Volvo died with the demise of the rear wheel drive platform, 900 series! Sorry, but I don't understand the connect of those 240/740/940 that everybody loved to what passes for a Volvo since then. It's nothing but wishfull thinking! These frontwheel drives are a joke and a pain and have none of the qualities that made Volvo, a Volvo... OK, they are "fast", what isn't? Everything is fast nowadays. As far as reliability, I'd much rather have a Camry, a Maxima, you name them... For a nice car that's really advanced technologically, get an Audi, or a BMW... even a Passat... I love my 740 and my 940 but when they go, Volvo is dead to me!

 

I just found a sillyad at Toyota’s homeland web:

http://toyota.jp/crownathlete/index.html

Click "feel Crown" where you see this woman, and on the next page you are given 2 different models; I recommend the one says "feel, CROWN". This is one of the silliest ads I know of and I laughed so hard that I nearly fell off the chair.

Anyway, I think many of us are still waiting for RWD, 6-speed Volvos. Hey, you never know.


JPN

 

My theory is that european manufacturers reached a point in the late eighties, early nineties, where the cars they made were getting so dependable and long lasting that their profits were suffering, near automotive perfection! Why would you buy a new car if the old one never broke down or wore out? Look at the BMW of that era: 325e, 528, 535, even the 7s; MBZ 123 and 124 cars, and of course Volvo 240, 740, 940. So they decided, "we'll make cars that are more exciting, YES, more efficient, YES, but they'll be so loaded with crap that the consumer will have no choice but to repair them", "service" them all the time at dealer prices. Volvo I think was particularly guilty of that but business being what it is, if your product lasts forever, then, how do you make any money? Hard to blame them, really. VW Audi is the worst in this respect: nice cars but everything is so loaded with versions, sensors and propriatory computer gizmos,try to repair it without a VOA computer! And I can't wait until all those plastic hoses with the little clamps everywhere get baked and have to be changed!