Just read the series of posts related to the fellow who bought an awd and found the center drive shaft was removed...likely to mask/avoid the bevel gear problems and vibration. There was much said about the high cost of fixing it, and the benfits of fluid drains. BUT...lets just suppose you have one of these things and you paid $6000 for it and except for the awd problem, its a great southern car...almost pristine and 110,000 miles. Are there any negative consequences (other than not having awd) to driving the car as a fwd volvo? Keeping it until it is time to part it out? Serious question...is there a down side? And how much of the 350 pounds of awd stuff can be removed?