Welcome to the forum, you'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :)
I'm assuming you're looking at getting a mk1 TT?
As you are considering a auto it'll be a DSG auto. It's worth checking to see when the gearbox oil was changed and that the gears change smoothly both in manual and auto modes.
With regard to quattro, it's a great system but can be sensitive and can be damaged by things such as uneven Tyre wear or mis-matched tyres on the same axle. So it's important to check that it's working.
The major recall on the early mk1 TT was the instrument cluster which would fail and I suspect it should have been carried out on any TT you are looking at. Naturally it is very important that the cluster is working as replacements can cost up to £2k.
Here's a YouTube video which may help:
Cheers
Steve