See the link for pics of Volvo S60R & V70R. They have special badging, rims, interior and blue watch dial gauge's. They R's have 3 suspension settings. 17 or 18 inch rims with 4 piston brembo brakes. Factory cat back dual exhaust. All wheel drive to boot.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthr...hlight=Picture

 

You want something better on fuel, but want boost and awd... Dont plan on using the boost... Dont forget many boosted vehicles require a min 91 octane. Well up here they do anyways. This is why I have my civic and my Blazer.

 

LS1 Camaro gets around 30mpg... just sayin

 

And if you have any tuning done you will need 93 in a boosted car. The 3800 platform has a ton of parts, but once you get deep (intercooling) it can get expensive. With a gp (and im sure quite a few others) you will save a bit of money on ins as they are considered family cars.

 

what i'm getting is on the lower part of the middle bracket, get an M6 and you could really get some nice mileage.

i even see people doing mild mods and getting better mileage

 

The Volvo R Cars do require High Octane gas. It is all factory high performance so you do not need to do any mods to enjoy the car.

 

IF you can keep your foot out of it.


not sure what the price value of cars in your area are, but a nice 328is (around 10 years old) goes for around 5K in the Toronto area. a friend of mine had a '98, and after he got over the go-pedal effect, he saw regular mileage around 26 combined (70% city).

but Logan is right, the higher performance generally does require higher octane, so fuel saving becomes even more of a concern.

 

It's almost impossible to find any 3's in my area, which makes no sense. I'm near 3 big cities with lots of rich old folks, and if you do they are ungodly expensive. I'd be driving a 3 right now if I found one at 5K. lol

 

here's a nice lookin' one for ya Matt.

black 328is

or this one,

silver 328is

quite a few others well under the 5K mark. about as many that are far above the 5K mark too.

 

The only reason I brought up the S60 R is because Matt mentioned S60 in his orignal post. Volvo never marketed the S60 R and it is not well known. The prices for the R models have really depriciated even thought they are great cars. My wife had always wanted a volvo after she had a accident with one and her car had extensive damage and the volvo drove away with minor damage. We initially were looking at a new S60 with minimal options and one day I was surfing ebay and found an 1 year old (04 S60 R) being sold by a volvo dealership we were able to get the R model for a lot less money than a new stripped down S60. My wife had no idea that it was a high performance model at the time. We now have just over 100K on it and it still runs as strong as the day we purchased it. No major issues to date. It is a transverse mounted in line 5 cylinder turbo. You do not even notice the turbo as there is no lag and even when passing or getting on the interstate the engine works effortlessly. It does not have to rev high to get going. It is a 4 door with plenty of room for passengers, the trunk has plenty of room, it is a great family car with some guts.