Please don't sell your sled just to upgrade to somebody elses problem, although with airbags (more stuff to break!). If everything works on the Volvo, tell the GF, that after "considerable research", these cars are the safest, and most well built vehicles on the road, using just seatbelts, remind her of the steel cage around the passenger compartment, and the front impact design that allows the engine/tranny to go under the car in a really bad front collision. Frankly, airbags scare the crap out of me. My 2 cents worth. Cheers.

Dave

ps..the rear end noise is the pinion gear bearings getting noisy, no worries until it makes noise like 7 out of 10, then swap it out, otherwise the volume control on the stereo helps out a lot.