Ford had nothing to do with Volvo when the 900 ceased production in
the mid 90s. It wasn't until 1999 that the Ford buy-out occured.
Meantime, there was the 850, 40, 70 and 90 series, all in production
before Ford took over.

They bought Jaguar 10 years earlier, and seemed to have revived their
lacklustre production rather well.

Personally, I think it is still too early to be able to say whether
Ford have adversly affected Volvo. By about 15 years.

The Mazda is a nice car, and is definately the best value in the economy
class... But the V50 is in a class above it, has more cargo room (V50 is a
real wagon, the Mazda3 Sport is a cross between hatcback and small wagon),
upgraded safety cage to Volvo's standards, bigger engine as standard than
optional on the Mazda3 (and the Volvos engines are... Volvos own engines),
you can also get optional AWD on the Volvo (a benefit in countries with
winter) you can't on the Mazda. The Volvo also has an interior that has been
designed with a more conservative clientel in mind, the Mazda's is more
youthfull and sporty (Though as a 21 year old I prefer the Volvo's interior
by quite a large margin. I don't really like a flashy car or interior, so
the S40 appeals to me greatly. Understated timeless class and elegance is
more appealing to me than this-minute styling and a flashy interior that
will only impress for 5 minutes).

Other niceties are the Dolby II stereo system (optional) - why not include a
similar system on the Mazda as an option? Younger people seem to like big
rich sound, at the Mazda dealer I was shocked to learn it only had a 6
speaker stereo system driven from the headunit as the highest level audio
system in the car... Ie only on the GT model, I don't think you could option
out the better system on the more affordable models.

When I compared the S40 (V50 is the same, but I was looking at S40's at the
dealer as they interest me more) to the V70 sitting next to it I noticed
they were built in the same manner, structure looked as good as the V70,
panel gaps were tight and even - It looked like a Volvo.

I can't wait to test drive one... I was impressed with the Mazda3 when I
drove it in the summer... when the weather is warmer I will drive the
S40.... As I have gone over the car as far as I can without driving it, so I
am missing that one big point in determining if it is a good car.