Terry,

As anyone looks for a new car there are concerns that need to be answered.

For reliability I have heard problems with the A/C evaporator and the

headlights frequently burning out.

I have also heard several problems on this board but i don't feel that

they are all too common.

I bought a 2000 S70 SE for my wife because: it has more options than ANY other car for the money,they are very reliable and they are the safest cars on the road. When it comes down to it I feel that I want to have my family

as safe as possible and be comfortable and still have the feeling of

spoiling luxury.

I recently bought a '97 850 T-5 and I absolutely love it.

It is very responsive handles well and I feel that I have total control when I am driving it.

I haven't owned it long enough to make an informed conclusion but

the only thing that I have noticed is that it has quite a few squeaks and rattles from the dash area.

I hope that this helped.

Terrance

P.S. try this site if you haven't already

Terry,

I own a 1996 volvo 850. Its a great car, I have had to do nothing to it besides change the oil and brakes, and also the tune up. The car now has 108,000 miles on it I had to change the timing belt at 70,000 miles and don't have to do it again until 140,000. I would recomend staying away from the first year of the volvo 850 which was 1993, they still had to work out some bugs. From 94 and up theyy had all the things fixed and they are solid. Everytime i brought my car to the dealership to get the oil changed they ask when i want to bring it in, unlike domestic dealership where you have to wait a week to get it in. That tells me there is not a lot of problems with any of the volvos.

When you do buy one find out what all they did to the car when they got it in and request a work order from service. You wanna especially want to check to see if they did the timing belt depending on the miles. If you have any other questions you can reach me at my E mail adress AJGY77@AOL.COM, I would be more than happy to awnser your questions. Good luck you'll be making a great decesion.

Terry,

My wife and I recently purchased a 1997 850 wagon. We love it so far, but it's obviously too soon to tell how reliable it will be. I'm no expert (and I stress that point!), but there seems to be a short list of common problems with the 850s that you might want to become familiar with before buying one. Check out the website below for details on the common problems:

http://home.att.net/~kino.velez/volvo/index.htm

Our car is a true joy to drive. My wife and I both love it, although, in the past 1.5 months and 1000 miles (the car now has a total of about 55,000), we have had to deal with a few minor little imperfections. The rubber trim between the windshield and the roof came loose on both sides of the windshield. Apparently, the trim is held down by double-stick tape that doesn't hold up very well. We also have a humming (or moaning) noise that sometimes occurs in the front right of the car during the last few seconds of braking. With the help of the people who use this forum, I finally figured out that it's the blower motor and not the brakes! Very strange. My friend's '96 850 has a blower motor that makes the same moaning noise when taking off from a stand still, but NOT while braking! Bizarre. In both of our cars, the noise occurs only when the blower switch is in the first position, so I would definitely drive the car around with the blower on (sounds strange, but...).

Also, if you plan to put a car seat in the middle position of the back seat, you should be aware that the you probably won't be able to use the seatbelts on the right side of the car in the back. Annoying, but that's the way it is.

Make sure to test the air conditioning. A/C evaporators have a tendency to go bad on the 850s and they can be very expensive to replace. Plus, replacing one once does not ensure that you won't have to do it again in the future. The website that I posted the link for above contains tons of good info about the A/C evaporator problem.

Check for abnormal tire wear in the front. I've read of 850s that eat the outside edges of front tires even when perfectly aligned. Our car has a lot of wear on both edges of both front tires (which have now been rotated to the back), but I think it was probably due to underflation.

If the 850 you're looking at has a power driver's seat, check to make sure that the seat-back moves up and down. From what I've read, the cable that drives the seat-back has a tendency to come disconnected. While you're at it, check the seat-back for abnormal rocking (ours seems pretty loose).

We have a dash light, behind the heater controls on the passenger's side, with an intermittent connection. If possible, I would try to inspect the car in a dark garage or something so that you can check to make sure that all of the dash lights work (they can be expensive to replace given the work involved in removing the dash).

Good luck with your purchase. I think the 850s are fantastic cars, and I plan to drive ours until it just won't move anymore -- which I hope will be a long way off!

Best,

Aaron

..recommends the '96-'97 850, and has the '99 S70/V70 and '98 S70/V70 AWD on it's "used cars to avoid list". (The 850 and the 70-series up to Y2K are essentially the same car.)

By my reckoning, if one examines at the Consumer Reports "Frequency of Repair" charts, the 850 is actually a little bit better than the 240 and 940 Volvo series.

If you scroll around here, you will see that this is an unusual website. At the VW Passat website, most of the posts are about things like claims of beating Lexus GS 400s in road races and fitting 18" wheels.

Here, the posts they tend to be about two topics; either problems, or problems where the dealer and/or Volvo NA are clueless.

I've had more problems with my V70 than I've ever had with any car.

Would I buy one again? Not a new one, at least not right now. But I'm thinking a used one for my kid. While I'm less than happy about reliability, dealer service and Volvo NA support, there aren't many comparable choices. There are only two other auto manufacturers who are halfway serious about safety: Saab, which has even spottier reliability record than Volvo, and Mercedes, which may be more reliable, but goes for many, many more $$$.

I'd avoid a '93 850. They invariably have automatic transmission problems. Also, most 850-70s will eventually need their AC evaporators replaced. This is not a job to be taken lightly, the evaporator is buried deep in the dash, much like the 240's blower motor.

The "optimal" 850 -in my opinion- would probably be one that has had both it's evaporator and transmission recently replaced, at which point the former owner threw in the towel and traded it.

Also, I'd try to find one with as few electronic gizmos as possible, ie. a base model, without power seats or automatic climate control. Or a sunroof.

Good Luck!

-Uncle Olaf

1998 V70T5M 57k mi.

2001 Odyssey 1.5k mi.(and THREE problems already!)