pending civil suit

In april of 02 I accepted an offer from capitol one auto finance to purchase a vehicle.my credit at that time was poor and on impulse I jumped at the chance to have a new car.
Once I was into the loan I quickly figured out the payments were too high for me to handel . So 1yr & 6 months into the loan I called capitol one and told them I hand to turn in the vehicle because I could not afford the payments.My last payment was in october of 03. From that time on I received collection threats and had various collection offers from agencies that bought the loan. They were still too high a payment . This past april I received a supeona from a collection agency from the magistrate. The collection agency wrote me and called re: a settlement that would be in my best intrest. I told them that I only make 24,00 a yr and have no assets.
What did they want 50.00 a month (amt was 8,000) ? They said they would accept that and that I didnt have to go to court. I also raised the question that pa has a stature of limitations law of 4years on collection. They told me it didnt apply to this case. I went to court and the agency was not there. They sent a letter to the magistrate saying I had contacted them agreeing to pay 50.00 per mo ! (huh) I explained my cause to the judge and I won the
judgement because they did not appear to argue the case. Now I have been served with papers to appear because the the co.appealed the judgement.And now they was almost tripple the amount adding intrest and atty.fees.
What chance do I have ? I have the same circumstances as far as no assets and work pay to pay. There is still a question of stature of limitation on collections . When does the stature actually start ? What chance do I have ?
These are high priced lawyers and I cannot afford one. Even if I could afford legal aid of some sort, legally what will usually happen. Any info would be greatly accepted