I recently bought a 760 turbo for $1500. Totally an Impulse Buy. My neighbor put up the For Sale sign, I drove it, I bought it. AS IS, of course.
The owner was the orig owner, good maintainance, she said she paid over $30K new. You Must drive a turbo before you decide to buy a 740 nonturbo or V6. For the same price you get turbo power/fun/leather/pwr heated seats/sunroof. I can't resist using the turbo! YeeHawww, take that, you with the six-inch tail pipes, fourteen racing decals and $2000 wheels, and 'You'reGonnaEndUpLikeRogerDaltry'SubWoofers! Unfortunately, A week after buying it, the heater core developed a small leak. The symptoms were: Fogged windows and a small dribble of coolant on passenger floor. THEN, one night Far From Home, sunroof open on a full moon night, accelerating up the mountain with turbo at warp 9, Suddenly steam streamed out of the vents. LOTS of steam. A Stinking Swedish Sauna! I had to leave all windows down and wipe the windshield every thirty seconds. $500 in labor to fix, all parts were about $200. This week I had a small puddle of coolant every day under the engine. I just finished bolting on a new waterpump ($39.oo at Kragen Auto). This engine is incredibly easy to work on. One hour to install the waterpump. A one banana/two beer job. Before you buy any VOLVO, CHECK the heatercore for leaks! Check the carpet for coolant spills. Buy a turbo. Turbos are Fun. Non-turbos are gutless-a four banger in a heavy brick=no fun, and the V6 has it's share of issues. Last but not least, read the archives before you decide. I have enjoyed my 760 very much- I did anticipate putting money into it when I bought it, and now I have a 700 series that is not going to have an inevitable heater core breach.
Good luck with your search, you can't go wrong with a well engineered volvo compared to other POS alternatives in the same price range.