I bought a '93 850GLT (non-turbo) 2 months ago, and I've driven 10,000 miles on it already, so i'll give my input. First of all, in the past year (since I sold my Volvo 740) I've owned a BMW 635CSi and a Saab 9-3, and I learned that I'd taken the reliability of my 740 for granted. I love my 850. I live in the rocky mountains, and I've taken it all over Colorado and Utah in the past two months. The only major problem that I've encountered is an Oil leak. I knew this when I bought the car-- It loses about a quart of oil every 1500 miles. It has seemed to go through brake pads pretty quickly-- the rear pads were at 35% when i bought the car, and I just got those replaced last week. I blew a tire last night-- oh well, I guess that just means it's time to put snow tires on. Mine has a manual tranny, and it's just awesome. Alright, i've rambled long enough. In short: buy the car, they are awesome.


Buy it.

I have a 1995, 850 GTAS non-turbo. Purchased 1-25-95 so it is going to be close to the 94 I guess. I have had it serviced and have kept up all the maintenance on it. The problems I have had to this date are: passenger side air bag had to be glued down twice, micro shift switch has gone out three times I now push the release button and have not tried to fix it again, rubber gasket over the windshield has come off 3 times, dash speaker on passenger side blown replaced, drivers side door stop broken replaced, sun roof motor replaced, PNP switch replaced, rubber gasket on oil cap replaced, coolant overflow tank replaced, rear main seal replaced, top engine mount replaced twice last time with an IPD mount no problems since, one horn replaced, main breather hose replaced old one cracked, both front steering "A "arms right and left replaced, 5 sets of tires, 3 sets of brake pads, 2 timing belts, 2 accessory belts, 4 headlight bulbs, 1 battery, 3 windshield washer valves, 1 windshield wiper arm drivers side replaced, 3 transmission flushes, oil change every 3000 miles, now the only thing wrong is I can't get the high speed to work on my air-conditioner fan motor. The paint on the car is good but there are some bad places showing and I need to paint the hood, roof, and trunk lid. The car has 153,354 miles on it and it runs great.

I've got a '94 850-Turbo sedan and it's been a pretty good car to me. I bought it used with 85k on the odo. The shift-lock release is one of the most common failures on the 850. Mine's broken, hasn't worked for quite some time. You have to push the override button to get out of park.

Also, the upper-engine mount can be a problem. Tends to break or get loose. Not to big of an issue, though.

Other than that, I can't think of any red flags to look for. Just make sure it's been serviced by a Volvo mechanic and get a pre-purchase inspection to be sure. Good luck.

I OWN A 97 AND LOVE IT, ALTHOUGH THEY SEEM TO BE HARD ON BRAKES. BE SURE IF YOU GET A EARLY MODEL THE AC EVAPORATER COILS WERE A PROBLEM ON EARLY MODELS IT SHUOLD HOLD AN AC CHARGE.

DAN

You might also consider a 95. Seems to be a rather good year and
the additional cost would not be much more.

I also belive there are early and late 94s with the later ones
being closer to the 95s. The early ones have a 4 bolt pattern
for the wheels. Not 100% sure on this. (Anyone know if there
was a mid-year "kicker" for 94s?).

See Volovspeed http://www.volvospeed.com/bay13.htm and the surveys (lower right hand corner) in Kino's Volvo site http://kinovolvo.velez.ws/ for the usual trouble spots.