I bought a used 1999 S80 T6 with 44K on it in May 2000 (it was put on the road in October 1998, so it is a very early one). It's spent about 45 days in the shop in the first 6 months for various, minor to medium problems and complaints. I wanted perfection, and didn't get it.

On the other hand, it is one of the coolest cars I've ever had, and with a 4-disc in dash CD player, and a 10-disc in the rear, I change my CDs every few months and love this thing. Lots of power, strong cornering, great interior, EXTREMELY quite, I love this car, even with it's foibles. It has so many neat, unusual little features, that the button-loving engineer inside me drools over this thing.

I test drove a 2001 T6, and it has even more power (it's insane really), rides nicer, and I've heard that they fixed some of the more annoying problems. It's also the safest car that Volvo (the safe car company itself) has ever made.

Thus, if I had the money to buy a new $47000 car, I would probably buy another 2001 S80 T6. On the other hand, the Mercedes E430 is also stickering at around $47000, so I would look at that and do a feature count and quality check, but I don't know too much about it.

-John