Hi folks,

The wife has a recently acquired 1995 10 valve N/A 850 (which we absolutely love) and we have come across a 1997 S40 (20 valve I think) auto with 75000 kms (~45k miles?) and sunroof on it, which could be a good deal. I get the 850, she gets the S40, Yippee. But before we leap into the second purchase...

Could I have some opinions on things such as reliability, cost of maintenance of this model and possible problems which I should look out for on the car we are considering?

Having an 850, Kino Velez's website (http://home.att.net/~kino.velez/volvo/) is really useful for this kind of information on the 850. Anything like this for the S/V40? Can you guys rate the S/V 40 as compared to the 850 series in general, or is it "apples & oranges"? Do the air-con evaporators or the auto transmissions tend to give undue grief? Is the suspension the main problem area? Was '97 a good year?

I have just read the thread "I hate my S40" (hence the suspension question above) which is a little dissuading...but then again, if I took everything seriously in the 850 section of the brickboard I would probably not have had the pleasure of owning a Volvo.

Any thoughts appreciated!