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Even though this thread is already saturated, I'll throw in my two cents worth.
Just about everything I was going to mention has already been said, but I'll wrap it together. Yes, the 240 would be fighting an uphill battle with CAFE emissions standards with the new fleet mileage requirements. They could have made some improvements like putting a Lockup-Torque Converter in the tranny (which the 740s started receiving back in '87), and done some body restyling to reduce the aerodynamic drag (which is pretty bad on a 240). However, both of these improvements would make a moderatly expensive car even more expensive.
Financially speaking, the 240 was a low-styled, mid-priced car. It cost double the typical American made vehicle of same size and options, and boosting the price wouldn't be helping. However, the 850 represented a new market that was growing rapidly. Building a front wheel drive car is much cheaper than building a rear wheel drive car (even though the RWDs are safer), and there was increasing demand for the 850s (which also looked like a 90s styled car with '90s comforts and could sell themselves on the dealer lots). The 240s still looked like a '70s body with late '80s upgrades, and the advantages to buying a 240 aren't readily aparent to someone walking through a dealer lot and looking at the window stickers.
In the end, the 240 factory was shut down and converted to 850s, and Volvo kept the high end 960 vehicles as their flagship cars. The 940 did manage to hang on for a couple more years past the 240, but ultimately closed in 1995 and this brough an end to the red-block engine line and Volvo could now focus all it's production resources on the white-blocks (the reason the 960 lasted so long was that it came with an in-line 6 cylinder white block, a close cousin to the 850's 5-cylinder white block engine).
I agree that the 240 is much easier to repair and maintain than the 850 and letter cars, but those DIY qualities are often lost in the effort to keep the bottom line down and stay price competative. I wish those great 240 brake calipers were available on the 700/900 series cars... If I had to get into a high speed accident today, I'd still want to be driving a 240 and no other car on the planet. They're still the safest car that I've ever seen.
God bless and drive safe,
Fitz Fitzgerald.
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'87 Blue 240 Wagon, 279k miles.
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