New Owner here - with questions!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by rwdkev

Here's a good example Dave......

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ice-asc&page=1

Production of the S/V90 technically ended in February 98 but this hearse is on a V-plate which means it had to have been registered September 99 onwards.

This one is wrongly listed as a 960 - it would have been a 90 at that age and the centre console proves it. Move to the new naming format was for 97 model year - but an easy mistake for the uninitiated as none of the full stretch conversions carried any model badge.

I can't comment on the right/wrong centre console but i tried checking the MoT history (last one expired in April 2017!) and it came up as a Volvo 960, so it was presumably registered as such.
Chances are, it was ordered about the time of the name/number change, Volvo supplied an S90/V90 to Nilsson, the conversion was done and it was registered by the dealer as what was ordered - a 960 estate hearse.

Certainly proof of the pudding though!

[rwdkev]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

.....as the donor vehicle with IRS.....

The 740 never had IRS, the 760 did after the facelift and then only on the saloon. The donor vehicle here would have been a 740 or a 760 mk1 but not a mk2 as it does not have the deep windscreen/concealed wipers (like yours)

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Correct me if i'm wrong but that front end is early 740.....

Yes. Or 760 mk1.

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

.....and the back end is 740 saloon facelift

Have a look at this and you can see what he rear end of a 740 facelift looks like - rear lights are different.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-740...frcectupt=true

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Logic suggests the 745 would be the donor vehicle for the hearse but it could just as easily be the 744, especially if the 744 was cheaper than the 745 in the first place.

Yes, all the parts that make an estate different to a saloon are cut away for a hearse conversion anyway so the starting point could indeed be either.