1996 Ford Contour Newly purchased car

I purchase this contour and the only issues it seemed to have was that it needed brakes and the power steering made noise.. The previous owner moved the car and left it running the day that i picked it up. It ran out of gas. He told me this and showed me how it was running. The car was surging and then would stall. He claimed that he would take 50 dollars off so that i could replace plugs and fuel filter and it would run fine.....I havent done so yet because the new battery that he claimed is dead, dead dead. but i did put some fuel injecter cleaner in and i did get it to run a little (i drove it like 10 miles) then plugged up again then drove...etc..now its just surging...what does it sound like to you....

Stacie