@Apistole
now knowing a little more back story, it sounds to me like you can afford to pay off the negative equity.
Unfortunately there’s no way to “erase” that in any way, so it will have to be paid somehow. Either now or later. You will never be “less” upside down enough where keeping it makes sense given that you’ll end up paying 80k for this car. Best to get out now in my opinion, especially given the mechanical problems this car seems to have.
So if you have the cash, get rid of it now and reset.
Here’s a new idea:
Why not get something like this:
24 mo, $300/mo with 15k mi/yr and pay the extra $200/mo in over miles (10k mi per yr at 0.25c comes out to ~$200/mo extra). Total will be $500/mo. It’s not a horrible payment for driving something decent. Has 50k mi warranty, so you should be good there.
I’m taking the divorce thing out of the equation, that’s not something i can comment on, but the above is what i would do. Get the best car i can get for $300 and pay the $200 over milage as long as you’re under warranty.