We've had a pretty rough streak with cars, but my most recent one—a 2017 Ford Escape—has been with us for about five years. We've had multiple break-ins, sleep-ins, etc--but nothing out of the ordinary for living in midtown Sacramento.

Not too long ago, we had two cars, but Sid's car got turned into an unhoused hotel party room one night. We found drugs, panties, grocery bags, and nacho cheese smeared all over the seat, and the steering block was completely dismantled. We had to sell it to pick-n-pull for 600$.

Last year, one of the funky shaped back windows was busted in, seemingly just for fun, as nothing was taken (this is the second time that has happened within a year. The weirdness of the window shape unfortunately meant it was significantly more expensive to replace than a normal passenger window--so....duct tape has been keeping it together for the time being.

Shortly after that, someone backed up into us, and their insurance never resolved it (meaning my back left bumper light has been exposed for almost 2 years now).

Earlier last week, I was trying to parallel park, missed and clipped the guy ahead of me's bumper. His car seemed to be fine, but my axel is all jacked up now and veers to the right at random intervals and the passenger door doesn't open AT ALL, and the whole time, the car makes an insane screeching sound as we drive it --which we don't have any option BUT to drive it, as the kids have school and etc.

I don't really know what I'm asking for, but maybe some help with directions on what to do.

The passenger door won't even properly open all the way anymore and the kids have to climb around through the back.

I've contacted the insurance, but I could only afford liability so they won't really help me get it fixed. And I'm not sure how long we can go with a car in the garage. Even to find out how much it'll cost to fix.

We're hanging by the thread of a very thin rope here, and this car is one of the main things keeping us together. I truly hate to ask to do anything like this, but sincerely...anything helps. We are on our way back from a garage that will hopefully not quote us something crazy.

Thank you so much for reading this, and we love you all.