College Receives Donated Vehicles from Three Automakers

By Mindy Johnston College Information & Community Relations Intern

Pennsylvania College of Technology's School of Transportation Technology acquired four donated vehicles recently that will be used for instructional and transportation purposes.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. is donating a 2003 Camry LE and a 2003 Corolla. The College also will receive a Dodge 1500 truck from DaimlerChrysler and a 2003 Econovan from Ford Motor Co.

The Corolla, valued at $13,775; the Dodge 1500 truck, valued at $17,235; and the Econovan, valued at $24,885, all will be used for instructional purposes. The Toyota Camry LE, valued at $18,271, will be used by Penn College faculty to travel to Toyota dealerships and to visit co-operative education students. By using the Camry, the school will save money on rental costs. It will also give instructors an alternative to driving their own vehicles.

Along with the new-vehicle donations Penn College receives, it also acquires up to a dozen damaged vehicles per year for instructional purposes. Each year, the College gives some of these older vehicles to area high schools to use in their automotive programs.

Although there is a limited amount of space for the vehicles, on average, the automotive programs have approximately 40 vehicles to work with at any given time, though they have had as many as 60.

Penn College receives sponsorship from Ford and Toyota. Ford sponsors the two-year Automotive Technology/Ford ASSET major at the College. Ford helps pay for supplies, along with its donation of vehicles.

Penn College has been part of the Toyota Technical Education Network since 1991 and offers an associate-degree program in Automotive Technology/Toyota Emphasis.

In participating in these programs, Ford and Toyota benefit because they help to train potential employees. According to Colin W. Williamson, dean of transportation technology, hiring skilled workers enables the automakers to produce better-quality vehicles, which leads to increased customer satisfaction.

Although DaimlerChrysler does not sponsor a program at Penn College, it does have an online Web site where institutions like Penn College can request donated vehicles, which is how the Dodge truck was acquired. Van Campen Dodge Chrysler Plymouth in Williamsport also has been a longtime supporter of the College, hiring many Penn College graduates in the past and having representatives sit on advisory boards.

Penn College is National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation-Master Certified, a prerequisite for receiving these vehicles, Williamson noted.

According to Williamson, without these types of donations and the support of sponsors, Penn College would not be able to offer its automotive programs. By using the vehicles, the College can keep the curriculum up to date. These donations allow first-year-students to work on cars safely and enable instructors to use the vehicles as demonstrators for second-year-students.

For more information about the automotive programs at Penn College, call (570) 327-4516, send e-mail or visit on the Web.