Well, I have made the decision - for those of you who gave me advice regarding my recent problems with my 850 which I invested $850 in water pump, timing belt etc only to have it blow a valve the next day,

We are going to replace it rather than try to fix, we need a car that will get us 3000 miles to Canada and keep running for a few years and I don't think we can rely on our present car to do that especailly after we drove it 200 miles with a broken valve (unknowingly).

So, my budget is about $5000 and I think I want to go with another 850 since I know them well now, and have managed to do some of my own repairs. I am open to others if I could get them for the same price. I also can go sedan or wagon, auto or manual.

I have learned some valuable lessons about what to look for (common failures) in the 850 such as the oil seals, PNP switch, look for recent timing belt service etc.

What is most important when choosing a 90's 850:

- model year (I heard 1993 had some problems?)
- mileage (bought ours with 169k and only got 2 years out of it)
- single owner/maint. records... and what to look for in those records
- other things?

How does one know if the engine leaks oil - what if they just steam cleaned it? I know most of these have bad A/C compressors and it would be nice if it was working - is there a way to know if they simply recharged the A/C for selling but it still leaks?

Are there other years/models you'd recommend instead of a 94-96 860? I was pretty happy with ours overall but it was a 5th owner car and no records - will not do that again. Prveiously had an 80's 740 which was very reliable but didn't seem as safe (no airbags) and I think the car has to be newer than 1994 to import into Canada so those are out.