Until recently, I thought all clutches were as stiff as the one in my 1980 245 DL Volvo. I've driven the same Volvo my whole life, and never driven any thing else (with a clutch, that is). The other day, I had to drive a friend's civic, and the clutch on that went down with almost no pressure. I almost put it through the floor, since I'm use to having to really step on the thing. I almost burned out a couple of times too, since it came back up a lot faster then mine.

The clutch in my car was just replaced around 204,000 miles. Car now has 209k.

I'm curious, is a stiff clutch a normal occurrence in Volvo's? This thing has been like this as long as I can remember. Although it doesn't bother me, is there anything I can do to make it less stiff?