Spot on, Bram. My 90 740 wagon has the aluminum tailgate and it is pristine even after 11 Canadian winters and 320,000 km. In fact the whole car body is pristine. Amazing. Interior plastic is brittle, though. I, too, would take the simpler is better route and stick with a solid rear axle 740 rather than a 940. 1990 - 1992 seems to be the sweet spot. I think that unless you take a turbo, there is no 740 that has a smooth dash. My 740 style dash is uncracked so maybe by 1990 they had that sorted out too. I was a bit surprised that you say nay to the turbos. I thought that they are not that expensive to repair. I guess it depends on how much you value performance. Perhaps the perferred route would be to modify a B230F rather than buy a turbo.

Bill