Sell it and buy a beater. Use the beater to go get a job.
That never occurred to her.
"I either have to sell the car and not have any transportation or just live off what we're living off of, which is like rice, basically, we have rice."
Another product of our public school system.
It doesn't even have to be a beater. For $2,500 one can buy a car with several years and tens of thousands of miles left on it. Throw in another thousand for a repair reserve and she is set for several years.
I know this works because this is how I do it. No car payments and liability insurance only - no collision.
I am a 50+ year old software support engineer in Alabama, and for about 8 of the last 10 years I have commuted 25 miles every day in a car (actually cars) with no air conditioning. I can do this because I am committed to cheap transportation.
With the 20 thousand cash left over from selling her new toy she could start a new life, get an education, start a business, etc. For some reason, however, I imagine this is the furthest thought from he mind.
I knew a young woman who went through a bad divorce, had her kids and a car which, if in good shape would have booked too high for her to receive assistance.
The car was a shambles, though, and had been bought way below theoretical book.
That did not stop the fine civil servants from cataloging the 'asset' as being worth multiples of its real market value, which due to pervasive minor body damage was no more than $300-500, max.
She was denied assistance because the car booked for too much, even though the case worker refused to even look at the car.
She managed to work her way through school, has a good job now, and a real attitude toward anything that puts 'LSW' after its name.