Yeah, but I said cool, not beautiful. Ugly can be cool.
Volvos (and their drivers ) are weird! If you don’t think so, consider this:
-most are posessed ofadvances degrees
-most are elderly
-many are the type who wear sandals with socks!
If you want a real laugh, get yopur VOLVO owners manuel from the glovebox-and read the swedish sections:
Pa vkommt! Naj pa jenssen! Vakommt!
What the heck does that mean?
I’m in the they’re-so-ugly-I-like-them camp. We’ve owned a Saab (before GM got their hands on them). It was so ugly it was adorable. I feel the same way about my Discovery. I mean, seriously, can there be a dorkier looking SUV? It’s so cute, though.
I like the 240s, especially the stationwagons. I’ve been toying around with the idea of getting one as a third car. For the record, I’m a Republican with one degree and I wouldn’t be caught dead in Birkenstocks (esp. w/ socks!).
I don’t think I’d buy a new Volvo though. Aren’t they just glorified Fords, now?
The first bit is entirely right. That is the Swedishness of the car rubbing off. Sandals and black calf lenght socks. With shorts.
The second bit isn’t Swedish, the very last sentance is almost the word for “Welcome” though.
We are planning on getting a v40 from around 99/00 as our first car now. We were out test driving one at the weekend, and it is a really nice comfortable ride. With the 2.0 T engine it also gives a nice accelleration for overtaking.
My brother bought an S80 T6. 268 HP and it’s hardly boxy. No advanced degree, no kids, he does drive sadately, although if he wants to pass you he’d have little problem. He has had to replace a couple small lights and one electrical thingy I forget what. $28K used car shouldn’t break like that.
It is a sweet riding and driving car though.
I’d love to have a 1800ES (the wagon kind). My first semester in college I parked by one frequently. Not meaning it as faint praise, that is one of the sexiest, coolest station wagons in all of history.
I have a 1998 Volvo (I can never remember the number). I love this car. It weighs 3500 pounds, and performs like a rocket. They dropped an immensely overpowered engine in it to compensate for the staggering mass, and it is zippier (yes, zippier) than any car I have ever driven.
I have no idea what the top speed of it is, and I am a bit too scared to try to find out. But the acceleration is phenomenal. Volvos have a rep as slow and ponderous. Huh-uh. Not anymore.
You go wash your mouth out with soap right this instant! 
Volvo is just now starting to see some bits from the Ford parts bins creep into our cars.
The New S40 (production start Jan 04) will be the first car where Ford parts will be found. Things like the front window regulators, some sensors for the climate system and a few other odds and ends. Everything the customer sees, feels, touches, hears, smells, or tastes is Volvo including the engine.
As far as the OP goes, right now I am driving a S60R 300HP 6 speed, all wheel drive, active suspension kick butt and take names car. In arrest me red. Several people have commented to me that my car is cool. ::: shrugs:::
Yes, but how are the prices on parts for these new ones? Volvo parts are usually pretty high from the ones I have looked at, which don’t include the new ones.