Hello . I have been driving a 1987 Volvo 240 wagon for 10 years . It has 153,000 miles on it and I'm ready to move up to a newer car for safety , reliability and handling . I was thinking it was a simple matter of seeing whichever relatively current slightly used Volvo wagon would be affordable. Being a resident of Minnesota, I was attracted to the V70xc , but am also considering the V70 . I started visiting this and other web-sites and have been surprised and depressed by all the negative comments about the V70 and S80 etc. It appears some people have had terrible experiences. To me, this was like hearing that there is no Santa Claus. Having been out of the buyer's market for 10 years , I was still under the impression that Volvo makes extremely safe , durable , well -made, slightly expensive to maintain cars. Now I'm getting the impression that the cars are poorly made,troublesome, aggravating,and inferior for their price range ( except in crash worthiness ) . Consumer Reports lists the following cars in their "Used Cars to Avoid - Worse Than Average " category :1998 S70 , V70AWD , 1999 S70,and V70. In various threads , many of you have already listed your numerous complaints so I won't repeat them here. What is going on? It's very confusing and disheartening . I put safety first , but if a car is very unreliable, that can also create safety problems. I'm considering giving up on the wagon idea and am considering sedans ( but am not looking at SUVs because of their problems with rollover , gas mileage etc.) A friend of mine insisted I check out an Infiniti I 30 , and I have to admit I'm beeing tempted by a car that consistently wins " Best In Class " awards , handles great , has great service etc. etc.Unfortunately it only receives 4 stars in front and side collision ratings as opposed to Volvo's 5 stars. Hence my dilema . I'm totally confused !! Any help figuring out this Volvo apprehension will be helpful and much appreciated. I'm not at all a car tech , but please do not refrain from giving technical data , as I have a car buff friends. Thank you very much !