We replaced our 1989 240 wagon with a 1996 850 wagon. The 850 is sturdy and
has lots of cool features the 240 didn't. It's more comfortable and much
better on snow. On the downside, the 850 is very complicated, prone to
random (and expensive) failures, and nearly impossible to diagnose.
From reading this group, it seems natural to expect to replace your 850
automatic transmission every 50K miles and fix leaks in the air conditioning
every spring.
I'd rather have a new 240 than a new 850.
