Car Down payment

The first big snowfall of the year in Michigan just happened last night, and the night before I was out to celebrate my GF's graduation from her MBA. (Congrats! So proud!) And although stuff wasn't ideal, things were manageable. For the last year I've had a decent job—it pays the bills, but that's roughly about it. I seldom have more than a few dollars left before the next month, and of course those are gone quickly enough. Going anywhere takes a LOT of planning and eating ramen and, in order to not have to do that, I recently started a finance plan that would get me comfortably in the black by April. And then dad's cancer. And then unplanned emergencies. And then...

My 15 yo car died on me on Monday, and no matter what it wouldn't restart. It had to be dragged to a shop, but obviously a quick repair is not going to cut it. I've been fixing the damned thing constantly for the last year, and if it wasn't for a good friend of mine, I'd been stranded several months back. Dude's a saint, don't tell him I said that.

I don't have family here so I can't rely on them to help me out on this one, or loan me a car and of course they'll try to help, but they have their own bills and issues that they need to deal with.

Now I have to get a new car. There's no way around it. Renting is going to be much more expensive—and even if it can be fixed—it's not reliable and affordable to keep doing this. I postponed it as much as I could, but I really need to get the down payment somehow. I'm not looking for anything fancy of course. It just needs to work... but with a kid who I have a very high probability that I'll end up having 100% custody of in the next year... I really can't risk not having something to ride.  The Detroit area is not designed to help people without vehicles.

Given the circumstances I need the downpayment as soon as possible, so any help at all would be welcome.