In the past, Volvos numbers were somewhat uniform in

meaining. First was the series 100 series, 200 series,

900 series, etc.

Next was the number of cylinders and last came the number

of doors.

People throw on T for Turbo (starting in model year 97

there are High Pressure Turbos (HPT) and Low Pressure

Turbos (LPT), too).

When the 850 came out they kind of abandoned this but people

still use it (even the dealers in the newspaper want ads).

So, you might see:

95 855T

Which is a 1995 850 wagon, turbo model.

With the 70 series they went with the first letter:

C coupe (C70)

S Sedan (S70)

V Wagon (V70)

The old scheme was pretty good. But, I understand in the European

Union you have all these rules about model names that they have

to conform with which made it hard for the scheme to carry on (plus

they ran out of numbers after the 900 series since you can't easily

say 1000 series (a Y1K problem)).

Now, who can explain how BMW also has an 850 (and with a V12 engine

isn't that a BWM 8122)?