Hi guys -

Been *forever* since I've posted here - I sold my '85 745T back in 2005, and since then been all over the automotive map. :) Sorry in advance for the long post!

I've got a friend who is short on money, and I've taken it upon myself to keep her on wheels for the past five years or so. She's currently driving a not-so-great (but reliable!) '97 Saturn SL1. The car is in really good shape, but with 42hp (just a guess) it doesn't keep up with traffic so well, and it's decidedly lacking any real appealing attributes. Even fuel economy isn't fantastic.

I'm looking to replace it with something nicer, and the top two candidates are an E36 3-series and a Volvo 850. The age is important because it keeps insurance and registration costs down, and generally (for me) means that parts are easily attainable and reasonably priced.

Because she's not in the greatest financial shape, she is not going to do any maintenance on this car other than oil changes and put gas in it. When I drop it off, maintenance requirements will current, and everything in good enough shape to last two years and 15,000 miles or so. That's been the score with the Protege (needed nothing) and the Saturn (needed a $100 ignition switch).

Been reading this board for several days and have gotten a sense of some problems and fixes - seems like the 850 is in general pretty solid and not prone to ongoing dumb problems. Clearly, the ones out there have a fair number of miles so it seems like another 15k should be a drop in the bucket for most of them.

I am not worried about maintenance items - fluids, brakes, belts (timing or otherwise), emissions - since that stuff will all be new when it gets shipped off. How are the bigger systems in terms of reliability? Transmissions (it'll be an automatic), ABS, HVAC (AC is critical)? I just want to be aware of anything that might spontaneously fail and leave the car dead or useless and either address it on the front-end or have a backup plan in place.

I really appreciate any help - the car will be 500 miles away from me, so planning is important.