At least the indy Volvo shops don't cringe when it comes to working on the 1995-1998 cars. Although they still smile and have thoughts about making their boat payments.

As to the original poster -- how about the idea of finding a shop that's good with Volvos (not the dealer) and fixing the '96 850 correctly? It's gotta be a lot cheaper than buying and maintaining any XC70. (It's an 11 year old Volvo, OF COURSE it will need repairs!!!)

(As a matter of comparison, I can do just about any routine maintenance procedure on a Honda up to 105,000 miles, and I was born with 20 thumbs. Not so on the Volvo.)

-BTC

'98 V70 T5 5-speed, 169k mi, velour cloth seats, front IPD stabilizer bar, rear factory HD bar, Bilstein HD, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, e-codes, XC grill, Lidatek LE30, V-1, Mobil-1 since new. Goal: "Moonshot" (227,063 miles at it's perigee)

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair." -- Douglas Noel Adams (1952-2001)