I have found a used 1996 850 turbo wagon, 80,000 miles. I own a 1990 760 turbo wagon that needs pretty much constant attention, so I understand about keeping a Volvo on the road. Can any of you give me some insight on the 850? Do you like it? Average maintenance, above average? I do the oil changes and tire rotating but I go to indy shop when something big comes up.

Thanks in advance

Philip

If you have good maintenance records for the car and a good price, I'd go for it as these are great cars. Owned my 96 850T since new (115K miles now) and love it. I haven't found mine to be maintenance intensive at all--replaced upper and lower engine mounts and other routine maintenance items, sway bar endlinks (they tend to go but are easy to replace) and put in Bilstein HD struts and shocks plus IPD swaybar at 100K. The last item was a fabulous improvement in handling!

The only unexpected failure was the cam position sensor at 40K miles.

Just be sure you are diligent with all the routine maint and the car will take car of you. And, you will have a lot more fun with this model than your current one!
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96 850T, Bilstein HD, IPD swaybars

Hi Philip - this question comes up a lot. If you do a search here including any of the terms "condenser" "records" "transmission" "ABS" "buying" "bought" you will find some interesting posts. Personally, I bought an '95 850 turbo with all the maintenance records, didn't have the dreaded condenser failure, doesn't have the version of ABS module that fries, and is the last year you could read your own codes from the computer. I like it a lot. Above average maintenance, IMHO. Timing belt should be changed every 70K miles - otherwise you can lose the engine. Good luck. Don