I usually hang out in the 700 (745 Turbo) series forum, but just wanted some info on the 850 AWD's. I know they are pretty rare, but how many were made? How many did Canada get? Were they in both sedan and wagon formats? What kind of engine/tranny choices were there? I saw one for sale, they are asking about 24K CDN for a AWD wagon. Any links to these cars?

Thanks

THanks for the info guys. This AWD 850 I saw is at a Volvo dealership, so the prices are naturally going to be higher.

All of the 850 awd wagons I know of were built in 1996 and sold as MY 1997 cars. There were 285 such cars sold in Canada. For MY 1998, a few v70 awd wagons were available with manual transmissions, but these are vey rare. I correspond with about a dozen owners of manual transmission wagons, representing Canada, Spain, Netherlands, and yes, Sweden.

Overall impression - the cars are rock solid and a pleasure to drive. Particularly in the winter months, with the coupling of awd and manual transmission. There has been a great deal of discussion on this board about Volvo's awd viscous coupling awd system. Most of the discussion has been from persons who do not in fact own an awd Volvo. For this reason, I correspond with other owners privately to share information and ownership experience. From personal experience (141k), the awd components are not as fragile as others claim.

If you want to see the sales brochure, feature list, etc, use this site.
http://www.geocities.com/ozbrick850/brochure/brochure-850-awd.html

The asking price is perhaps a bit high, depending on region and condition of the car. Prices appear to be higher in western Canada than here in Ontario. Check autotrader.ca for a few examples.

If you have other questions, email me.

Neil

--
1997 850 awd, 5 speed manual

Exact numbers, I don't have, but they're fairly rare. As far as I know they were only availabe as a wagon in Canada, only availble in model year 97, and your only choice was the 2.4 L low pressure turbo, mated to a 5 speed manual. 24K CDN sounds a bit high, a friend sold her's for that much a little over a year ago. If it's in great shape, with low mileage, and you can knock another K or two off the price, go ahead. As others have said watch out for the AWD system. If it hasn't been properly looked after, it could be an expensive repair. Check the archives for bevel gear problems, and ask some questions to see how knowlegable the owner is. The bigest cause of transmision failure in these cars is owner ignorance. Volvo shares a good part of the blame for not providing adequate information durring the first few years of AWD production. Good luck.

Koz

It's probably the same drivetrain as the AWD V70 XC (except possibly MT as rumored) and if you've read any of the horror stories regarding problems with mismatched tires and costly AWD parts, compared to your nice, durable 745T you'ld be very dissapointed.

It's probably the same drivetrain as the AWD V70 XC (except possibly MT as rumored) and if you've read any of the horror stories regarding problems with mismatched tires and costly AWD parts, compared to your nice, durable 745T you'ld be very dissapointed.

first awd was rolled out in 1996 as a 850. most likely paired with the either the naturally aspirated 2.5L engine or the light pressured turbo 2.5L engine.