Should I buy this 1990 V8 Quattro?

[Steve Poole <stevep@nwlink.com>]

Hi there. I'm new to the list and hopefully will be a Quattro owner soon. 
I'm a Porsche guy and lots of other Porsche guys I know have Quattros and 
love them. I'm looking for a car for my wife and ran across a 1990 V8 
Quattro. I drove it and enjoyed it a great deal.

Soooo, and I hope this isn't a FAQ but the list's INDEX command seems to 
be disabled, can someone give me an informed opinion about this year and 
model? I have been scouring the web all evening but can find very little 
information.

What I have gleaned:

1. Repairs may be extremely expensive? $8K for a new transmission, e.g.?
2. Automatic transmission may be problematic?
3. There are over 200 tech bulletins 
(http://www.alldata.com/consumer/TSB/05/90051810.html)
4. Reasonable price is between $11K and $15K.

What I'm wondering:

1. What are the problem areas?
2. Is it my imagination or is resale on these cars pretty low? I don't 
know what sticker price was, but they seem awfully cheap now.
3. Is there anything in particular I should watch out for when I look the 
car over again?

This car has 80K on the clock, drives very smoothly, and is cosmetically 
in very good condition (one little ding by a headlight). Asking price is 
$12,900. I think that's reasonable if the car checks out. It seems to 
have about every option except for CD player/changer and perhaps alloy 
wheels. I flogged it pretty hard on both surface streets and the freeway, 
and even had a chance to try it with the road wet. NICE!

The only oddity I noticed was a sort of wheeze/whistle near the exhaust 
outlets. Is that normal?

The car I was planning on buying before driving the Quattro was an early 
90's BMW 525i. Any compare/contrast info would be appreciated.

Thanks! I really like this car, but I'm a little leery of the cost of 
ownership.

Steve Poole  |  Seattle, WA  |  http://www.nwlink.com/~stevep