i have grown to love my ol' wagon but it might be time to retire it soon. my 850 wagon needs a new head or an engine swap. an acquaintance i have known for a while has a '96 960 wagon with 200k miles that i can buy for $1500.

have any of you owned a 960 and what were the things you liked or disliked compared to your 850?

thanks for your time!
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-woodsy; 280k 1995 850 wagon;

i drove the 960, it was nice, but i passed on it...
i might have gone for it but i think it spent a season with a window open somewhere. all the seats were hard and cracked and torn open a bit. but everything worked except the sunroof. oh well..

next silly question... why haven't i done a compression test on my 850 yet? because i spent yesterday under the hood trying to find my no-cranking problem that showed up when i wanted to run to the grocery for some coffee (i cant believe i'm out again!). anyways... my PNP was kaput, AND it was a Volvo OEM PNP replaced two years ago....ugh!
anyhow, i'm gonna see if i can i can turn one up in the area salvage lots. and THEN it's time to check compression on the ol' 850.

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-woodsy; 275k 1995 850 wagon;

Don't feel bad about the 960 sun roof. It's a common fault with the 960 and another one of those $500 repairs.

I was a RWD Volvo fanatic. Still am.
But a few years ago I added a 854T and a '01 S40 to the fleet.

The 854 still isn't my favorite, but it's damn close.
I'm having a hard time right now because it needs around $1K worth of work and I know it's not worth that much. Come spring, I'll probably put the $$ into it. It is a nice car.
Better than a 960? I don't know because I never had a 960. But yea, I like the 854T better than the 745T.

And damn, those seats are nice. Almost as good as the 745T.

The gas mileage isn't that good with the 6cyl, 18-20. The parts are harder to get, and the heater core better be new!! It is a comfortable cruising car.

But, the 850 is more fun to drive even if it rattles a bit more. Have you done a compression test yet? I would assume the rings are fine. Removing the head is a pain and not cheap, but new valve seals and repairing any valve seats would be much cheaper than swapping in a newer engine with unknown maintenance.
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

I actually have several cars, S70, 850, and a 960. The 850's cars are a lot lighter than the 960 which is 6 cylinders and rear wheel drive. You are going to need snow tires for the 960. The maintenance is very similar to the 850's in regards to timing belts, tune up items. The PCV is more difficult on the 960 because of the larger intake and I believe that it also needs to come out when doing a starter. I believe that some 960 wagons special rear shocks which are expensive to replace. The parts for the 960 are more difficult to find at the junk yards. When the heater core needs to be replace the entire dash needs to come out unlike the 850's which I replace in under 2 hours.

If you do any highway driving, the 960 can cruise at 70 or 85 miles like nothing.

Very comfortable cruiser.

Bought a 1993 850 new for wife and still have it. Bought a 96 960 used with low miles in 1999 as my second driver. In 2001 wife got a new one and I took the 850 and sold the 960. The 850 is more comfortable, fun to drive and roomer than the 960. Just looks better to. There is nothing out there to make me give it up.

The 960 was ok but interior plastics broke, rear rotors warp easily, had a top heavy feel to handling and it has the transmission tunnel, which annoyed my foot placement.

If your 850 is still clean and you like it why not go with what you know?

David,


I've been an 850 owner for most of my driving life - I started with my parents' hand-me-down '93, then moved up to a '96 NA (which I've owned since college and it's going on 11 years). Now have a '94 NA 5-speed that I bought from the original owners last fall to use as my winter car. Has 203k miles on it and runs like a champ.

I know this may be a longshot but I have to ask - if you do decide to sell your '93 850 I was wondering if I could make an offer on it. I'm always looking to add to the collection. Is your car manual or automatic?

Hola Juan P, where are you located?? I live in zip code 60804 and I get some fixer uppers every once in a while.