If you desire sport and comfort it’s a excellent choice. However, not many autos can compare to the ride the Lexus 350S in comfort, but the lexus lacks speed, handling and power. It also is a (front wheel drive)car. However, the combination of power, and torque will change your mind about the S-80 AWd/T6, it will run with a 7 series BMW. Do you hear me!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two months ago I raced a 7 series and KEPT PACE, UP TO 120MPH with one. The light weight engine, coupled with the AWD does make a difference on the S-80 T-6/AWD. However, Motor Trend holds a contrary view on this.

I can say that, Yes I agree that the S-80 is more comfortable than the 5 series BMW and by far the Audi-6. But lacks the handling. The average driver will clearly not notice the difference, but will enjoy the seat comfort and the power of this car, equal to any BMW-5 or Audi-6 . You will be persuaded especially when you compare the price.

Pics: http://dombek.com/accident.htm

“Subaru offers the I4 Legacy wagon at low $20k. AWD+classing leading safety+reliability.”

This was my perception until I went to the Sapporo Auto Auction with a dealer frind of mine. While perusing the auction guide for cars I was interested in, I asked him why Subes of all sorts were priced so crazy low (even by Japanese used car standards).

His response was that motors are often bagged at 100k km. That sentiment was echoed by my independent mechanic who sees all sorts of brands. That being said, my buddy’s 10 year old turbo Legacy with 170 k km and infrequent oil changes or cooling down periods still runs strong.

Off topic for a Volvo thread, I know, but I thought that I might offer an alternative outlook on the “Subarus are bulletproof” legacy.

And not I4’s, sir (maam?) but boxer fours.

Keith

Yes, we all know that manufacturers that make front wheel drive cars are less reliable than the rear wheel drive ones. In otherwords two legs are better than four, and eight legs are better than six.

“and now come with all kinds of silly electronic gee-gaws on them.”

How did you know about the gee-gaw option. I live in Georgia and where we’re from we call it the ‘hee-haw’.

‘Cars today have too much crap on them’

Only if the driver and passengers have very loose bladders. In the repossessions that come through the auctions, we find that Buicks, Cadillacs and the Toyota Camry have the highest level of TPC (turd per car).

“automakers use it to try to convince people to buy new to get a feature when their old vehicle is perfectly fine.”

We call this progress. Daytime running lights, hee-haw doo dads that light up on your GPS when the ABS in your CTS is SOL, creature features of all shapes and mutations are what make modern cars such groovy machines. I’m looking forward to the day when my next door neighbor, Greg Brady, will find a way to install a 64″ DVD/CD/MP3/CBS/ABC/NBC/PBS/MTV/ xmmultimedia entertainment center with satellite and cable hookup with modular free porting and teleporting to his 1972 Plymouth Valiant.

In the meantime, I’ll just take the bus.

And where is the high end Volvo minivan? Volvo’s family friendly image is/was perfect for the $50k best in the world minivan, but they have never built it.

I heard that the next S60 will share its platform with the S80/Ford Mondeo -distancing itself from the S40/Mazda3/EuroFocus. Pricewise, there’s certainly room for a Volvo sedan between the S80 and the S40.

For the next gen, I’m crossing my fingers that a new hash of RWD platforms will find it’s way into Volvo’s portfolio…if only Ford can see the logic of taking the CrownVic off life support and giving it some much-needed surgery.

How many ways can you stretch a Mazda3?

So the engine choices are I6 and V8? What happened to the 280hp T6? (high-pressure turbo variant of the I6)

For the S60/V70 R, Volvo tuned their T5 to pump out 300 ponies. Do the math, and a tricked-up T6 could produce around 350hp…and probably outrun the V8.

I’m looking forward to the long-awaited 2008 update of the S60, and thanks to Ford, Volvo’s going to hit us with a barrage of crossovers (XC50 and XC60)…keep your eyes peeled.

I’ve heard of the Volvo safety center, I was alluding to that in my post; I just didn’t want to get too wordy. I did read that story about the gentleman that had the seizure too. Further to my question/comment, I am currently cross shopping two new vehicles, the XC90 and the Honda Ridgeline. The XC was just voted “Top Safety Pick” by the IIHS. The Ridgeline is rated very highly as well by NHTSA (though it’s not rated by the IIHS). A friend’s wife just recently totaled her Pilot. She emerged without a scratch and my buddy went out the next day and bought another Pilot (and traded his 13 y.o. Civic for a CR-V). Sounds like a lot of stories that I’ve heard in the past about people wrecking the Volvo and going straight to the dealership to buy another.

It sounds like other manufacturers are catching up in the safety game. Is the Ridgeline really as safe as the XC in the real world? That may be, but I bet it doesn’t have a boron-reinforced roof.

A source who shall anonymous, since he didn't give me permission to quote him, and he still works for Volvo (cars), once told me, "I stood close enough to Jacques Nasser to hear him say I paid one dollar for a company and the rest (of $33 billion USD) for the S80 platform." Now while that platform has changed more than a bit since the first generation, it is still worth noting.

Additionally, I believe I can stay within TTAC guidelines for non-flaming, when I say that the image of all Volvophiles as being rabid Howard Dean supporters is nonsense. If anyone – most especially one of the early commentators – would read the book Will by G. Gordon Liddy, he or she would find that the G-man's (his own preferred radio host handle) father was one of the first people to import Volvos.

Then too, before he celebrated no longer having to assert the existence of non-existent weapons of mass-destruction, by buying a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette, Colin Powell was not as a do-it-yourself restorer of vintage Volvos; and almost became a used car dealer, specializing in the marque. (Read My American Journey for evidence of that and a good bio, overall.)

Now, I will admit that many Volvo owners meet the parameters of closet socialists (or not so closeted). But to say all of them are, is akin to saying all guys who drive pickup trucks are named Bubba and watch wrestling for entertainment. And no, Volvo owners have nothing against motorcyclists; in fact, many of them own either a motorcycle or a bicycle.

I am more concerned about SUV drivers with cellphones – my bias – in that regard. Maybe there are statistics showing a lot of Volvo owners have been involved in collisions with motorcyclists. However, as Mark Twain once said, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics."

Reliability went down from the old school Volvo because they are now front wheel drive, and now come with all kinds of silly electronic gee-gaws on them.

Cars today have too much crap on them – automakers use it to try to convince people to buy new to get a feature when their old vehicle is perfectly fine.

Subaru offers the I4 Legacy wagon at low $20k. AWD+classing leading safety+reliability. In other words, almost better in every area than the Volvo wagon you have projected.

I think what also changed in the timeframe you described is that the technology changed so much, and cars, Volvos especially, got much more complex, and lost some of that repairability charm.

In Ford’s favor I would say that they took Jaguar from the bottom of the quality lists into the Top 3 very quickly, which is quite an accomplishment. Why would they do the opposite to Volvo? They didn’t.

“Volvo’s reliability declined… due to Ford buying them.”

The primary reason why Volvo had quality control problems right around when Ford bought them out is because they released several brand new vehicles during that point in time that were far different from the historic 240/940/S90 RWD platform (ended in 1997) and their FWD 850/S70/V70 (ended in 2000).

In Volvo’s case, the S80 was truly a brand new car in 1998 in every sense of the term. The platform, the electronics, the powertrains, virtually all of it was from scratch. As with virtually all new model launches with manufacturers that sell in limited volumes, there is a steep learning curve (and higher defect rate) in the production and assembly of their major mechanical components.

While Ford, Toyota, and GM have a volume that allows several hundreds of thousands of models of a given platform within a year’s time, smaller manufacturers, especially those in Europe have experienced a harder road. It’s no accident that only VW, which has been below the North American industry average during the past fifteen years, has been the only successful European marque to offer models in the larger volume markets. Unlike Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Citroen, and Skoda, they were the only ones who could substantially improve their quality (defect wise and product wise) to competitive levels in the NA market over the course of time.

The same phenomena of high defects during a new model launch has been universal. Not just with the Focuses and Cavaliers, but also with virtually all luxury marques. The Mercedes C, E, ML and S classes during the past 20 years have offered more lemons than virtually any other luxury lineup and, yes, even the Camry and Avalon have experienced serious defect issues in recent time. In Volvo’s particular case, quality suffered through the first two years of it’s release because they were literally building brand new product from the get go. More specifically, the electronic’s system, throttle body injection (which was later recalled), and the transmission all had major teething problems because they were far more sophisticated and complicated than the models that preceded them.

The same was true for the now lauded FWD Volvo 850 when it came out in 1994. In fact, if you visit enough dealer and public auctions around the country you’ll notice that a disproportionate number of FWD Volvos of the 1990’s have broken odometers, burned out bulbs, defective ABS modules, and usually at least one broken motor mount. Volvo’s are DURABLE vehicles, but they never were really good choices for those who couldn’t stand the sight of a ‘Check Engine’ or ‘ABS’ light.

People who offer the unqualified opinion that ‘Ford is to blame’ usually aren’t aware of the tremedous complexities and brutal learning curves that are involved with building a truly ‘new car’. They also don’t realize that Ford literally saved Jaguar’s rump by investing billions of dollars and a tremendous level of talent into their then fading brand. Within a decade Jaguar went from the bottom to near-bottom in virtually every J.D. Power survey to being at or among the top of virtually all of their quality surveys for luxury vehicles.

Then again, why bother learning something when you have a multi-billion dollar media industry that prefers sensationalism to actual fact finding.

“I’ll take Audi’s WTF braking system and somersaulting Samurais for $200 Alex!!!”