Reimagining the entire fleet - Volvo XC90 and Mazda RX8?

After looking at 3rd gen Mazda5's and looking at how big the minions are getting we've decided that the family hauler that has to hold all six of us should be bigger but I also don't need it to be my daily. So I'm looking at selling the Turbo Coupe and Mazda5 and getting a 6 passenger wagon or something and a 4 seater stick shift for the daily. Right now I'm thinking XC90 and RX8 as both are in my budget, interesting, and meet the needs. What do I need to know about them? I've had an FB and FC RX7 so I know rotary pretty well and my commute is legit 3 miles so I don't care about the gas mileage. We don't tow so the family wagon doesn't have to be a truck thing, but we definitely want comfortable. 

I wouldn't necessarily call the RX8 a four seater. Yes, it technically has four seats, but the rear seats aren't really that good. Like most rotaries they don't like three mile commutes much, but they'll encourage you to make it longer .

I liked mine (late S1), they handle very, very well especially with the right sort of shocks and springs and a good alignment.

I did not realize that XC90 has a 3rd row. 

All years? Is the feature standard or optional? 

Avoid the early twin turbo 6 cylinder.  Everything is a bit tougher to do on a 90 than on a 70.   They are wonderful on the highway.  Most have third row seating.  Very good HVAC.

I wouldn't think the rotary would like the short commute.......maybe a add cheap used Leaf?

John Welsh said:

I did not realize that XC90 has a 3rd row. 

All years? Is the feature standard or optional? 

Standard feature. The base tucks under the rear floor.

3 mile commute will be torture on the RX8 as it'll rarely get up to full temperature.

BoxheadTim said:

I wouldn't necessarily call the RX8 a four seater. Yes, it technically has four seats, but the rear seats aren't really that good. Like most rotaries they don't like three mile commutes much, but they'll encourage you to make it longer .

I liked mine (late S1), they handle very, very well especially with the right sort of shocks and springs and a good alignment.

Being a human of 6' tall size I actually found the rear seats of an RX-8 to be a near perfect size. Did I have tons of space to move my feet/legs around? No, but I had plenty of headroom and the seat shape made the lack of leg room very tolerable.

Your commute is way too short for a rotary. Bicycle instead?

pointofdeparture said:

3 mile commute will be torture on the RX8 as it'll rarely get up to full temperature.

All stoplights, so six drag races. 

In all seriousness, yes I know that rotaries are like diesels and hate short trips, and I would cane the carbon out of it daily. There's a reason my FB had over 250k on the factory motor and two track championships before popping.

What kind of roads are the 3 miles? Unless they're something you can have fun on the Rx8 kinda seems like a placeholder for an intention to drive sportingly rather than a 'solution' to needs.  I mean, i don't have an actual good reason to own anything sporty so i totally understand just arbitrarily deciding i want one anyway.  If you don't need sporty but do need the manual I'd suggest something that almost revs to 9k and has approximately 7x the reliability: a Corolla XRS. 

Edit: I see you answered my question in the time it took me to start writing a post and watch 10 minutes of tv before posting it.. lol.  Are you sure being forced to use the bottom 4000 rpm of an RX8 over and over is going to allow you to like the car? 

Neither of those vehicles sound reliable enough that you wouldn't end up walking to work a lot of the time lol. 

z31maniac said:

I wouldn't think the rotary would like the short commute.......maybe a add cheap used Leaf?

can attest, the short commute gummed it up pretty good. just tore my engine apart...

for 3 miles? Id get a scooter. 

Back seats in the RX 8 no good?  Not to me, I thought they where great, kind of like front seats in the rear, quite comfy.  Far easier to get into then a two door of course, without the 4 door look.

Just be aware, as I am sure you are, of the 80,000 mile wall on the first motor and the 120,000 mile wall on the replacements ( I know of two people who had well cared for cars with exact same life span).

Good choices, for someone that can fix things when needed.    

For those that own the XC90 - how's the room in the third row? I've had my eyes on these for a while, but have never actually been inside one. Thanks!

So if not an RX8, then what? 

dj06482 said:

For those that own the XC90 - how's the room in the third row? I've had my eyes on these for a while, but have never actually been inside one. Thanks!

Access is about the same as climbing in the back seat of a Camaro, but once you are there, it's fine.  Leg room is affected by the leg room required ahead.  The middle row seats can be latched a few inches further ahead, which is affected by the room required up front.

I wouldn't take six adults on a day long drive, but six ten year olds plus a driver would be fine.

Javelin said:

So if not an RX8, then what? 

All depends on the budget you had in mind for the RX8. And if you're dead set on the Volvo, or if you can move some of it's budget over to RX8/fun car.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

We have 2 adults (and she's tiny), 2 8 y/o's, and 2 4 y/o's. No dog. 

z31maniac said:

Javelin said:

So if not an RX8, then what? 

All depends on the budget you had in mind for the RX8. And if you're dead set on the Volvo, or if you can move some of it's budget over to RX8/fun car.

I think I could get $2500 for the TC and $7500 for the 5 and drop maybe another $5000 on top, so say $15k budget for two cars. The DD needs to hold just me 75% of the time and only 2 minions extra the rest of the time and usually only to/from school. So back seats can be pretty small. Not 944 small, but small.

aircooled said:

Back seats in the RX 8 no good?  Not to me, I thought they where great, kind of like front seats in the rear, quite comfy.  Far easier to get into then a two door of course, without the 4 door look.

Just be aware, as I am sure you are, of the 80,000 mile wall on the first motor and the 120,000 mile wall on the replacements ( I know of two people who had well cared for cars with exact same life span).

IIRC there wasn't much leg room behind the driver's seat when I was sitting in mine. At least not when I was putting my driver's seat back far enough to be comfortable. The seats themselves are great as you pointed out, but not much leg room.

BTW, mine had about 125k on it when I sold it, with no record of an engine replacement. Tracking it regularly and feeding it a bit of Idemitsu premix seems to have helped.

Javelin said:

So if not an RX8, then what? 

An RX8 and a Motocompo for your commute . I think a good RX8 would make a good fun car, but no car other than possibly something electric really is going to be happy on a 3 mile commute.

Streetwiseguy said:

dj06482 said:

For those that own the XC90 - how's the room in the third row? I've had my eyes on these for a while, but have never actually been inside one. Thanks!

Access is about the same as climbing in the back seat of a Camaro, but once you are there, it's fine.  Leg room is affected by the leg room required ahead.  The middle row seats can be latched a few inches further ahead, which is affected by the room required up front.

I wouldn't take six adults on a day long drive, but six ten year olds plus a driver would be fine.

This is exactly what I needed to know - thanks!