Hi Lads, though I know this is adding to an old posting from May, and noting that the original poster hasn't been online since then, I'm going to respond anyhow.
Okay, as I own one of these 855 AWD models I did research into the model back in 2017 and wrote to Volvo Sweden, who responded fairly quickly to my initial email.
Exact breakdown of these cars is as follows:
Mfg timeline June 1996 to December 1996
Number of units: 2021
Number of LHD units: 1,712
Number of RHD units: 309
For RHD units:
- 245 were sold in the UK market
- 64 units were sold to other right hand drive regions world wide
- 5 of those were sold into the Republic of Ireland
*
*Of the 5 that were sold into southern Ireland, mine is the last of the original 5 imported as new still in Ireland. Currently undergoing a bottom up full engine rebuild so am looking forward to having mine on the road again come December when I'll be bringing it to me to southern Germany on a permanent basis from Jan 2020.
So as you can see, those numbers are pretty interesting as it shows their rarity, more so as right hand drive models.
Hope this helps any future query into this particular model.