This is a wider question actually of what can I do with this car other than donating it (what i prefer to avoid) to a charity.

My son drove this beast for 3 years and had "normal" set of S40 problems, but it performed! After his last trip to San Francisco he experienced a complete blackout of the lights, engine - everything. At least that's how he described it.
Now after all the coils (again "Normal") and sensors replacement and no any codes stored, it would not reset the very first monitor in the ECM. According to my Volvo mechanic,
We drove it through the reset procedure multiple times, no change and it passes the emissions but they can't issue a valid SMOG test because of that freaking monitor.
Mechanic says, you can't replace the ECM with the used one, only new and I suspect it's more than the car is worth at the moment 192k on it.
So unless someone here or on Craigslist is willing to give me something for it, I think the only option is the charity thing.
Your thoughts, suggestions, experiences?
Thanks!