We're a young disabled couple who rely on our car for our meager income. We've been trying very hard to become financially independent. We also rely on our car to drive our kid to preschool. Our car was totalled (not crashed, just no longer safe to drive and costs as much to repair as to buy a new one). We need a new car. We've been nearly fully dependent on some generous family members for help for many months, but they must be having their own financial struggles or mental health challenges because they're pulling back their much-needed financial life support and decided to leave us stranded with no personal resources to turn to. Idk, they won't say, and it's quite sudden. Such a bummer. We were building our way towards financial independence, with their enthusiastic support, and then got abruptly dropped like a hot potato right when our lives were about to turn around.

We've been living in a hotel, on their dime. It's been godawful living here, but we're grateful. In our effort to gain financial independence, we recently signed a contract to move to a tiny house with rent that's a fraction of the cost of the hotel, and these generous family members agreed to pay the rent for it as long as we need while we continue to get a steadier income flow. Getting stable income and securing an affordable place to live while disabled is so hard, but they are making it possible. We're set to move out of the hotel in just a couple weeks! But these family members, who until now have been paying for every single one of our humble expenses (so generously!) without flinching, are now flinching at the thought of contributing towards buying a simple used car. So, even though they have the appearance of people in the 5mil net worth category, we're forced to assume they must have far less, and possibly be gravely in debt. If that's true, we don't want to push them further into debt by pressing the issue and begging for their help. But they won't share what's wrong, so we're just left to make guesses as to their sudden reticence. They know we rely on them entirely, and that we need a car to be able to scrape by even a little, so their hands must truly be tied on this one.

Either way, we need a car, and we need it as soon as possible. We'll be eternally grateful to anyone who can contribute even a tiny bit of pocket change. Everyone is struggling out here, and we're not the exception, even while having rich and generous relatives who have made it their job to act as a safety net...usually. It's truly such a crazymaking situation. But we're trying to make the best of things and be pragmatic. Please help us!

Edit: I may have overstepped a tad when speculating publicly about certain people's financial situation. They have been given the link and asked to let me know if any of it is not to their liking, and I will edit it. So far they seem to not mind. I'll leave it as-is for now. I did also add some context around what happened to our old car. Thank you all so much!