Selling my Celica :(, What are your thoughts? Options

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Well, as some of you guys may know, my Celica has been riddled with dents and rust since i bought my car like that 2+ years ago. They arent terribly distracting, but they've given way to a whole mess of cosmetic flaws that are expensive to fix but dont affect the way the car runs or performs. Since then i've worked like crazy to get the money to afford a total repaint and getting everything done the right way.

All these aspirations of bringing my car back to life ended this Tuesday, when i talked to a shop with some of the lowest labor rates around. They quoted me $3,947 to do the work, which is far too much money to put into my Celica with this high of mileage. It just doesnt make sense to do it.

So now with my expected resale of $2500-3000 for the Celica (GT, Loaded, leather, 5spd, excellent mechanical cond., lots of new parts) plus an expected 5 grand by the end of summer, im looking into other cars. So far, im thinking....

1.) Another 6th gen (but newer ) or a 7th gen.
2.) MR2 Turbo
3.) 240sx
3.) 3000gt
5.) Down Payment on a Scion tC, or other new car.

And so i just want to ask everyone here what you think i should look into. For 8-9 grand theres lots to consider, and i love Celicas way too much, which makes it tough to move away from them. Let me know what your feelings and opinions are.