I have a 1990 740 GLE 16v that I recently purchased with about 130,000 miles on it. From what I can tell the car has been sitting for sometime. I have no idea of maitence records and the fluid in the transmission looks pretty dark. The problem that I have encountered is that the automatic transmission will somtimes shudder durning acceleration. Normally when shifting between 1st and 2nd, never in any higher gears. Dosent shudder starting off, only when it shifts those gears, or once it is in 2nd if you try to accelerate more, the shudder is there again. The odd thing is if you accelerate very softly, keeping the RPM under 2000, it dosent do it, or if you accelerate really hard, it dosent shudder either. I have questioned transmission shops about a flush, and also read on the forum how to do it myself, but have been told that could make it worse. Any suggestions on what could be causing the problem or how to remidy it???? Or if the tranny does go out, it is extreamly complicated to change over to a manual transmission, wiring and otherwise. Thanks for any help......This is my first Volvo and love it otherwise.........hope to keep it for a long time.