OK, I'll confess, after 22 years of Swedish iron I went out and bought an Acura last year. Flawless automobile, absolutely no problems but I'm planning to trade it in this spring because the seats and ergonomics and especially the cold-weather preformance just aren't up to Volvo's standards. I usually keep my cars until the wheels fall off, too, so this is an awfully drastic move.

The T5 was supposed to go to my daughter but she doesn't want to drive a stick, so I kept it and last year I put 2/3 of my miles on the old Volvo and 1/3 on the new Acura. I just reflexively reach for the Volvo keys like for a pair of perfectly broken-in blue jeans. Volvos are sure a pain in the neck when they're not running correctly, but just great when they are.

I'm kinda torn at this point, I'd like to buy a new AWD V70R 6-speed, and it's a (relative) bargain, but I know it's gonna be nothing but trouble! If sanity prevails I'll buy another FWD T5, less of a bargain but simpler and less trouble over the long run.

As for snow tires, I have Dunlop Winter Sport M2s on the Acura and Michelin Artic Alpins on the Volvo and I like the Michelin-Volvo setup much better than the Dunlop-Acura setup. I don't know anything about Pirelli snows. Does it snow much in Italy? It probably doesn't snow too much near Tokyo from what I've observed from the Acura and the Japanese Dunlops.

In the mean time, the bag of sand in the trunk of your Mercedes sounds like a good idea.

-BTC

'98 V70 T5M, 153k mi, front IPD stabilizer bar, rear factory HD bar, Bilstein HD, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, e-codes, V-1, Mobil-1 since new