I'm looking at a diamond in the rough of a 97 GLT. The car has low miles (61,000) but sat outside most of the last 10 years and was put up for sale by the family of an elderly driver. The car was not attended to during the last 5 years since it had very little use so only the annual inspection and oil change was done. My college bound kids will be using the car if I purchase.

I took a look at it and the engine sound really strong and the A/C climate control was really cool as well. The other issues I came across are a concern as I'm trying to calculate costs for repairs before making an offer. Here is what I see as bad (sorry for all the questions):

- When turning on steering wheel the car whines. I had the hood up and I could see the strut mounts moving slightly when I turned the wheel in the lot.
- Brakes need to be replaced so I figure Volvo parts etc will set me back $600 for a full rotor and pads all around and adjust the parking brake.
-Trans flush
-No sticker showing engine belt change so another $250 for that
- Broken headlamp lens
- Front seats had cracks repaired very badly and those are now cracked as well. I'd figure cost for seat covers or replacements (in tan)
- Clear coat has failed on the hood so a respray is needed. The roof has two small clear coat spots failing. Can these be fixed so the entire rood doesn't need a respray?
- Power door locks don't lock by control on dash. The locks make a sound like they are attempting to lock but don't. I could manually push locks down.
- Radio has the "code" prompt but no owners manual etc with the code. Can this be recovered at dealer?

I'm trying to get the above work under a $1500 budget. Is this possible? The main issue that scares me is the steering and struts moving. My NA 850 hasn't anything like this ever after 160k miles so I have no idea how bad this and the power lock issues can hurt me. The car is available at $2750-3000 and it seems very solid otherwise. Thanks for any help ballparking these repair issues.