I’ll try to respond to all. I agree that the shocks should not have much of an effect as far as making the car sit higher. I’m just saying that the first thing my butt noticed was that it didn’t have to fall as far in to the drivers seat. The new spring seats were not as fully seated as the old ones after 114K miles so that may be what I’m noticing. The settling in after a week or so may just be psychological. Still, when enough people mention it…
No problem with the spring compression, I purchased a cheapo Chinese unit from Harbor Freight for $10 and have changed four springs with it now. If I was a professional I would pop for a more user friendly pair. I did have to use a bench vise to hold the knuckle end of the strut steady while I worked on the compressor, but that was the only real hassle. I was careful to make sure the spring seated against the stops on the spring seat and the strut base when I put it back together. I put HD’s on my ’96 Suburban and they made a world of difference. My 850 rides a bit like a go-cart anyway so I didn’t think I have much to loose as far as ride quality. I’m probably getting too long in the tooth for this sporty stuff, I like the way the S80 rides but really like the way my 850 looks and handles. Never satisfied. As far as engineering I think that Volvo is losing it’s mechanic friendly basis. I have worked on 240’s quite a bit and although they are an old design, they definitely lend themselves more to the home mechanic. The new cars are not only packaged much more tightly, but they do seem to go out of there way to make things more difficult. On my 850 the wheel bearing hubs are held on by 4 torx head bolts, requiring me to have a torx socket set to work on it. Why bother? Torque is Torque and a grade 8 bolt is still required.
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Professionals have thumbs too.