my "new" V8 quattro (long)

[Zsolt]

Well, I drove 400 km last night to check out this car.

http://www.buysell.com/showad.asp?id=9472425

I ended up buying it, although I paid a lot less than they were asking
for. Turned out there is a lot more work to be done on it than what he
made me believe in the first place. It has 186,000km (116,000mi)

I would love SOME OPINIONS about the following:

The car started really well, although it was quite cold (-20 C) and it
has been sitting there for a while. Some of the valves were noisy
initially, but that seemed to have gone away as it started warming up. I
guess this is normal.

No smoke even at startup, or after.

No major oil leaks anywhere that I could see, some sweating on the oil
pan etc., but nothing seemed bad. No cracked boots either. However I
could smell oil after driving it about 50 km.

The transmission seemed to work well, shifting up and down nice and
smooth, the different modes seemed to work as well.

THE PROBLEMS

1.  ENGINE

When it warmed up. The engine ran really erratically. When idling, it
was either revving first from 1200-1700, or later from almost stalling
and recovering, or it ran quite fast, around 1500.

It seemed to have no power. Also, what I felt was very strange that when
cruising It would hold a speed. It almost felt like the pedal was
sticking. I had to kick it every time, to have it back to idle.

2. BRAKES

When I first stepped on the brakes, at the end of a slippery driveway,
it scarred the hell out of me. The ABS came on, but not much breaking
effect. After that, the ABS OFF light come on and stayed on until the
car was turned off. Than starting the engine again it would repeat the
same thing.

It also had a bit of wobble in the brakes, but it was not too bad. I
would hope I don't have to fork out $600 CAN for new rotors each. My
mechanic says you can't turn UFO rotors in Canada. (???)

3. CLIMATE CONTROL

I am hoping it is fine, but I am not sure. It seemed to be working fine,
blowing the right air temperature at the right places, but it would NOT
defrost the windows. Mind you this may be due to bringing the car in a
humid heated garage after it was sitting outside in the cold. I will
find this out later. I don't think it's anything worse than maybe the
recirculating flap. (???)

4. BODY

This car has original paint, and most of it is in quite nice shape,
although it is faded. I think I can have it polished and it should look
good. I am going to have to have the hood and one fender painted for
sure though, because the paint seemed to have flaked off to primer in
spots on the hood. Did anyone see anything like that?

Also one the driver side fender there is a bigger door ding that I want
to have fixed.

It needs a new windshield as well? How much are they?

One of the headlights has some pretty big chips on, and they are soooooo
bad. Is the only way to improve them is to put eurolights in them? Are
they similar to the type 44 in price?

5. INTERIOR

All looks very nice, but some of the switch lights don't work. Also,
(typically) the driver seat seat-warmer doesn't work. The leather is
charcoal, and is in nice shape, it could probably use some cleaning and
conditioning, but it looks good. The right rear window switch seems to
be broken on the driver's door. The handle of the glove box is also
broken. Can that be replaced?

This is it for now, hope you guys can give me some ideas about the
problems I experienced.

Thanks,
   Zsolt