Yeah, it's a public forum, people post regardless of whether or not they're being helpful. We all live with it. Regarding the ATF on 850s/S70s, this is still very much up in the air. The simple answer is probably because there aren't a whole lot of transmission failures on this particular model. However, say that to the poor guy who did have his tranny fail on his 850 and he'll tell you differently. It's this poor guy that none of us want to be and that is why some of us are compelled to (perhaps) "over-maintain" as some would like to say but it's really preventative maintenance in my opinion. Sure, the tranny may fail at any point in time regardless of whether or not you flushed the tranny but that can be considered bad luck. Hey, when parts fail, they don't care what condition the ATF is in. The Volvo recommendation is to leave the tranny alone and consider the ATF a no-maintenance item. Volvo engineers do a good job (most of the time anyway) and they feel that the tranny is robust enough to not require any service for the life of the car. However, it's obvious to me that even the brightest engineers make mistakes every so often. Heck, if they didn't, the world would be a perfect place.

For the most part, the engineers are probably right but my own experience tells me otherwise. I drive mainly in the city, a little bit of highway but I'm also a performance enthusiast and drive the car hard from time to time. A while back, the tranny on my car was acting up--there was a slight slipping sensation in first gear, an unnatural hesitation before it shifted into second. On the advice of the people on this forum, I had the tranny flushed (hey, it's better than paying for a diagnostic fee at the Volvo dealership). I personally watched the flushing take place--I couldn't believe how brown and thinned out the ATF in my tranny looked and it smelled, really bad, burnt is what the mechanic said. The tranny has been working fine ever since--I don't know, you could say that it was coincidence, maybe the problem fixed itself regardless of the new ATF. I find that hard to believe. Recently, I flushed the ATF again but this time with synthetic ATF. It costs more but hey, I don't mind paying a bit more--I just really wanted to know if it would make any difference. I'm happy to report that I've noticed the tranny shifts a bit smoother, not as smooth as when the car was brand-new but smoother than it has been in a long time. The car feels rejuvenated and I find it more enjoyable to drive as an end result--it's a good feeling to see results. If you ask me, I don't even care if synthetic ATF does nothing to prolong the life of the tranny, like I said earlier, if it's gonna break, it will. In the end, I paid a bit more for a smoother shifting tranny and to me, it was well worth the extra money.