OK, thanks for all the info on towing, but I'm a little scared about the car in general. I have $500 on this 98 V70 XC a fully loaded monster. My Volvo history is a '89 240 wagon I bought with 190,000 miles and had 255,000 by the time I let it go. Great car. I didn't mind having to "buy back" my car from the mechanic every once in awhile. The car never stranded me. I currently have a '72 1800ES I bought with the notion as long as I keep fixing it, it will last forever if I want it to. So a little maintenance or repairs from time to time doesn't scare me.

The posts I've read on here about 850's, V70's et.al., the newer Volvos, scare the crap out of me. But, when I see an V70 XC, I always talk to the owner and 100% say it's a great car. What gives? I know about the tranny and the tire wear, it's a drag but workable, light bulbs blow right and left supposedly and the fluids have to be siphoned out, but the '98 doesn't have the newer diagnostic requiring a dealer. It's supposedly the last year that you can take to an independant repair shop. I've read about everything on here about this car and others.

I do believe the 240 is the best Volvo ever with the 740/940 a close second. I started this out looking for one of those, started considering 850's, then this V70 XC. The XC has 103,000 and all scheduled maintenance including the 100,000 mile maintenance. Owned by a rich guy in Bel Air. The ABS controller was just replaced, new tires, too. It's fully loaded car, too, all the bells and whistles. But all this computer crap scares me, but my 1800ES doesn't have any diagnostic stuff at all and all the old mechanics are retiring making it harder to keep it running. I'm in San Francisco, but moving to New York soon which is why I wanted something newer, diagnostical and automatic trannied.

So, what do you think? There's a 940 wag out here for sale with 169,000 for $1600, and this XC is $8500. I don't mind losing the $500 deposit if the XC car is a total dog, and I don't mind shelling out up to a couple grand to get the 940 up to snuff if it needs it (it does have new brakes and tires).