Originally Posted By: JOD
Man, there's so much information in this thread I don't know where to start... I do wonder besides a very few posters how many people have actually owned the cars they're badmouthing??
I had a 740 and two V70's. The 740 was easy to work on, but did require a little more care and feeding. It was also >200K when I bought it, and it's still going at >400K.
Most of my experience is with the FWD cars, and that's where the misinformation seems the strongest. The "Ford made the quality suck" thing is a ridiculous sentiment. Ford had almost no input into Volvo's engineering, manufacturing or production--outside of borrowing Volvo's engineering for it's own platforms. The cars were still made in Belgium and Sweden, still engineered there (for good or bad) and even the distribution network was basically unchanged. People commenting otherwise are simply ignorant.
They did go to electronic throttle in'99, which is one problem area. Besides that, the engine, transmissions and most of the electrical system (ABS modules aside) are extremely robust. There are a few common issues, with pretty simple fixes.
Overall, I found the FWD Volvos easy to work on for the most part, and extremely reliable. If you consider having to install new brake pads every two years or 50K miles a flaw, then you should buy something else--the car has a heavier rear brake bias, so it goes through pads faster than some. The door jamb at the driver's hinge is almost guaranteed to crack (there's an easy fix for it). The turbos need periodic turbo seal replacements (easy on FWD).
The AWD cars are more maintenance, for sure. Overall, I think a FWD 96-98 S70 or 850 is an awesome choice in the $2,500 range.
I believe this literally couldn't have been said better.