The real problem is with the 17" tires that were standard on the 850R. The 16's on the 850T-5 are not nearly as prone to damage. My experience with my '96 850R wagon is that I had 3 tires damaged under normal driving in 3 seperate occasions in the first 15,000 miles that I owned the car (I live in CT where the winters are cold and the road aren't particularly smooth). I switched to a set of stock 16" rims that I had from a totalled '96 850T-5, and have yet to experience any tire damage problems over 20,000 miles of driving.

The problem is obviously that the sidewall of the 205/45-17's is not adequate for a car that weighs 3300 pounds. I did a little analysis and compared the sidewall heights on the 850R and T-5 to those of other performance cars. Here is the comparison: The Volvo 850R came with 205/45-17 tires, weighs 3300 lbs, and has a sidewall height of 92.25mm (calculated by multiplying the tire width by the aspect ratio, 205mm X 0.45). The Volvo 850T-5 had 205/50-16's, 3300lbs, and 102.5mm of sidewall. Porsche Carrera has 205/50-17 front, 205/40-17 rear, 2900lbs, 102.5mm front, 102mm rear. Audi A-4 with sports package has 205/55-16's, 3160lbs, 112.75mm sidewall. BMW M3 has 225/45-17 front, 245/40-17 rear, 3175lbs, 101.25mm front, 98mm rear.

It is obvious that the 850R's 17's have a much lower sidewall than any of the above performance cars, and has a significantly higher curb weight. The comparison isn't as drastic for the 850T-5 with 16's, which may explain why they aren't as problematic. It seems as though the extra 10.25mm of sidewall on the Volvo's equipped with 16" wheels makes a big difference in durability. Even the ultra high performance Porche Carrera has 10mm more of sidewall than the 17" 850R rims, and the Porche weighs 400lbs less!

It looks like Volvo engineers pushed the limits a little too far on the 850R, and I think the class action settlement is fair. I never expected to have such problems on a car which I perceived to be of high quality and safety. I will admit that I thought I would have to be extra carefull about bending rims, but the rims are not the problem. In all three of my tire problems, the rims didn't get damaged, just the sidewalls of the tires.