Charity drive.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

The St. Vincent de Paul car lot on Highway 99 in Eugene looks much like any other used car lot along that busy strip. A jumble of makes and models are angle-parked, fluorescent orange or green price tags dangling from rear-view mirrors.

But there are big differences. The lot uses no high-pressure sales tactics. Customers stroll around, sit behind the wheel of one car, look under the hood of another, without a salesperson tagging along, extolling the virtues of each vehicle.

Oh, and the entire inventory was obtained for nothing. All of these cars were donated to the charity.

Charity car lots are attracting a growing number of customers - and growing attention from the federal government.

A U.S. Government Accounting Office report recently highlighted problems with charity car-donation programs nationwide.

The report found that donated cars often were sold at auction by third parties, rather than by the charities themselves, and that the charities ended up getting very little for the vehicles.

Also, donors vastly overestimated the value of their cars when claiming deductions on their federal tax returns, resulting in a loss to the U.S. Treasury Department of an estimated $654 million in 2000, according to the report.

In response, the department last month said it aimed to close loopholes by proposing new deduction limits and appraisal requirements for cars donated to charity. The agency is expected to release details later this year.

Currently, the Internal Revenue Service requires taxpayers to list individual noncash charitable contributions that they claim are worth more than $500, and to obtain an independent appraisal of any donated car valued at more than $5,000.

The troubles identified by the GAO plague Oregon charities that accept car donations, said Victoria Cox, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice charitable activities section in Portland.

"Most (charities) do use car brokers and are receiving little for the cars," she said. "If they get 200 bucks on a car, that's (considered) good."

However, the two dominant car-donation programs in the Eugene-Springfield area say they avoid this pitfall by selling the cars themselves directly to the public.

Goodwill Industries of Lane and South Coast Counties sells vehicles from the lot of its store on busy Coburg Road in Eugene, and St. Vincent de Paul recently moved its sales lot to a larger space on Highway 99.

"We want to let people know that we're different, and it's easy to see where the money goes," said Charley Harvey,

CAPTION(S):

Charley Harvey oversees the vehicle donation program for St. Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent and Goodwill sell donated cars on Eugene lots. Sale of cars supplements the charities' other programs.