Hi, I was thinking of getting a Volvo 850 estate with the 2.3L 5 cylinder turbo engine.
I was trying to find the gear ratios for the top gear for the 4 speed automatic as I do a lot of motorway driving. I noticed that the T5 and the T-5R's both had different automatic transmissions with the T-5R having the AW42 automatic transmission only with a 0.98/1 ratio for the top gear, whereas the website I'm looking at has an "850 turbo" lists the M56 transmission with a top gear of 0.70/1 and the automatic AW42 transmission. I assume the 850 Turbo refers to the normal T5.
So my question is for anyone with the T5 auto or the T5R auto, what engine speed is it when you are cruising at 70mph?

 

Not sure if all 850 Ts and 850 T5Rs or 850Rs had different automatics - what year and market (country where the car was sold) are you interested in buying? I dont have our '95 850T anymore but I recall the RPMS at 65-70 to be fairly low like 2300 RPMish. LOL, I used to own a 73 BMW 2002 with a 4sp manual that would turn 3000 RPM at 60. Not a quiet car!!!

 

Ok, that's better than I thought for the gear ratio figures that are given, I'm UK based and interested in buying one, my current car which is an mx5 holds 3300RPM at 70mph which is decent. I think I'll have to take both the manuals and auto's for a test drive to see what the engine speed is like in comparison and how much power the automatic gearbox zaps from the engine. Just to see if I want to get either or will restrict myself to the manual. Thankyou for your answer mate