I have to agree with you io...... How the hell does my car (740 '88 NA) appear to go reasonably well? to say the car weighs a ton, is a joke, it weighs 1.5. How can a 4 cyl engine on a 3.31 diff (yes, you read right), appear to go so well? First gear, low down, plenty of torque, but not a lot of acceleration, but once you reach the top of first/mid of second the car seems to launch, even my girlfriend went "geez"..... I have also noticed that from about 2,500rpm, in the wet spinning the wheels on the spot is no trouble at all, with reasonable tyres. (When i first got it, trying to hill start!). I have (on a flat surface) also accidently (well, basically, i couldn't be bothered going to first after starting to move) took off in 3rd gear, sure, the car, or clutch, didn't love me for it, but it was reasonably comfortable with taking off in third gear.....the only other car i've ever been in that car do that was an '88 M5 BMW manual.... so how come the volvo seems so powerful?