I don't know if newer Swedish cars are built as well as the older ones, but in the past, when you bought a Saab or Volvo, you bought the safest car (in its size/class) and the most durable cars on the road (esp. Volvo.)
Historically, Volvo and Saab have invented more safety features than any other make (perhaps Mercedes ranks up there as well). Ever notice that whenever competitors talk about safety, they usually compare themselve's to Volvo? The Swedes have been making safety a priority, way before most makes ever dreamed of going beyond the bare minimum. Granted, a lot of other makes and models are now much safer than ever.
Durability is also a great reason to go Swedish.
I have two Volvos parked in the driveway. The 86 has 234K on it. I think the 82 might have about 350+ K (The OD is out, but the documentation that it had when I bought it several years ago indicated 350K). I neglect them and abuse them, change the oil and do mainatinence maybe once a year. The last Saab I had had over 200K on it. It gave me a bit of grief, but still ran, way past 200K.
One time I was playing around with a cars for sale search engine. There was (I think) about 1,500 cars for sale in a given area, only about 25 were Volvos. The search engine let you sort the cars by # of miles. If I recall, of the 12 cars (out of the whole lot) with over 200K on them, 7 were Volvos.
Sure, I've seen a few Subarus with over 200K on them, they are good cars. But Volvos consistanly hit, 2, 3, and 400K. Within the last year, a Volvo owner hit 2,000,000. World record for one owner. (1966 model P-1800)
eskimo
