The 850 isn't bad. Our second car right now is an 96 850 manual wagon, sort of a rare combination. The main things to keep an eye out on the 850 is the timing belt and tensioner needs to be changed every 70k miles on the dot. If it fails you're looking at a new engine. Otherwise ours has proven extremely reliable with 206k miles on the clock. Its not as cheap or as simple to maintain as the 240/740/940 but returns better fuel economy and the non turbo 850 is about as quick as the earlier RWD turbos. 95+ 850 was the first car with side airbags. As with any other car of this age, previous owner maintainance history is way more important than anything else.
cheers
Justin

I am a big, big fan of the 850 and especially the re-badged versions in 1998-2000.

We have the final year of this chassis, a 2000 S70, and it has proven to be the best / trouble free car we have ever owned. It now has about 120,000 miles, and it looks and drives like it did when we bought in 2003 from a dealer.

Other than routine maintenance (plus tires / brakes / batteries), the items we've had to replace are new front struts, lower control arm bushings, and recently the a/c compressor.

I know hardcore Volvo-ista's love the old rear wheel drive 240/740/940 series, but my Volvo mechanic, a Volvo dealer tech at the dealer in Pasadena, tells me the 850/S70 cars were great cars that have no front wheel drive issues. I've read that some of the earlier cars have a higher rate a/c evap. failures.

You also hear about "electrical troubles / gremlins", but there aren't any. The complaint is usually various light bulbs that go out from time to time. Just change them.

Also, in the later years, 1998-2000, the timing belt change interval was changed to 10 years or 110,000 miles, whichever comes first.