I purchased a 2003 Ford Taurus SE sedan July of 2006. It has run perfectly until a month ago when all of a sudden while I'm driving, I hear a soundlike piece of road debris hits my car, then the car starts runningall weird. Making a put,put sound, and acting like it wants to conk out. I felt like I was driving an old ford truck.

I have taken it to several mechanics(towing it in every time), and they told me that it has a valve problem, and there's no compression in the #1 cylinder, and there aremisfires. The costs for repairs that I've been quote is between $900 and $3,000.

The car only has over 42,000 miles on it. What should I do because I can't afford to fix it, it has no warrany (that's a long story), and my credit score with Experian (whom quite a few dealerships use)is 407, meaning I need a co-signer, so I can't even try to trade it in for a new one.[]