[Sven7]

If you don't need the car to drive to work or whatever, go for the swap. Surely you could join a Corolla or sport compact forum and find someone near you that could lend a hand. When you're done with the donor car, sell off some parts and scrap it. Depending on the condition, you could break even.

Start searching Craigslist for compatible swaps, and remember that even cars with severe rear-end collisions, broken engines or otherwise debilitating problems could still have manual transmissions in good condition. They will be much cheaper, and the scrap value will be the same.

In the short run, you'll spend money and time. In the long run, you'll have experience working on the car, more knowledge about how a transmission works, a source from which to pull spares, and of course an extra set of wheels for some snow tires.

If you're not mechanically inclined or crazy, sell it and buy something new. But from the OP it sounds like you're not afraid to get in there and work on things.

Remember that when you're looking at EPA guidelines you can easily add 20-30% to the MPG figures to account for driving style and modifications.