Mr. Tim,
You get what you pay for. The chassis/frame the S40 is built on may be the same as a Japanese car, but the motor/electronics are not as good. Most of us on the Brickboard who have 1994+ cars, bought top of the line European luxury cars. The S40 is not one of them.
The Brickboard came about because of the love of 240/544 cars and the want to save them. If there were no problems with these cars and parts were easy to get, there would be no Brickboard. All we see from the current Volvo lineup are headaches and heart breaks. You probably won't find a good opinion about S/V40 cars on this site.
Tell your buddy to look at a 1993 240 and all of its safety features, and then tell him you would help him maintain it. That would make all of us Brickboarders proud :)

Klaus
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98 V70Rawd(108Kmi), 95 854T(88K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)