look through load of posts on here .. you wil lquickly get a flavour of what goes wrong...

to put it in perspective we have had in our family:-

144,245,740,745,745,945 =,850 over the years...in terms of reliability/running costs i would say the 144 was probably the very best, we had one 740 that was pretty damn good, the 850 has been pretty much the same....

We have also had 940's nd 740's that went from nightmare to bad...

so it depends on the car itself significantly...

the later the car the more electronics....the more up-spec the more electronics...


I have a 95 850 at the moment. To work on its no worse than a 940 - easier in some ways, worse in others. WOuldnt buy a 93/94 due to dodgy gearbox's, wouldnt go later than 95 due to being into odbII and increrasing electronics...

I am looking to replace my 850 within the next year and UNLESS i can drop on a nice low miles 95 850 (possibly a 96/97 also) i wont be buying a volvo...the more i see on here the more i get put off - what goes wroing is mega exensive black boxes and i cant fix them mysel i have to spend silly money with volvo...

the 945 went in favour of a mitsubishi for this reason alone....and more space...