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I used an in house estimator tool we have at work that also accounts for your location and condition. At best it is worth $2,500 with those miles and general condition. That is what I would ask, but would be willing to go as low as $1,750. That's what it's worth.
It most likely isn't worth it to sell it and there is no way you will get $5k for it. If it was mine and I was stuck with it, I'd be looking at getting some better estimates on fixing it. You never mentioned the water pump being replaced, that might be a good place to start looking. From what you described, especially the part about revving it to cool it down, the water pump might be going and not able to flow enough coolant.
On the CD player, are you using burned CD's? A lot of the older CD players in cars will have trouble reading burned CD's and give you an error message. If you get an error message even with a regular CD in, the player is most likely shot. Replacing it with another factory unit is pretty cheap, or you could always go after market.
Repairs should be pretty cheap as water pumps on those cost less than $50 online and are not hard to get to. The radio should be less than $100 for a factory unit and is a very straight forward replacement that you could do yourself.
These vans had a lot of issues with the cooling system from the switch to GM DexCool anti-freeze that was really hard on the cooling system components and gaskets. The water pump is a common failure item that you didn't list so I would start there. If the leaks continue, you also want to have them check the intake manifold gaskets as they were a common failure item as well and leaks from there are hard to detect. The suggestion of taking it to an actual GM dealer is a good one, but be prepared to spend more than at the shade tree place.
Again, given what it's worth and the loss you would be taking if everything else is fine, I would spend the money on trying to fix it one last time.
Donate it and take a $5000 tax write off. That way you get your $2000 and do not have the hassle of selling it and then having someone come back and complain that you ripped them off. (or throw a brick through your front window).
Donate it and take a $5000 tax write off. That way you get your $2000 and do not have the hassle of selling it and then having someone come back and complain that you ripped them off. (or throw a brick through your front window).
The only problem with that is you need a lot of tax liability to make it worthwhile. Chances are for the average person, they would net more cash scrapping it than they would realize through donating it to charity and taking the write-off.
The law changed, that is no longer possible. Whatever the donatee sells it for is now the deductable amount.
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