Have you tried adjusting the seats? I don't remember how far up the manual seats go. However, both the power and manual 700 seats I've been in have gone up far enough for me to see the end of the hood easily (and I'm fairly short).

While 1989 was somewhat of a lemon year for Volvos, I doubt you'd have radically different than your current (or previous) 240. While the 700/900s actually have more cargo area, I don't think that you'd find their reliability significantly different.

Let's face it. Nothing will drive like a 240. Perhaps the closest thing out there would be a late 1980s MBZ wagon. Supposedly the old I-6 cars are pretty user friendly. They're big and RWD. At that point in time MBZ probably had better build quality than Volvo (not that such quality would have been difficult).

In fact I think your problem was probably one of getting a poorly maintained unit. If you hold out for a 240 in mint condition, I bet you would have a much different experience.

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alex

'89 765T, 171,3xx mi