One nice little surprise is that the 2000 seats have a cupholder armrest. Much like the girl with the short skirt and the long jacket, I too want a car with a cupholder armrest. Fortunately, the two armrests appear to be exactly the same size. It was an easy swap.
If parking the car in the sun sun for a few days doesn’t smooth out the wrinkles, I’ll try the heat gun.
Back to the roof rack. The genuine Volvo versions are really nice. How about those little mounting holes in the door frame/roof area for getting them in just the right spot? Slick.
I sourced a set for my '95 Volvo 850 wagon back when I had it. The funny story there was that I saw a CL as for a 850 sedan at a corner used car lot. The sedan had racks. I contacted the lot and offered to buy just the racks. The salesman (who was probably the owner too in this small lot) appreciated the $75 cash that I dropped on him.
Another small tidbit that I remember from my 850 wagon days. The little struts that hold up the tailgate also (and importantly) help to keep the gate closed tightly.... My gate stayed up on its own but in general it was weak. Slow to go up. However, my gate rattled like heck while driving. Changing out the struts not only opened the gate better, it kept it closed better and no rattling afterwards.
There struts are in the D-pillar/roof area concealed at the top of the gate area.
I swapped in a different light relay that I bought on eBay.
The light still doesn't work right, but at least it fails in a different way, so I think I'm on the right track. They're backordered from Volvo, so I think I'll just keep buying used ones for $10 until I find a good one.
I know that Violet, not being well adapted to the bolstered seats, probably isn't a huge fan of large lateral or longitudinal accelerations, but how is the car from the chauffeur's standpoint?
In reply to Ransom :
I was thinking about this as I chauffeured her home from her walk today.
As a Dog Hauler, it is nearly perfect: flat cargo area, built in dog screen, low jump in / jump out height.
But as a car...well, it's not really what I expected. And this comes from a guy with Volvos in his past. I think what it comes down to is that, once you remove Porsche 911s from the equation, the best 21 year old car in the world is still 21 years old. I had visions of a dog hauler that I could possibly do a track day or some ice racing with. Ice racing could still be an option, but even if I went through the engine and every suspension bushing, I couldn't imagine taking one of these to the track.
For context, I had a friend who bought an 850 Turbo wagon brand new. He was an instructor at Lime Rock and was racing a Mustang GT in Showroom Stock. He took the Volvo on track with street tires and said that he was turning the same lap times as he was in the Mustang. That was a big reason why this car was on my short list.
As a sort of daily driver, this car is comfortable-ish, but it's still 21 years old. What was luxury back then is middle of the road now. Plastic trim gets loose and creaky. What was once stunning acceleration now feels a little abusive and risky.
The car's size is perfect and I love all the glass and visibility. The early safety nannies, like the bulb-out warning system, are just plain annoying. The cup holders are first generation, storage is limited and everything just feels dated.
Prior to this, I thought that a 21 year old Swede would be just about perfect.
In reply to Woody :
Thanks! That's a very interesting summary.
I wonder if there's a valley between new enough to be really nice, and old enough to be really cool. And whether it's a rolling window.
I've never driven an R of this gen but i have worked on a fair number of the mundane versions including piecing together a c70 engine from a pile of parts in the trunk about a year back. Problem for me was i spent significant time with later Volvos before i spent significant time with these, and that sort of colored my opinion of how 'nice' they are. In general my favorite thing about them is their shape, but they definitely feel like bigger, more ponderous cars to drive than they look like on the outside (again, having not driven an R..).
I can understand having no interest in tracking it, but there may be some cost-effective suspension upgrades that might change how you feel about it in street driving.
Funnily enough you are having the opposite problem from what i usually have. I usually end up coming across a very cheap version of a car I want to try, and then deciding i like the car but the one i got is a little too ratty and I want a nicer one. Then i sell the crappy one and never do buy the nicer one. You are ending up with a really nice car you aren't crazy about. The one time i can think of that that happened to me, it was also a Volvo. 
In reply to Vigo :
Very interesting observations.
I decided to change the oil even though the previous owner said that he had just changed it and it would be good for another 5000 miles.
He said other things too.
Anyway, the book calls for 6.1 quarts of 5W/40 or 10W/30. I used 5 quarts of Mobil 1 10W/30 and another of 5W/30 because that's what I had on the shelf. Oil change was relatively uneventful.
And because the car is new to me and I hope to keep it for a long time, I grabbed a sample of the old oil as it drained and sent it off to Blackstone Labortatories to get a better idea of what's going on inside. We should know more in a few weeks.
In reply to Woody :
Sooooooo.... You're ready to sell it to me now? 
Javelin said:In reply to Woody :
Sooooooo.... You're ready to sell it to me now?
Honestly, I don't really love the car as much as I thought that I would. But there is absolutely no better car for hauling a dog around in. Flat floor, big side windows, low jump-in height, built in dog screen, turbocharger...
Besides, you would be a fool to buy it from me now, because as soon as I finish these fish tacos, I'm going to tackle another annoying bit of deferred maintenance.
In reply to Woody :
*CoughMazda5Cough*
In reply to Javelin :
There's an integer missing from that equation. Starts with a T, rhymes with "b00000st".
Do not get me wrong, the Mazda 5 gets extra points for having its flappy shifter oriented the right way (back to upshift, fore to downshift!) but it is lacking in that critical dimension. Also it isn't all wheel drive. And it doesn't sound like an enraged Wookiee. I'll come in again
Javelin said:In reply to Woody :
*CoughMazda5Cough*
Ugh...please.
Look at that tiny rear side window. We need a proper canvas for Nose Art.
And the Volvo looks fantastic!
The Mazda looks, um...
In reply to Woody :
Pfft! Also you neglect to realize that you can fold the second row flat too and have nose prints on 7 windows. And boost is a Speed3 swap away.
(Yeah I have no shame, I really want a V70R and messin' with Woody is my best shot 
)
Step back, focus on what you have purchased.
It's a Volvo.
It's a Volvo wagon.
It's a 21 year old Volvo wagon.
It will perform any task you throw at it in a calm, workmanlike manor.
A Volvo requires an awful lot of work that takes a bunch of Volvoness out of it to be an adequate race car. I have said, many times, including on this forum, that a R is just trying too damn hard.
It may not be the hottest chick at the dance, but she will get you home, do you, and cook you pancakes with lingonberry syrup for breakfast.
In reply to Javelin :
There shall be no folding of seats. I need to haul a kid around too.
And remember: Flat floor.
Nose Art! Of course!!
Also, unless you have a good reason not to i'd turbo the stock engine on a mazda5 before i went to the trouble of a DISI swap. I knew a guy about 10 years back who had a turbo'd auto (4spd!) 2.0L Mazda3 that ended up about as quick as a stock MS3 with less total work and cost than a swap, from what i could tell.
Then again, you are listening to a guy who took his non-turbo caravan engine apart, ignored his pile of turbo bottom end parts and put the non turbo pistons back in with bigger ring gaps before cranking the stock turbo setup to its maximum without even having a wideband just to prove a point about how "hard" things really aren't. Came this close to 13s, got bored and did something else. Parked it running in the back field. I'll come back around to it but it's probably broke down by now. Not from boost, though!
Woody said:In reply to Javelin :
There shall be no folding of seats. I need to haul a kid around too.
And remember: Flat floor.
Mazda5 has a flat floor from the 2nd row back and the 2nd row is flat with a gap in the middle in the US because we only got the 6 seater. Buy the JDM 7th seat an you are golden my friend! Also, they split fold so doggo could ride shotgun with Woody Jr.
I have been scouring the PNW for a V70R for years with no luck. You have to know a guy who knows a guy to even know if there's one for sale I swear. Every one that hits a dealer is an autotragic, too. I started looking at S60R's and even those are rare on the ground. Sigh.
I think I've mentioned it before, but it looks like one of the rear seats ingested an entire Coolatta at some point. I tried removing the stain but struck out.
One of the guys at work is a big detailing enthusiast. He has something called a Tornador, and he insists that it can clean anything.
I told him that I didn't think there was any way that it could remove this impossible stain... and he totally fell for the challenge.
I removed the lower seat cushions and brought them into work. He has the day off tomorrow and I suspect they will look better than new in about an hour. I will owe him a huge apology.
Patiently waiting for Tornador update. Those things intrigue me.
"You're going to love these Berkeleying Brakes!!"
The previous owner dropped an awful lot of F-Bombs for a guy I had just met. And he was really proud of the brakes on this car.
I was pretty sure that I was going to buy the car even before the test drive. I spent about twenty minutes driving it on a good mix of roads. I didn't notice much about the brake feel during that time, but I was glad that they were brand new and that I wouldn't need to address them for a while.
After trailering the car home and getting it properly registered and insured, I took it for a more spirited drive around town.
I hate these Berkeleying Brakes.
They started to fade and the pedal was getting soft about two miles from my house. A few miles later, and after a lot of pumping, the ABS and Traction Control lights came on. I stopped and checked the fluid level and it was okay, but I'm pretty sure I had boiled the fluid.
I let things cool off for a while and when I started the car back up, the lights were off. I decided to drive at a more normal pace for a while until I could get things sorted.
In reply to Woody :
Stock rotors, Pagid pads, and a thorough flush with DOT4, and you'll love those berking brakes. Or at least not hate them. I liked what the above combination did for my S40.
Count me in on the list of people awaiting results from the Tornador.
Looks like knock off eBay brakes to me. They tend to have bizarre (toxic) pad compounds that get hot. +1 on going back to actual OE stock stuff and good pads with a thorough DOT4 flush.
So, the brakes...
I noticed the Polestar Blue calipers in the Craigslist ad photos, and the cross drilled and slotted rotors as soon as I got close to the car. I thought the blue calipers might be an R-model thing, but he was quick to point out that he had painted them himself. This was immediately obvious. He painted everything: the calipers, the pads and shims, the brake lines, the bleeders, and he got overspray on the pricey new rotors, the lower control arms, driveshafts and springs among other things.
Honestly, I don't hate the blue. I just wish he had done a better job of it. It'll take me exponentially longer to clean up the mess that he made than it took him to make it.
I have mixed feelings about the rotors. When I was in my early 20's, I added a set of Jackson Racing cross drilled rotors to my Civic Si, and I thought I was pretty cool. They lasted forever, but I don't know if it had anything to do with the holes or not. They're on my Cayman, but those came from the factory, so I'm sure that those are pretty high quality, and Porsche engineers have a pretty good understanding about this sort of thing.
But the part that is absolutely inexcusable to me is the fact that they spin in opposite directions from front to rear! Gaaahhhh! How berkeleying hard would it have been to get this right?! Once the fronts were on, all they had to do was look at them and then choose the proper rear rotor for the first side. This drives me crazy.
As soon as I get some free time and new pads, the painted pads will disappear, the rear rotors will come off and get swapped from side to side, and I'll try to remove some of the overspray.
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