I had two Volvos. The first, an '85 740 was an absolute tank. It was slow as hell but I loved the fact that it just kept going and going and going and cost practically nothing to maintain. Even after I got T-boned (fairly low speed) the damn thing made the ~150 mile trip home where it still sits today. That was before Ford bought Volvo.

Second car was a 1998 S70, designed and built after Ford bought them out. That was a decent highway cruiser and an OK around town car, but too many things started to go wrong with it. Volvo mechanics cost too much and I don't have the use of a decent workspace since I'm now on my own in an apartment. I wanted to keep it so that I could save money but one can only deal with so much when you are absolutely dependent on your car.

Enter the 2002 Accord Coupe, my ideal car. I like the style, I like the gas mileage (35-36hwy), I like the manual transmission, and I like the fact that the overall quality and feel is as good or better than my prior Eurocruisers. Of utmost importance is that my odds of having problems with it are about as low as any car on the market. Things happen and cars disappoint but at least I know I'm playing the right card.