Having road tested a lot of cars for 'pink slip' inspections I soon realised that a lot of local rev-heads and other non experts had decided that Volvos, Audies, Mercs etc were gutless was based on the fact that when you first plant the foot on the pedal on the right there is no sledge hammer in the back like you get from a good old VN. On a commodore at the lights if you hit it hard instant smokie is the result,where as the cars from civilised countries have designed things so you don't get loss of traction but still can get quite impressive acceleration. A fine example of this is the older model turbo Volvo, where if you plant the foot it seems not a lot happens, then after a few seconds if you haven't backed off a bit you suddenly notice your eyes bulge as the first cross street comes up!
Of course my feeling is if you want to by a car that doesn't cost $1000's for each service and doesn't cost another$1000 first rego check out of warranty 'cause the brake warning light doesn't work, or your Volvo wiring system[possibly the worst ever] has developed problems that one should only find in a Range rover, BUY A COMMODORE. NO not one of those continental sh#t boxes with Holden badges. For some of the above reasons I can see why Harley owners are happy is because if one wants to keep riding a 20 year old road bike one can get parts and fix it.Try doing that with a honda. cheers pancho