I just hate to see someone on a budget buy a car that will break their bank in repairs. Its great to be familiar with the car you drive. Its even greater to not have to worry about it breaking down and wiping you out financially. That's why I recommended the Honda or Toyota over the Volvo in your situation. The 850 was Volvo's introduction into the front wheel drive world. The Aisin transmission sucks and is too small, especially for the Turbo model. But its all they could cram into the space they engineered the engine bay for, so that's what we got. The A/C system originally had no filter, causing thousands of premature evaporator failures, and a retrofit filter was introduced. You'll never see a video of them rolling an 850 off a 15 story building and driving it away. They are a crash and toss design. We bought our 850 brand new and know every thing that's gone into it and it's babied and maintained in a garage, but it still frustrates me to see other 850's with so many failures and repair nightmares. I just don't think they are a good choice for a used vehicle unless you like dumping money into it. Will Volvo improve under Ford's ownership? Uh...






Mike
'95 850T