Hi to all on this thread,
I'm in Toronto Canada and have a 97 850 AWD. It's a wonderful car. You will need to bone up on tire choices for the car and as well pay close attention to packing with the correct size spare tire. 97 was a great year for the 850. The AWD has several improvements that were to be found on the later versions of V70 's and even the S-80, such as the Volvo imobiliser system, extra sound insulation and improved seatbelts to name a few. This is my second 850 and I have found this car to be less problematic than my previous 96 850 GLE wagon. Based on my experiences to date the car is reliable, fun to drive and handles all seasons very well. In the Toronto area you will see these cars selling for around 25 to 26 K with about 100K on the clock. Best of all, they are 5 speed manuals. I may be wrong on this but I believe there were only about 250 850 AWD's that came to Canada in 97. Regardless of the exact number, they are somewhat rare and it took me about a year to find mine. Good luck!

Paul Novotny
97 850 AWD, Dual exhaust, side marker lights, ipd wiper relay, spoiler with brake LEDS, R front air dam, 6 disc Volvo CD changer, 3 rd seat, Michelin Pilot sports-summer, Pilot alpins -winter. -96 K-better than new.

91 240-stock. 184 K -like new.