We owned 3 850s, '95 854, '95 855, and a gorgeous '96 855R in fire red.

Get a turbo - the NA 850s just made more noise when you stepped on it! The R model would pull strongly from 40 to 140!

It was better from 0 t0 40 if you shut off the traction control, but was harder to keep the wheels from spinning.

Interestingly, we got 29 highway and 24 city and the R was great in the snow. (traction control)

The turbo had no more mechanical issues than the 2 NAs - all of them were dependable and had reasonable costs to maintain.

I will add - we bought these cars from a reputable dealer and had them dealer maintained.

Consider a leap to an XC 70 - (P2 I think) we have two, a 2008 and a 2012, they both have been great cars - both are NA 3.2s - the later turbo models seem to have no engine braking on the highway - with 8 speeds, the turbos shift UP when you let off the gas, our NAs behave better.

For about the last 20 years, we have driven twin Volvos (3x749, 2x853, and 2xXC70), very comfortable to switch from car to car