Tax Question - Donated car to charity...car was originally gifted to me

In high school, my parents bought me a car and had it registered to me. I kept it until the year after I graduated college. My parents were looking to buy a new car and I was interested in their old car, so they traded me their old car for mine, and then traded in my car to go toward their new car purchase. I hope I haven't lost you...

I kept that same car for several years, doing several repairs to keep it running, and probably invested a few $K over at least a decade. Last year, it finally had a major breakdown that wasn't worth fixing, so I donated it to a local charity, in which it sold for $800 according to their 1098C form that they sent me. I figured that I could write this off on my taxes, but according to Turbotax, since the car "appreciated" to $800 from the $0 that I paid for it, I can't receive any tax break. Is this correct? I spent a lot of money to keep that car running. I could have also sold the car to a parts yard and donated the proceeds from it, and received a tax benefit, no? I don't understand why I can't get a benefit just because of the means to which I donated to charity.