The P2 wagons have a longer wheelbase than the sedans, which makes them feel a bit big. The raised ride height and chunky tires on the Cross Country exacerbate this.
The trunk in the P1 S40 is remarkably small! Glad you are happy with the space in the wagon, at least.
If you get one, some big parts are either remarkably expensive or NLA. Erie Vovo will become your new best friend for that stuff used. Great prices, great support, and knowledgeable staff.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
How's the parts situation with the P2 compared with the P1? I really don't want to get into an expensive parts chase. Would you think a contemporary V70 AWD would be appreciably different to drive from the XC70?
*shrug* They were expensive cars new. A lot of things like brakes and transmission are parts bin specials (ATE brakes, probably the same as the Mazda actually, Aisin transmission) but the stuff adds up.
When my DEM failed, I has the option of sending it out to Xemodex (sp?) for $700... but what I did was wait for a same year/trim DEM to come up on eBay for under $100.
Rack and pinion is $1200 my cost. Erie has them for about 25% for a good used part. Have not bit the bullet because time and money. Time because the rack bolts to the subframe and the engine bolts to the rack. Not difficult but tedious. Stuff like that.
OTOH when the fabric started pulling off of my A pillar trim, I was looking into how to glue it back on and found that new trim panels are like $30 each.
P2 XC70 - the power issue was probably the example you drove, 0-to-60 should be 8 seconds-ish which isn't fast but is fully adequate. It's not particularly quiet but it gets the job done.
"Handling" (in quotes) isn't the car's strength. It's a vault on the interstate but there's some farm-implement heritage in the way it transitions... good and matching tires are critical to establishing confidence in the car.
I'll live with somewhat expensive consumables (I have driven BMWs for three decades, so I'm somewhat desensitized); I'm just worried about something that requires a second mortgage to purchase failing and turning the car into an expensive lawn ornament.
The XC70 I drove would have struggled mightily to get to 60 in 8 seconds, and would have sounded like a wood chipper doing it. I didn't have to chance to try it on the highway, but transitions were definitely not its friend. The tires were new and matching Coopers of some sort (probably the cheap sort).
If you are comparing against a modern BMW then you are in for reliability somewhere between anvil and gravity.
This is not to disparage BMWs, but servicing the PCV system is needed less frequently and does not require a $700 valve cover, the electronics are still a little Euro-maddening but not on the obfuscation level of BMWs. And there are only five plugs and coils 
I used to work in a Euro heavy shop and part of why I wanted a P2 was because they never seemed to need any major repairs aside from maintenance.
That was almost five years and over 6 digit mileage ago and I would do it again without a single regret. I would, however, wait to find the best, most well taken care of example you could, because you are buying the previous owners' habits.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Your experience is part of what sent me down this path. Having finally driven one (and only one, that was clearly not the best, most well taken care of example) I was somewhat underwhelmed, but I fully accept that this may not be a particularly meaningful data point. And I've been struggling to find more, hopefully better examples within reasonable driving distance. Plus I'm looking for cheap winter and utility, which lowers the bar somewhat.
In your Euro shop time, how were the P1 cars from a non-scheduled repair frequency standpoint?
In reply to 02Pilot :
I never saw any P1s. A handful of P2s (including S80s, which are like S60s but even easier to work on) and a ton of E36, E46, the 3er that came after that, 5ers of various generation, and a whole lot of A3/A4/A5/B5/B6 VWAG product and whatever C chassis was contemporary with the B5 and B6.
Fortunately for me, VW saw fit to discontinue all of the W8 specific parts right when I was ready to pull the trigger on a Passat W8. I really like B5s and did not want an Audi S4, and personal rule is that given the choice, always buy the top trim level of a given chassis. Thus the S60R. It is easier to find a well maintained example, I think.
A lot of people make it seem like Volvos are immune to rust. I gotta disagree with that. I see so many P2's in junkyards these days. A lot of them have the front strut towers rusted through. Surprising, isn't it? I owned a P1 C30 for a brief period last year and it had all kinds of problems related to corrosion/road salt. Trailing arm bushings dry-rotted and disintegrating, hubs frozen solid to the same trailing arms that you want to remove so you can swap them over to new trailing arms with new bushings, rear subframe fasteners totally seized into bushings, power steering hardlines on the rack bursting open because of the rust, strut tower rust starting, name it... Also, weird whistling noise from the PCV module/unit/thing that can only be fixed by swapping said 250$ module or trying to source the 1$ diaphragm that actually broke inside it. The car cost me 5000$ and I must have put the same amount into it during the 5 months I owned it. Not buying one again. But it looked good, drove well, had just the right amount of options and the seats were exceptionally comfortable. It's a car that I wish I could've purchased new and sold after 8-10 years.
In reply to Rocambolesque :
Oh, they are not immune, and I am finding rust bubbles in the trunk.
My ten year old Subaru was dangerous in the sense that I removed the seatbelts by pulling gently. My Golf's floor was Grape Nuts sandwiched by undercoating and carpet, and the door would pop open going up a driveway. My (not Swedish) S40 was crispy crunchy in the core support and had no rockers.
In comparison, they are immortal
Thanks for all the feedback on these. I'm not expecting total rust immunity, but frankly if I can find one that's clean now for cheap, I won't be bothered running it in the winter and still won't have to worry too much about it rusting away before my very eyes. They've started using brine around here, and it's just murder. My 128i has held up remarkably well so far, but I'm seeing little hints of rust on things like subframes and the oil pan, and I want to keep it as nice as I can for as long as I can.
I'm torn between the P1 and the P2. It seems like the latter is the more robust platform, and certainly the more common. It's larger, the engine looks easier to work on, and I like the idea of having something a little taller to use for dirt roads and such. But having driven one I'm now worried about it being too big for me to actually enjoy driving (maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way, but I've never been able to warm up to cars that weren't fun to drive, no matter how practical they were). The P1 felt much more like the kind of car I'm used to, but I wonder about the sustainability of the platform given its relative scarcity in the US, and it gives up some utility.
I tracked down another V50 T5 AWD a couple hours away, so I'll go drive that this weekend. It looks to be in much better shape than the one I drove yesterday, so we'll see how that goes. I do wish I could find a good P2 XC70 or V70 to try just so I had a better sense of what they're supposed to feel like, but so far nothing.
Having no luck finding a P2 wagon that's good and in my price range. Looked at a decent P1 V50 T5 AWD today (the one I mentioned above) - it's had some work done, drove fine, 200k miles, comes with a set of snow tires. Trying to decide if I should jump on it at $4000 before somebody else does, or hold out in hopes of finding a P2 before winter. I hate these moments....
Pulled the trigger on the V50. Supposed to be picking it up Saturday. Probably start a new thread on it with pics.
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