July 30, 1998

Steering Donated Cars Back on Track

By PUTNAM BARBER

The ads generally are pretty simple. A headline asks you to donate your old, beat-up car to charity. A couple of lines of text say something like "Maximum tax benefits. We handle all the paperwork." There's a phone number to call, and the name or logo of a charitable organization. Sometimes there's a footnote that says "running or not (some restrictions apply)."

So you call. And you find that the whole transaction is handled not by people who work for the

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