Hey I'm new here and I was wondering if anybody here could help determine how rare my car is. I've tried finding statistics but no luck. I have a US market 1996 850 wagon in red with a tan interior, cloth seats and a 5-Speed manual transmission. NOT swapped in. What's more, it's 100% stock, it's been meticulously maintained and has only had two owners before me, both older men. All of the manuals and dealer information are still in the glovebox.

I know it's rare because in my 1 year+ of looking I have only seen a handful of manual 850's in my area. The first one I remember was an 850 T-5R sedan which i'm pretty sure had one swapped in because I don't believe they were sold with one. And then the second wasn't even really an 850, it was an S70 sedan which was in pretty poor shape but it did have one. That's it, at least from what I can remember. Looking online for examples similar to mine yields few results. Some from europe, a lot of swaps, but very few factory models, at least for the US market. All this leads me to believe that I have quite the unicorn in my possession. And I'm really curious just how much of a unicorn I have.

 

Turbo or NA?

 

NA, the engine code is B5254S.

 

Kind of rare, but not a unicorn. There are a few NA 850's with manuals out there especially in the PNW. 850 T-5R's were sold in Europe with manual transmissions.

 

Getting more rare all the time. The 850s have been briskly heading to the crusher over the last 10 years.

 

Yeah, it's hard for me to find parts cars here. Can't find trim parts for a tan interior wagon.

 

Well, yeah, every old car is getting rarer all the time--they don't make them any more!
Manual 850 is rare but nothing special, all manual cars are getting scarce; very few new cars come with manuals anymore, even Vetts and Porsche 911 are autos, a shame and a travesty but there you are, modernity!

 

You can still buy a new Porsche with a manual transmission. You just have to shell out a ton of money for a GT3.