Faults:

Brake piston locked on right rear wheel.

Front brake discs bent due to heat.

Fuel pump failure.

Wheel bearing broke 3 times in one year on left rear wheel.

Bad clutch.

CV joint failed on right forward wheel.

Heater fan broke.

General Comments:

Drove this car for about a year until I wrecked it last weekend.

Quite a fun car to drive, in particular on snow. The acceleration is good from 0-180ish (km/h); after that the rate of change in speed decreases quite a bit.

The handling is OK I guess. I never pushed it very hard on tarmac. Think the car weighs 1560 or something kg? Very average nimbleness; not terrible, but not very inspiring.

The quattro system is very nice and rewarding; to feel the torque being distributed (alternating) between the front and back wheels, and managing the car going from over to understeer during drifts in the snow was great.

The brakes felt like they gave up very quickly due to heat.

A lot of stuff failed on the car while I owned it, but that was due to neglect rather than poor quality. It would have needed repairs and new parts for about 2000 - 2500 € to get up to shape.

Fuel economy was terrible. 1.1 L/10km average (mostly highway). 0.9 L/10km on highway at 120 km/h. Also took a lot of oil.

Faults:

Rear wheel bearing (right side).

Rear brake pipes (rust!).

Front brake hoses.

Heat sensor for injection.

Front shock absorbers.

Plastic(!) cooling hoses connections on head and water pump (poor quality).

Almost all of the dashboard lamps (Cheap to buy but hard to change).

Cam shaft drive belt and tensioner (service only, cheap and easy to replace)

Fuel pump relay (most expensive thing during the three years I've owned the car so far).

General Comments:

The car has covered 250K km. Previous owner drove a lot on gravel roads and didn't really take care of the car at all. I'm convinced that this maltreatment would have killed any other car from 1988.

Engine uses ca 1l oil per 1800 km. No gear box problems.

I'm very satisfied with the car. I do all the work myself and the design is fairly straight forward and simple. Plenty of space at the engine compartment. No body rust problems due to zinc plating. Some knocking from valve lifters but it is "normal". The only main disappointment is luggage compartment size (tiny, better from 1992 onward). Car goes ca 14km/liter. If you want to buy one, go for the model with Bosch KE-Jetronic injection (my own opinion). This is a good system, works for ever and is easy to maintain as well. I have always bought a Haynes manual for every car I've owned and "do it yourself" has definitely saved me a fortune!

My next car will be a Audi too!