Mantra of the Volvo owner I'm afraid. My brick is in simialr shape after some hard winters in VT; underside is so corroded in places i can feel a slight breeze from underneath the driver's seat, and I can see the rear driver's side heating vent from below! (yeah, I know, good god what a danger.)

Point being I've established a kind of final benchmark for my 1985 745t. I will do everything necessary to maintain her, but when she has a gross failure I'm calling it quits. I'll change the pads, change the oil, swap out filters, replace hoses and plugs, etc. I will not replace major parts like the clutch, remove or overhaul large items like the tranny, do head work, etc.

This is actually beginning to become a factor as my clutch wears down... I've been experiencing clutch slippage at high boost and low rpms for the last few months, and I've been kind of stringing it along to eek out the final days of life.

From your description it sounds like you can keep this brick running well for just a few hundred bucks, so I'd say put in the money and keep it running. It also sounds like your uncle is an cheap-o idiot who has been running regular gas in your brick and undershifting if its a manual. Do an oil change, change the air filter, replace and gap the plugs, fill it up with 93 and some injector cleaner (techron), etc. and it should be good.

-rt