For The Car Buffs...

[rawfuls]

Well... It's the time for me.. And not for the month

So, now I'm looking into driving! Oh yipee.
I was officially 15 and a half in June or so, but I totally forgot about Driver's Ed.
So now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving Break so I can work on Driver's Ed, since my parents want me to do it when I'm NOT in school.

Anyways, my Uncle recently bought a new Maxima, fully loaded, very, very nice.
And passed his old Maxima on to his wife, and since my Aunt no longer needs her bimmer...

So now on with the details.
It's a 1993 BMW 525i in white with 130k miles on it.
The main reason for their new car was to get rid of this "problematic" car.

Symptoms:
1. Engine/Tranny Light Occasionally On
2. Apparently bad MPG than normal
3. Says no go when the gas is pressed down (Only a few times)
4. Dead power steering
5. Apparently one time it stopped in middle of the highway (I assume it just shut down, and cruised to a stop, otherwise they would've gone crazy if it just locked up in middle of the highway)

~~

I talked this over with a few of my car buddies (Just 2..) - They both agree of these answers, give or take.
#1 - Unknown, but could be by anything under the hood..
#2 - Could be a bad O2 Sensor
#3 - Electrical Issue? :/ - Or maybe user error.. Doubtful user error, spark plug?
#4 - Low/No Fluid - Fluid hose, belt, or maybe even entire power steering system
#5 - User error, overheating... spark plug

~~

Now here's the thing..
I kind of want the car, I won't lie, but I don't need a car that's going to be breaking down every month (given it's about 17 old, maintained about every 2 years or so whenever it broke down). Given, I do understand BMW's are incredibly high performance cars, and should be maintained often, and I would like to, and if I want to get reliability, get a Kia, Honda, blah blah blah.

Thing is, my parents refuse to buy used cars from others besides family. Since I'm not too set on convincing them otherwise, this is a main issue because this is about the oldest car that's going either to the junkyard, an old shop that's offering money, etc. The next car being passed down throughout the family is about 4 years out so..

I also don't want a new car, since, well, I don't want to wreck my first car.

I'm quite interested in the things I may need to fix/replace IF I do pick this car up. I know good condition 93 525i's go for roughly $1500. So I'd mostly likely be getting this for under 1k.

Also the things that need to be replaced as soon as picked up, prices, etc.

O2 sensor for the '93 525i's are roughly a hundred, a power steering setup is $300 (If it is the system itself and not belt or fluid, I'm droppin the deal.. ), and a spark plug for like 10 dollars.

Anyways, I'm basically wondering the price of it getting fixed up and worth it to keep it for a few years (or for awhile), or if I should just drop it.

I definitely don't want to be just another asian driving a Honda, KIA, Hyundai, Toyota, etc. :p

EDIT: By the way, I don't have a diag tool, so I can't just plug it in and check it out.
This is pretty much all the info I have on the car thus far, and if I do get some more confidence to pick it up, I'll go back and talk to the uncle..
He first told me he doesn't want to sell it due to it's issues, and it being a headache, etc.