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This is a tough question. My experience with our '96 850 is that the cost of repairing the things which have gone wrong seems to be much too high.
New ABS module - $500, and you can almost count on these things failing.
Leaking hose at top of gas tank ... $580 to fix.
Front A-arms worn out by 70,000 miles. $125 each for the parts and I did the labor myself.
Heater core leaked. $250 part, labor myself.
HVAC fan noisy again. First time I fixed it with lube. This time ????
Driver's door window channel failed and cracked. $70 part plus my time.
Rear speakers gave up the ghost when the magnets came unglued and fell off. Replaced them with aftermarket speakers which took a bunch of monkey work and $80.
Interior light switch, which was rarely used, failed and cost $70 for the new part.
Driver side outside mirror failed. Silvering delaminated. No good reason for this other than a poor design/manufacturing problem.
Cup holder has self destructed three times.
All of the needed parts where always in stock at my Volvo dealer, which tells you that these are all common failure items.
I could continue on, but the point is that when Volvo parts are needed, they are expensive, and things fail which I do not believe should be failing at the time they are dying. This car has been very well cared for since new and is more trouble prone and much more expensive to repair than was the Ford Taurus it replaced. If you measure Volvo reliability and repair costs against other European cars it stacks up as comparable, but compared to the best of the Japanese and even some of the US vehicles the Volvo 850 compares badly.
John
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