Audi S3 - To buy or not to buy

[lasermatt]

Hi all, a question and some advice required. I have the opportunity to purchase a 2001 S3 (210 bhp) for approx £5.5k - £6k. Its generally tidy externally, done 60k miles. The problem is the interior is quite tatty. The seats need a good clean and some bits of the dash are broken or damaged, and some parts are missing. Also the electric seat on drivers side doesn't work.

I'm into detailing cars and quite fancy something I can tidy up if I can get it for the right price and the S3 seems to be a good solid car mechanically and fits the bill for what I'm after (Basically a quick small hatch). My budget is up to £10k really but this obviously would be some way under that and allow some funds for tidying up (The other thing is availability of all the parts - Could I get them from Ebay or breakers?) So the quetion is should I take a flyer on this car or buy one that's already tidier etc? Or should I just blow my budget and get a Mk 4 Golf R32??

Cheers

[lasermatt]

As I thought really, but part of me thought there was a bargain in their somewhere. Just to clarify I'm going from a Mk3 golf gti 16 valve - I sold the lotus a while ago so sharpness of steering etc is not an issue.

Now that its been mentioned there was some knocking on full lock - I assume a driveshaft?

Anyway thanks for the responses - My first instinct was to walk away, but was tempted at being able to tidy it up, but definitely don't want a money pit!!