to Candace House
Thank you Janet from Chase for donating a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe to Canadian Cancer Society
Thank you Janet from Chase for donating a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe to
Thank you Trung from Calgary for donating a 2012 Toyota Highlander to Calgary Public Library Foundation
Thank you Crest Support Services (Meadowcr from Lucan for donating a 2016 Dodge Caravan to Crest Support Services
Thank you Crest Support Services (Meadowcr from Lucan for donating a 2015 Dodge Caravan to Crest Support Services
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buttons on our webpage. That click will take you to an online form for your donation. The form is simple to understand, and it only asks for information we really need to process your car or truck promptly.
