1998 V70 T5 vs 1997 850 GLT Turbo

[Conrad Birdie]

Not that I couldn't decide for myself but I was noticing a very nice local metallic turquoise '97 GLT turbo with dark gray leather interior in very nice condition for 3000.00. At the moment I have a '98 V70 T5 with 434,000 km on it, runs well enough and I just installed new control arms and sway bar end links and will be replacing the old shocks with Bilstein Touring, as well as the upper shock mounts and bearings.

The body has it's share of dings along with bumpers that I would like to have refinished. Interior gray leather is pretty good except for a wear spot on the drivers seat back. Everything works except for the transmission needing an overdrive solenoid and the A/C will, at the very least need a refill. I have had this car for a year, paid 1000.00 for it and do prefer the first generation V70 styling - inside and out - over the 850 series. I also know that T5 wagons of this year are quite uncommon here and that makes it much easier to fix this one, including eventually putting IPD sway bars on it as well as an upper chassis brace.

I did notice when replacing the control arms that the steering rack is slowly leaking out of the left boot so I will be looking at replacing it fairly soon so along with that I was planning on having the sway bars put in at the same time as well as a set of delrin sub frame bushings. So basically despite the higher mostly highway mileage I would like to invest more into it with the plan being to keep it for some time. All I am wondering is if it would make sense to get an 850 if it was in really nice condition. Still a used car of course and one can never really know what might need replacing sooner than later, and I would want to modify it as well. Let's just say for the 2000.00 difference I could have the T5 nicely set up. i can do a fair amount of the mechanical work. I have no idea of the mileage on the 850 as it is not mentioned.

One other thing is that it seems with an ecu chip and replacing the 15G with a later 16 or 18T one could get some decent hp out the '97 GLT, which I believe are around 190 stock vs 236 for the T5. I guess the big thing with me is I like the '98 much more but wonder if I should put the money into it.

[tryingbe]

Go test drive.

[mecheng]

I have a S70 T5, and 97 GLT and despite the engine being very similar the engine performs completely different because of the size of the turbo.

The GLT is a rocket in town, zero lag. It is a great 0-100km/hr car, but beyond 100km/hr it is not that fast. It feels faster than it is because the torque peak is at 1800rpm.


The T5 is a dog off the line, but once it gets above 60km/hr and the boost hits 12psi it starts to really move. It becomes scary fast at this point.