Most dealers won’t touch it because of the need to disclose the damage and long term liability concerns if they sold it. So even if you fixed it and traded it later you would be facing

If you wanted to repair it your best bet is finding an engine at a junk yard from a wrecked car and someone to put it in for you. You would be looking at about $400-$600 for the engine and another $600-$750 for the work. $1200-$1600.

I used to know a guy from Lackland that did this kind of work on the weekends in his garage and at the base auto shop. I’ll see if I can get a hold of him and if so will send you his contact info.

If not CraigsList should find you someone to do the work and possibly find the engine for you as well.

But there would be no guarantees.

You said you are upside down. I assume you owe money.

How much do you owe on the car?

You also mentioned bad credit. How bad?

I see a lot of people struggling to maintain bad debts when their credit is already so bad they have no chance of making it good outside winning the lottery or inheriting money.

Sometimes it’s best to simply walk away from the old car. There are "Drive Here / Pay Here" places that will still put you in a Used car regardless of a prior "Voluntary Repo" which is what you would be doing by walking away from the car.

If you wanted to explore this route I could refer you to someone that might be able to help you. However there are some preperations you should make prior to approaching anyone to have what they would need in order to qualify you.

Depending on how much you owe and what you’re credit looks like it might be possible to payoff what you owe on the Malibu, and roll that amount into a new loan and put you into another vehicle.

A major dealer with a good 2nd chance financing department would be a better bet than a Drive Here/ Pay Here place.

DH/PH’s are rather predatory and don’t always report your payment history helping clean up your record. They will sell you a piece of crap, repo it when your a day late on weekly or biweekly payments, let you have it back after paying a repo fee and bringing your loan up to date, and then do it all over to you again and again.

A Major dealer with strong 2nd chance financing will be limited to putting you in a certified car with some remaining warranty typically. 2004-2007 models, certified, can have as much as 100,000 miles of factory warranty on the engine and transmission

Then you could sell the Malibu to a junk yard for scrap and be done with it.

This scenario still leaves you upside down but if you can get a good buy on a car, you might be able dig your self out and preserve your credit.

Depending on your credit situation and how much you owe on the car and other debts you might want to consider filing bankruptcy.

It’s harder to do than in the past but that works for you and creditors in a way that allows people that recently filed bankruptcy and were discharged to regain financing within weeks or months of the filing date. You get a clean slate, all debt wiped off, and a fresh start.

You can get a car loan afterwards and have your credit reestablished in a few years on average.

But you really only get one chance at a fresh slate.
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