New T5 or R?

V70 R > 2003 300bhp / 400nM stock Maybe not a fire breather but definitely a smoking ride

Or sticking to the Audi theme why not go for an RS4 Avant (B5)

Yes but not the B5 obviously!

Thanks for the advice - I think the general theme is look outside of volvo as well. Probrably sage advice - must admit, I recently bought the wife an 05 reg saab convertible and the car is leaps and bounds ahead of the volvo I drive. That said - I think I've bitten the volvo bug..... What would I do without the high servicing costs and the slow morphing into a Ford?! Cheers gents. Neil

volvo produce some very nice cars, but at the top end (the v70r and s60r) their efforts are somewhat limp wristed, the audi s and rs cars are so far ahead in terms of driving feel, amount of power etc. i've driven both back to back (s4 and v70r) and there is no area aside from the interior where the volvo is ahead of the audi.