I'll throw my 2 cents in and that's about all its worth. I've had 2 740t wagons, currently driving 1, and a 940t wagon that I drive as well. I had a 95 850 wagon, and just bought an 04 V70 wagon for the wife.

The old RWD bricks are quirky, fun, and I think to some, keeping them going forever and a day is almost like a challenge. For the cost to purchase and maintain compared with the ride and drive I'm not sure they can be beat.

The 850 I had was a lemon, I'm not saying all 850's are, they obviously aren't but I didn't have a good experience.

The V70 seems to be a good car so far, I have a 2.4 fwd, non-turbo, it rides and handles as well as a wagon can I suppose and for a non-turbo is plenty peppy. I didn't know one thing about the V70's until here recently and still don't know much. I can't speak for the late 90's models, but I believe the 2000/2001 years may have had some transmission trouble that was kind of nasty to deal with. I really like the looks of the XC70, but my recommendation would be unless you live in a climate where AWD is necessary, I'd stick with the FWD cars. The AWD if not needed is just something else to go wrong.

As far as my limited experience on the maintenance on the V70, it is obviously more challenging than the RWD cars and I will be more limited in what I will try to do. I live in a town where there is no dealer and no Volvo specific indy shops, but I just had a local competent mechanic perform the timing belt and related service on my car. The cost was about 1/3 per hour when compared to what a dealer would typically ask. Point is, the FWD cars may be a little more difficult to wrench on, but they are not impossible and a good shop should be able to handle most task.


Good luck with whatever you do..