I think you're getting some pretty good advice on applying to the Boat School as a prior. Compared to some of the commissioning programs out there - where you're making more bank, have much more personal freedom and greater academic options, and your time-in-service clock keeps ticking - it's hard to sell USNA as a good deal for priors. You won't be treated any differently than the other plebes, except maybe you'll get shat on more for not having shoes shined or rack made properly, since you're supposed to already know how to do it (or if you do have it done right, you'll be shat on for not squaring away your straight-from-high-school roommate). The suck decreases by degrees after plebe year, but never goes away, and your quality-of-life as a Middie will never come close to even that of the most locked-down bible college.
Good reasons to go? Same as for any kid out of high school. In the Navy, the mythical Academy network is largely just that - a myth - but don't underestimate the power of the big brass ring outside the Navy. USNA's reputation may or may not be well-earned, but I'm startled how many doors being from there has opened. It impresses girlfriends and their parents. And I did get a good education there, despite my best efforts. I've never been entirely a stranger anywhere I've been in the Fleet. Anywhere you wind up, there's always a classmate or a company-mate or someone you knew from class or a team, or at least a bunch of people with mutual friends.
As the cliche goes: shitty place to be, great place to be from.
If you do decide it's for you: You are allowed to wear any pins or ribbons earned as a prior. There's always one or two guys with SEAL budweisers in each class, and a guy in my class was a AW(NAC) who'd managed to be everywhere...dude had wings and ribbons stacked up like he was some third-world President for Life.
Your prior time will count toward time-in-service once you're commissioned. If you had four-years-and-a-day as a white hat, you'll be an O-1E on graduation day...it's just your four years at school that don't count for pay or retirement.
Your instinct to just sell your car is the right one; no point in paying for a car you won't use for two years (and can't park on campus 'til you're a senior). The same goes for most of your toys and civvies...it's not unlike entering a monastery. Or prison.