[Vicegrip]

From a money point of view it would gall me to pay almost full value for something that I have been forking $ over for years to start with.

(CAUTION an opinion and boring old folks kind of crap to follow)
Look at the money, not the car. Ether car will work to get you and your stuff around and in that light they are the same. Which car would be payment free first? Go with that one and get out of the car payment loop. Cars are just cars. They do not make you someone or something you are not. If you think they do you don’t get it yet. I don't think you in any way fall into this but some people do.

Why do I think this? In 1986 I bought a truck and made 4 years of payments and after the payments stopped in 90 I just kept making the payments to myself into a mutual fund for the next 10 years. Drove the wheels off the truck and wrote a check for the one I now have with a small portion of the interest earned from the mutual fund. Some of the interest, I used no principal at all. I still have all of MY money that I paid in and a good amount of money it earned while working for me. We bought the kiddy hauler outright the same way same fund. I am forever off of the car payment treadmill as the "car fund" is still intact and building up for the next car. The only pain involved was driving one truck for its entire service life. Funny how people crap their pants about an $800 repair bill but make don't mind making $500 car payments every month.

Take the time up front and become your own car loan bank. It is a good paying gig.