Wow!! I can't believe how incredibly helpful you all are. This is my first experience with a newsgroup- went on to other car groups but you Volvo owners are the most helpful, the most responsive, and the most prompt.Thank you, thank you.

Ok- so now many of you have me thinking in directions I hadn't considered. Scrapping the Mercedes idea. Thank you for the suggestion of the Acura MDX- quite pricey. Hadn't even considered BMW but looked at their website and saw they are in Volvo price range. I've heard though, that they aren't good in winter driving conditions. Do they need AWD?

I think Volvo will offer me the best price for my vehicle-went through this last summer with cars. Can I live without AWD? Think I can live without turbo- or can I?

What else shd I consider in the $45,000 (CDN) price range? Audi? Saab? There must be a reason there are fewer of those on the road.

So, some mixed opinions. Some of you say go Japanese for certainty in maintenance, others say that my Volvo year was one of the worst and other years aren't as bad. Don't recall running into all of this with my 850- but then only owned it for 2 years.

Or shd I buy out my lease on March 31 and just keep on running with this despite maintenance. Is the maintenance bill of $1500-2000/yr better than leasing a new vehicle and resuming monthly payments? I guess I just do the math.

So, thanks for the suggestions. Gee this is tough.

deborah