You actually edited to provide “more detail”?
No offense intended, OP, but you asked for legal advice and got the only advice there was to give. The SC jurisdictional limit in your state is $5,000, so I hope that your problem falls within that range.
Nothing that you posted makes out a criminal case. If you can’t, what you really need is practical advice. There are personal property exemptions, and you can’t garnish wages (if your “friend” works) in your state.
More than being told to sue (which you might have been guessing), you need to ensure that you get a judgment (highly likely, although you don’t mention a contract or anything else memorializing that “he . . . was supposed to make payments”).
Keep track of your guy, so that, if you do file, you’ll also be able to serve.
Look for assets, including watching the car, now! Assuming that you file and can serve, you’re likely to get a judgment. Before that becomes something that, together with a quarter, won’t get you a cup of coffee, think about how you’d enforce a judgment. Otherwise, consider this one of life’s hard little lessons.
Re: enforcing a judgment: if you know “guys named Guido or Vito, who have ‘connections’ in NC” (maybe that’s an oxymoron), google “self-help”. That’s legal and practical advice.