Yeah MLE sounds like you bought a nail. THeres no way that much stuff goes wrong in 3 months unless its not been looked after or you bought it at the wrong time. All valvers do cost a bit to keep them running, but just to put this into perspecive I bought a Tipo for £400 and since then the head gaskets blown twice warping the head, its needed a complete exhaust from the head to the back box, a new tyre, all service items, filters etc changing, etc etc. So that old banger stands me in for over a grand so far. But thats cars for you, sometimes no matter how good it looks at first, it can be at that stage in its life when everything goes at the same time.
BTW by my reckoning a 16v will generally run a 0-60 in 8 to 8.5 seconds, 0-100 in about 21, 1/4 mile in 16s.