Re-financing question

Are you getting a tax refund?

I’d sell the Cobalt and use my refund + stimulus check to try to cover the difference in the selling price and the loan.

Then finance something like this for 4 years at 6-6.25% for a payment of $160-170/month. @12k/year the car will have 89k on it when you pay it off and should still be pretty reliable.

Would a Honda be more reliable? Sure. But for 7k you’re looking at 120k mile + Honda’s and I’d rather have a 41k Focus to drive for 4 years than a 120k Honda.

There’s always the option of working a 2nd part time job to make up the difference when you have to sell the Cobalt for less than the loan. There is no easy way out option that doesn’t involve further financial trouble. You’re going to have to pay to make the Cobalt mistake go away but paying now and fixing the mistake will be much less costly in the long run.