Hmm,

The dealer once told me that the 850 and the S70 was made on the same line at the same time when I had some problems with my front suspension. They were trying to tell me that it was "normal" for the suspension to behave that way because it was really the suspension of an 850. I found an 850 and drove it and it did not exhibit the same behavior.

Essentially system wise the S70 and 850 share a great deal of components. The doors look to be exactly the same with the exception of the door handle hardware. The unit body looks to be the same as well.

I read somewhere that the 7's and 8's and as well as the S70's were assembled one at a time by hand. What made the article more credible was the photo of a 7 series Volvo on a moveable rack that allowed a crew of people to do the final assembly. The article went on to say that people work better when they can see a finished product and take pride in the quality of assembly.

I have a friend with a C70 Convertible (he is on #2 now since #1 was bought back by Volvo under lemon law) and they said the car was entirely assembled by hand as well. Fit and finsh wise the Volvo's look great. I guess someone on the engineering side needs to see a finished product 2 years later and see all the design mistakes they made.