Family to the rescue

I can't remember how much I've posted about our ongoing car dilemma, so I'll recap the three year saga quickly.  When S lost everything three years ago while we were still living in Florida, we bought a cheap used Honda to get him around.  I had recently purchased (using that term loosely since I financed most of price) a used Mazda.  When we made the move to Boston, we debated selling the Honda in Florida so we wouldn't have to move it thinking that S would use mass transit to get around.  In the end, we decided to keep it for various reasons which turned out to be a big mistake.

Even though the car ran just fine, it wouldn't pass the Massachusetts car inspection.  It would take about $1000 to get it up to regulations which is almost what the thing was worth in the first place.  So it sat in our driveway like some redneck lawn ornament collecting leaf litter and bird droppings.  We went back and forth on what to do with it: should we drive it to my family in Kentucky, where there are no State inspections, where we could sell it for what we bought it for?  Should we sell it for cheap, as-is in Massachusetts and cut our losses?  Should we keep it for emergency use only and risk the fines if we got caught?  

After listening to me go around and around about the dilemma for long enough, my dad offered to lend us one of his vehicles (he has a fleet of cars for his company and personal use) while we made the transition to parenthood.  We took him up on that offer and decided to sell the Honda as-is in Mass to put towards baby funding.  Fast forward to today where I have a totaled Mazda to replace.  We like the Volkswagon my dad lent us but we quickly found out we wouldn't be able to afford one for the settlement money without getting a new loan.  I'm really not interested in having a new loan... I'm trying to see the accident as a blessing in disguise to get out from under my car loan.  So what do we do to replace the Mazda on the limited settlement money I will receive?

Again, our families became our sounding board about the ongoing car dilemma.  And our families came to our rescue (or maybe they were just tired of hearing us complain)!  My dad offered to sell us the VW for a very, very low price (like half off the blue book value) and S' brother, aunt, and mom all worked together to give us one of the used family cars that they were going to sell.  Not only will we finally have two good condition, working vehicles completely paid for and in our name but we'll also have money left over from the Mazda settlement to pay-off some of the maternity debt!  This is all such a big relief for us, I really wish I could see our families right now so I could give them all a big kiss for helping us out in our time of need!