To keep the car, or not...?

I finally talked to George, my friendly local Geico insurance claims adjuster, about the numbers he produced for my car.

It would seem that they have determined my car to have an overall value of $4532 on the Anchorage market. Add to this $15.00 for the title and $53.13 for registration . If I decided to just cut my losses and get a check they would subtract from this amount the following things:

$1000- deductible
$997 - unrelated damage to the back door (which happened when Jake was driving it a few years ago. The total cost of repairing this George told me is actually close to $2000, the insurance company "charges" half that amount)

Meaning they would write me a check for $2603.13.

If I decided to keep the car, it would have the same base value and they would subtract the same values. They would also charge me for "buying" the car back from them since they wouldn't be able to recoup any of their "losses" by reselling my vehicle. (never mind that I have already paid them several thousand dollars more over the lifetime of my policy)

So, if I keep the car then I get my car (which I love) and $1870 from Geico to put toward fixing it.

I'm torn. I don't know what to do. Is $1870 enough to fix it, at least to a drivable state? If I add some or all of my dividend to that amount, then what can I get done? That means I'm out a vehicle for a couple weeks, at least...which I CAN make work, but do I want to?

And do I have the time and motivation to track down the necessary parts and work to have the repairs done? How much of it can the mechanically inclined people in my family do for me? And how much of it do I have to pay someone to do?

The thing is, if I give up my car, and take the $2603.00, trade in my Saab and throw my dividend at it, what kind of car am I going to get? And am I going to find one that I love as much, or feel is as reliable or potentially long lasting? Plus... I'll have to deal with the actual hassle of skeezy car salesmen or people who just want to get rid of their own junker.

Hmm. The deep decisions of life.