1997 Volvo 850 SE from North America - Comments

Knock on wood, we haven't had anything break since we purchased the vehicle.

This is a great handling car for it's size.

Very comfortable with a smooth ride.

The heat sucks, it takes forever to heat the car and gets cold quickly while driving (not a trivial point here in Alaska).

The 6 cylinder engine provides smooth acceleration and decent fuel economy (24mpg+ highway/15-20city)

The controls inside are well placed and easy to work.

We purchased this car because our last car, a 1992 Jetta, was a cramped tin can with all manner of electrical problems.

I would buy this car again in a heartbeat.

Dealer repairs for foreign cars are obviously not cheap, but then again, we aren't driving a Taurus so it all works out in the end.

Must be the only 6-cylinder 850 in existence!!

This car has a 5 yes that's five cylinder engine dude

sorry to have to point this out

oh I have an 850 2.5 se estate and I'm looking at getting the t5r awd version asap these cars are g8 for the money and a well looked after engine will run to over 400000 miles

adam ramsgate england.

If your car takes forever to heat up, your thermastat must be broken. I drive an 850 and when I first got it, my heat sucked, took like 5 to 10 minutes to warm up and it never got warm. Finally we replaced the thermastat and it worked great. Warms up in about 1-2 minutes after you start driving in!

My well-kept T5 engine with about 155K burned profuse amount of oil the last 30K. Up until then, great running, great accelerating/handling car. ABS went out at 48K, speedo quit at 134K (2nd Volvo to have that happen). Continuous high $$ repairs have forced me to sell this car that I loved to drive.

Yeah, 5 cylinders. But hey that's more than enough power anyway. Too bad that Volvo's made after '97 are taken over by Ford.

My 2d Volvo 850, The 1st. was a 1994 and had to repair the drivers door (hinges broke) Car had 40,000 kms. when I purchased it. Traded it at 98,000. It needed new cv's.

Purchased a demonstrator 850 SE 20 valves with 5,000 km's on the clock. Now have 170,000 and no major problems. Had to fix the drivers door also. Have had 2 accidents. one Kangaroo and someone hit us with our caravan attached. Police and emergency worker said anything, but a Volvo would have flipped. I was hit in the rear panel, driver side with the another car then sliding through the caravan totally demolishing it. His car was a write-off. We walked away no injuries, back on the road next week. Love Volvo's just get the driver's door right.

My father crashed his 740 by pulling out into oncoming traffic doing 100km/h, impact speed was at least 30km/h and was a perfect T bone job. He was up and walking the next day after being chopped out and flown by copter to the road trauma centre... was later told if it had been a holden or falcon he'd be dead. Considering all the wombats, kangaroo's and hoon drivers in Australia I think any Volvo would be cheap life insurance, these cars are built like tanks.

Owned a Silver 1997 850 TDi SE Estate for 3 years, currently 206,000 miles and drives like new. No rust at all, I have simply treated stone chips and waxed the car a couple of times year. It still looks very impressive and a far better car than my managers new dull company Mazdas and Nissans on the car park.

The drivers heated seat doesn't work despite having a recall to the Volvo dealer where they replaced the loom otherwise all the gadgets work perfectly and the velour type upholstery is perfect. Air con didn't work after a regas and had to have replacement sensors? It then worked perfectly.

I have paid for new bits of trim to keep it in good order, but with any car if you let the small trivial faults build up the result is a nasty old wreck.

David. Sutton Coldfield England.