possibly engine work?

i just gotta see if my mechanics are trying to screw me over. i have a 1997 pontiac sunfire with 120,000 miles on it. my car soon after i bought it began randomly stalling, but only at an idle. my check engine te said "cylinder 4 misfire". it turns out there is like no compression in the 4th cylinder. she is getting worse daily, and i almost became a semi-truck sandwich yesterday. now the car stalls whenever it feels like it, and it is an auto, but i tend to drive with both feet, because revving up the RPM's seem to help a little. the car is idling low at park at aobut 3,000rpm. turning up the idle didnt help, it made it worse. the car violently shakes especially at idle. please help me!

You certainly need engine work done. If there is no compression on #4 then there is a problem with that particular cylinder. You either have a burnt valve, struck rings or a burnt piston. Trying to run a 4 cylinder on three cylinders is not a good idea either. If you want to save a little money you may be ahead to get the entire engine replaced rather than repair the one you have. I am an advocate of buying used parts since they usually work just as well as new ones and are about 1/4 the cost. Try to find a used engine. Why put a couple of thousand in an engine with 120K miles on it. Check out the local wrecking yard or a good engine or check car-part.com. You may get a better engine for a lot less money in the long run. Lots of Luck!