I suppose it all adds up under perspective.

I'm very happy with two deals I made in the past two weeks.

My new car- '94 855T with 162K. Maintence was better than average, but not stellar. I need at a minimum a new right-hand axle. I am comfortable doing it myself. The interior is pretty good, family car status left the carpet a mess, but I'm not too anxious about that. The paint isn't perfect, and there are plenty of non-scratch dings.

That said, the car drives well, came with snows on steel, a decent set of 15" alloys with summer tires, and I paid $4500. It's the fastest car I've ever driven, and can seat 4 people very comfortably.

Edit- Scratch that. Fastest car I've ever driven was a two-seater, though. '91 MR2 turbo with silly amounts of boost. My quote- "It's like a video game!"

My dad's new car- '96 855T with 122K. Maintence was about average, and the PO wasn't as lucky as mine. ABS controller and rear main seal were replaced in the past year, probably $3000. There's a few less dings, interior is good, 16" alloys and snows on steels again (we're in CT) and there's a funny dent right above the windsheild, above the passenger. The passenger side rear shock is bad, so I'm replacing those this week. Just fixed two vacuum lines that triggered the Check Engine light- $20. He paid a little less than $6K.

I also spent $40 fixing both tailgate panels.

The front end work on my car will total about $1000 if I decide to do the axles, hubs, struts, and ball joints. That's me doing the labor.

Dad's new KYBs will cost him about $160 plus he'll owe me one.
I figure we're even because he finally got a Volvo instead of an Explorer.

I think I'm still less than $12K. Most people see and/or ride in these cars and say "wow nice car!" They really do age okay, in my opinion.

I think this board, and Jarrod, are two of the best things going on the web.

That said, Rich at Volvospeed.com and his insight on 850s was priceless in evaluating these cars and feeling comfortable working on them.

The punchline- my PO bought an Acura SUV, and my dad's PO bought an XC90. Neither of them live off logging trails. I still have one more Explorer in Dad's driveway to get rid of. Maybe I should advertise it in the paper as a trade for a nice 850 for Mom.

The short story- you can get a pretty damn nice 855T with a sunroof and all the rest for a lot less than $13K. I don't think you're getting scammed paying that much for a creampuff, but I also think that if you're not in a rush and can deal with a few imperfections, you can save a lot of money to enjoy elsewhere. Don't forget- no matter how nice/young/well cared for this car may be, IT WILL COST MONEY TO "MAINTAIN". I guarantee you that.