Actually I think it is the other way around. The introductory model in the US was the 1993 and the '93 thru midyear '94 used the separate ball joint bolted to the control arm. The later '94's on(identified by chassis number or also by the two bulbs in each headlamp) used the one piece control arm. The advantage to replacing the one piece control arm is that the control arm bushings are replaced at the same time. I had my front control arms replaced by my Indy using non-Volvo parts. That was a mistake as one of the ball joints failed within 12,000 miles. I replaced both sides myself using original Volvo parts (from FCP Groton) and plan on sticking with Volvo parts whenever possible. I had the same experience with a non-Volvo water pump. I don't feel it's worth the price difference to have parts fail prematurely - too much labor involved.