what can i do

ga

hello,

i have a question and i don't want it to sound stupid. But if you don't mind, i would like to explain the situation first.

my boyfriend's car was going bad, it seemed as if every two weeks we were putting it in the shop. the last time we got it out, we were told that the transmission was not going to last much longer and that it would take about $1200 to fix it. not having that much money, and needing a car (very badly), we decided to take one day off and go looking for used cars. since his credit is in worse shape than mine, it was decided that i would get the car in my name and we both would pay the payments, like we do with all the other bills that come to the apartment. well, as we pulled into the parking lot of a used car lot, his car died. it wouldn't start at all. and all we had was $760 ($100 of which we borrowed). the salesman told us that he would work with us. after they ran the credit check, they said that my credit was only good enough for one of two cars that they had on the lot. well, with our only mode of transportation sitting in their parking lot, i didn't think we had much of a choice. the only one that looked half-way ok was a '92 Geo Prizm. but it had a cracked dash board cover, and it had no door handle on the front passenger door. the salesman told us that this would be fixed and that they already had an order in for the dash cover. so we took it for a test drive. there was a ticking noise, i don't know where it was coming from, and he said that he was going to make a note for the mechanics to fix it. and the car vibrated very badly when it idled, which he also said they would fix. so we get back to the lot, and we get started on the paper work. i'm going to be honest, i don't know anything about how much a car is worth. i search on edmunds.com and they have the retail value at $2,060. the dealer told me that they price of the car was $8,607.66 + financing, which brought the total to $12,403.70. i paid $750 as a down payment, but now looking at the contract, it states that the total price is $13,153.70. which is car price + financing + my down payment. but I am confused, shouldn't my down payment have been applied to the $12,403.70 instead of added to it? it is a payment. and on top of that, none of the repairs have been made, none!! and we have taken the car in to them about 3 or 4 times. we took it to them to do the emissions, and it failed. so i couldn't get a tag for another week. we took it back and they said they fixed the problem, it did pass emissions, but after driving it for about 2 days it started doing the same thing. it shuts off when it idles, no matter where you are, even in the middle of atlanta traffic.

i would just like to know what i can do about this. i mean, if i give it back, it's going to go against my credit. and if i keep paying for it, i am going to be out of even more money. and i don't think that is right. there has got to be something i can do about this.