Volvo v S6

[Lee Levitt <wheelman@pipeline.com>]

Tom Forhan writes: 
 
>>On Sat, 8 Jul 1995, Carl DeSousa wrote: 
 
>> Or maybe I need to defect to Volvos. 
 
> No, the S6 is the answer. When I went over to drive the 91 200 Q  Wagon
last week, 
> I picked up the new brochure dedicated to the S6 Wagon. It does have,
standard, the 
> two jump seats. 0-60, incidently, in 6.6 sec, vice 6.2 for the S6 sedan. 
The dealer told 
> me that they -to their surprise- had not sold any of their allotment.
They expect to get 
> them in September or October. So Carl, I think you could dicker on one,
and local 
> credit unions offer 8 year financing...(my wife wants the Clearcoat Black
Metallic with 
> Anthracite Leather interior). 
 
> The turbo 850 Olvov only comes with an automatic. So slow! On the street,
I leave them in 
> the dust -to their surprise- all the time. Ovlov, by the way, knows the
S6 is the answer, too. 
> They are taking the fwd 850 platform , installing a 960 rearend, and
linking the two with a 
> driveshaft and viscous coupling.  A cheap copy, I guess, but what are
they going to do about 
> those second rate crash test results!>> 
 
Well, we've already had the Volvo v Audi discussion, and I won't remind
you'all how *that* turned out. Here's a few factoids on the S6 V 850 Turbo
and T5R discussion: 
 
1. The Volvo 850 Turbo lists at about $37K, the Audi at $46K. Course with
Audi dealers not selling their allotments, maybe they're willing to deal.
The T5R is priced slightly higher than the base turbo and puts out 240 hp
rather than the 222 of the 850 turbo. 
 
2. For 1996, Volvo is expected to announce a manual stick tranny 
 
3. Volvo will also ship a Synchro-designed all wheel drive system. Yep,
they're sourcing it from the Germans. 
 
The hot ticket for performance, reliability and cost effectiveness would be
the 850 T5R AWD. Prolly come in at $39,900. 
 
IMHO, Audi has always priced itself about 15% too high, maybe higher. Sure,
I'd take an S6 in a heartbeat if the price were comparable. But it's not.
And guess what, WRT resale value on the Volvo, Audi ought to be
embarrassed. (Course that's how I bought my 200 so reasonably). Not to
mention the issue of electrical and mechanical gremlins. 
 
Crashability? Side airbags. Only one company's shipping cars with them.
Guess who? Crashability? Both are great. 
 
'Nuff said. 
 
Lee Levitt