A good investment would be to have a quality dealer tech put the car through their "certified used car" check. You get a two page report. Go to Volvo's site to see a copy of the form.

My dealer will do this for 1 hour's labor, add an hour for a compression check.

They can tell you if an ant ever farted in the trunk!

I actually had this check done on one of their used cars, when it was done, I knew more about the car than the sales department! They offered to pay half if they could look at the results.

Your big items are the rear main seal and the air conditioner evaporator.

Go to volvospeed for a much more active forum on FWD bricks
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'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '95 855, '95 854, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 435,000 miles put on 9 bricks