Long-distance purchasing advice?

[Barton Oleksy]

Hi all - we've got a '91 200Q that we're thinking of selling in favor of
something a little newer.  Found a local '95 A6QW that was very nice,
but the car lot folks there were only going to give us $4K (CAD!) as a
trade-in value, leaving another $14K CAD for us to pay for his vehicle.
Too much of a difference for us at this point!

In the meantime, I noticed a number of nice-looking Audis on eBay in
various areas of the U.S.  We're in Alberta, north of Montana, so I
thought perhaps we could get a vehicle delivered to somewhere near the
Montana/Alberta border (Sweetgrass?).  A couple rough estimates were
$900-$1000 (USD) by two people with current eBay auctions.

My main question is how to be fairly sure that the vehicle we choose
(and hopefully win the auction for) isn't a lemon?  Are there people out
there who might be willing to go have a look at a nearby car for us for
a fee and give us some idea first-hand of what it's like?

I'm no car expert, so me coming down to wherever would just mean taking
the car somewhere to get an inspection anyway, if the people selling it
were open to that idea at all.

Any thoughts?  The local A6 Quattro Wagon is the only one I've seen for
months, and the prices on eBay seem much more reasonable, even with the
U.S.-Canadian exchange rate.  All advice/suggestions welcome on how we
can best 'upgrade' to a newer Audi!  (Wagon not essential, but preferred
- same with Quattro, even!)

Bart
Edmonton, AB Canada