personal finance / car pay-off question~~pls answer asap ;-)?

[?LY?]

i have excellent credit, no kids, a job, & not married. im going to be getting a large sum of money from a legal settlement this month. i owe 5k on my car which is worth 4k (this is my only debt). should i pay it off or continue to make payments on it? please explain the reasoning for your answers. the only reason i even got approved for an auto loan for this car was because the finance mgr at the dealership did something he wasnt supposed to do to get me approved. he said otherwise i would have been denied due to the fact that i never had a car finance loan before