I got my tranny flushed today,I have been having the morning 1st gear sticking problem, mechanic said it was real dirty and my silanoids are starting to stick. He said my tranny is going. I was in denial. While waiting for this bad news I figured I would test trive the s80 t-6. If I do get a new car (volvo 850 turbo for sale,,like new??), I want a car with power, we have all put our self in that position, specially us with ipd ecu. Every car I drive now seems underpowered. The s-80 has power, but you have to wait a few seconds for it to kick in. I pulled in front of a little nissan (like I alway do in my 850 rocket) and punched it. With my 850 I would have been a blur before the nissan drive could get to the brake pad and say "young people today!!#%$". With the s-80 the car did nothing,I floored it and no-go. Seconds later I was gone but not before the poor women had to slam on her brakes coming within 5 feet of my (the dealers) car.

The car handles great is comfy,great great brakes and is fast off the line but the lag is down right dangerious. I could write a book on reasons not to by that car. Has anyone seen the consol?

I went back to the dealer, removed the "for sale" sign from my 850 and roared of into the sunset.

Lay off the crack pipe, my man. The S80 has a very minimal amount of lag compared to most turbocharged cars.

Which are designed to minimize "turbo lag"?

Doubt it. But your car may be quicker, anyway.

For the S80 T6, Road and Track gives a 0-60 time of 6.6 and 15.0@ 93.4 for the 1/4.

For the S70 T5M, they give a 0-60 time of 6.1 and 14.7@ 97.0 for the 1/4 mile.

Apples-and-Oranges, but for an IPD "chipped" S70 T5M, European Car reported a 0-60 time of 5.9 and 14.2 for the 1/4, terminal speed unspecified.

So it might not be "turbo lag". It's entirely possible for a "chipped" '94 Turbo with a loose motor to be noticably quicker than a brand new S80 T6, "turbo lag" or not.

BTW, in 1986 Road and Track reported an improvement of 0.7 second in 0-60 times of the Porsche 944 between "brand new" and when the motor had accumulated a few thousand miles on the clock.

-Uncle Olaf

Whenever I see mispelled words in a post I take the remarks with a grain of salt. Imagine, someone with a 7 year-old car calling a 2001 S80 dangerous! I don't think the 94 even meets the crash standards set in 97, voila S70, so who is dangerous? I do like Volvos, but the close-mindedness of many of its owners kinda rubs me the wrong way. I mean if you had a normal job and participated in the 10 year bull market which may have paused about 7-8 months ago, why in the world would you be driving a 1994 car? Sounds more like a cash-flow problem keeping the for sale sign in the glove.

I could go out and buy an S80 (or two), today but I am saving the money for my unborn child (education). I buy what I like,,not what I can.

So get in your bmw 740i or your wifes giant SUV and go to your county place and chill...

Geez, don't be such a nitpicker. Spelling doesn't count for much on an electronic message board like this. Besides, I don't think he was comparing an 850's crashworthiness to the S80....read AND think carefully please. I just want to point out we should all be grateful that technology has progressed to the point where practically all cars produced since the early '90s are well made and all great cars in their own sense. So quit judging--a 7 year old car can still be a great car 7 years from now, newer is not always better and an owner of an older car can keep it indefinitely, not because of finances but just because he or she loves that car. Try not to put in everything in terms of dollars and cents.

Well, this thread makes a good point: don't test drive a new vehicle, get one from a used car lot instead.

I also got to test a T6 a few months back while waiting for my S70 GLT to be washed at Don Beyer's in Falls Church. Wasn't impressed with it at all. I wasn't mashing it to the floor, I kind of know how to make a turbo car produce, yet it felt rather dull. I guess now I have to go there again and check a 1-2 y.o. one to get the right impression.

BTW, the salesperson (who treated me extremely nicely) told me that had S/V40 have manual tranny, they would have sold scores more, there's a big demand... Go figure.

Cheers,

Vadim

I drove a 99 S80 T6 with 14K on the clock the other day and when it was cold it was sluggish and then after 2 minutes running it came alive and it would easily engage the STC function to reduce throttle to avert wheelspin any time you depressed throttle more than 1/2 way down on dry pavement (wheels would spin if the STC was switched off).

New low mile S80 T6 models aren't that way. Volvos have, in my 18 year experience, always been tight when new and not representative of the performance of that car with 10K on the clock. Car dealers often don't put premium fuel in inventory cars and this also has an impact on performance that is noticeable on the models with knock monitoring ignition control as on the Volvos.

Don't judge that car by a green demo model. The lag is almost non-existent after it breaks in.

The variable cam timing on the 99 and up turbos does make them a pig until the engine gets warm though.

The S80 T6 has significantly less turbo lag than your 850 Turbo. One thing that you (and everyone else who like to MASH the gas pedal and expect a launch) must understand is that if you want to get an OPTIMAL launch you must push the gas pedal HALF way and when the car LURCHES (yes, it does) forward (which is a few milliseconds) then you hit it hard. Pushing the gas pedal all the way right upfront, will not achieve anything.

Your turbo kicks in at about 2200 to 2300 RPM. The S80's twin turbos will kick in at 1800 RPM (simple math). Lastly, your turbocharger is significantly larger than the twin SMALL units found in the T6 and (most importantly), yours feeds off all 5 cylinders whereas the T6 has each one feeding of 3 cylinders.

Yannis

Hi Yannis,

I am in absolute agreement with your observations. In my brief drive in the T6 and other driving experience with twin turbo Maseratis, the power delivery is so different than the single turbo cars. The power comes smoothly rather than like an on-off switch on the single turbo cars. I do however prefer the big rush from the single turbo.

Terence