I can only comment from my own experience. Having owned both a 94 960 and 96 960, there is a clear and big difference between how these cars drive, and the later re-designed , I mean completely re-designed not just cams, B6304S engine is a far better performance engine in my experience. Certainly better for a daily driver with higher torque, low rpm cruising, but it is a faster acceleration to 100 or to 40 mph and contrary to what you've commented about hp numbers, my owners manual stated 191 hp, not 181.
My brother-in-law blew the engine on his '93 960 and the engine was replaced by Volvo with the redesigned 191 hp engine, and we can both attest to the fact that the later engine is a better more effective powerful engine than the 201 hp version. Honestly, I always doubted that the 201 hp rating actually achieved the hp it was supposed to, even reve'd to 6000 rpm. I really didn't like the early 960 engine. I believe the 92 740ti I had was more powerful, drove like it was quicker, even though they were about the same weight. Also note that both the 960's I owned had less than 20k miles when I bought them as Volvo select cars in perfect condition, so each was operating as if new.
--
'89 245 Sportwagon, '04 V70 2.5T Sportwagon
|