Here is the first picture of our 1997 850R Wagon my wife and I just bought about 3 months ago. This is our second Volvo. We sold our first, a 1998 V70 GLT right after we bought this one as our lease on the V70 was over. The reason we didn't keep the V70 is that it had way to many problems the 4 years we had it. We loved the cars size, performance, looks and so on but hated the mostly small size problems that seemed to keep poping up. The entire time we had the V70 my dream Volvo was always the R. Once we decided we were not keeping the V70 we did the whole shopping for a new car thing for about 2 months. Buying all the magazines, going to several dealers, taking the test drives and so on. We liked the Infinity G35, Lexus IS300 but too small, the BMW 3&5 series but 3 series was too small and 5 series too costly. There were a few more cars we did like but boy are new cars expensive. Anything we liked seemed to be $35,000. Having 2 kids we also looked at both mini-vans and SUV's. Seemed how this is my wifes car it was her decision and thank god she wanted no part of a SUV or mini-van although she did kinda like the Honda mini-van. I was looking here in the local paper and found a Black 1997 850R Wagon with 36,000 miles for $19,000. As it tuned out the owner, a 70 or so year old gentleman lived about 2 miles from me. We saw it, loved it and bought it. $19,000 was probably a little on the high side for a 5 year old car but everything was right on it. The very low miles, 36,000, original owner who had every service recond,very close to mint condition, Chrome Volans, 6 disc Volvo CD changer, and all the other R options. He also had the window sticker from when the car was new and it stickered for $40,600. I figured it was surely worth half of that. In the 3 months we've had it I did the following: Put on a set of H&R Lowering Springs to lower it about 1.25 inches, got rid of the self leveling so the back of the car would lower with the new springs, got rid of the Euro Rails and put on just the plain strips, took off all the badges on the rear tailgate lid, added a rear spoiler and put the back turning signals from a V70 so that the turn signals are clear instead of amber. I did no motor upgrades as 240HP is plenty for her as if she had more I'm afraid she might try to use it. I think the car is the way I want it. The only thing else I might do is add the Euro fender turning signals and the front clear turning signals. If only now she would let me drive it. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for reading.