I've owned three 240 series and still have two. I've owned two 700 series and still have one (a 780 turbo). And I owned one 850, a 94 NA wagon. The 850 was clearly the sportiest looking and driving of them all - but not anywhere near as comfortable as the 700 series for someone with a very tall and large frame. The 850 didn't come anywhere close to being as durable, not to mention easy and inexpensive to maintain as the rwd's. My 94 850 made it to just over 200K miles before it was towed to the junkyard by the 87 745 that I had bought with intentions of replacing with it a few years before!

I'll take anyones wager who thinks the 850 will ever outdo the 240 -I expect there will still be dependable DD 240's on the road long after the 850's are finished disappearing -(it would really be a sucker's bet just given the number of 240's produced - but combine that with the incredible durability and inexpensive upkeep of the 240 and there's no way the 850, albeit a well above average car, will ever outdo it! Heck, I hit a 200 pound deer at 70 mph with my 91 245 while on a hunting trip in November taking out the front radiator support and front drivers side lights, collapsing the hood and left front fender, bending the left front wheel and breaking the steering rack. The engine never even died and I was able to drive it home, safely, over 150 miles. It did idle a little rough and got poor gas mileage on the way home, but had I noticed that the AMM electrical connector had been knocked loose I could have plugged it back in and solved that part. The toughest thing was to decide whether to spend just under $400 on the parts to repair it (all easily done - unbolt the old mangled part and bolt the replacement on) - or to use that $400 to buy another 240. Given how otherwise clean the car was I decided to go for the repair route. It took a total of about eight hours work to repair it - but I didn't feel like working on the car when the weather was too cold so it took me about three weeks to actually spend the necessary time on it.

As for me, I don't think I'd ever consider purchasing another 850 - but with a stable full of rwd's I doubt I'll need to even think about it anytime soon.