Volvo XC90 vs. Toyota Highlander vs. Mazda CX9

[Anonymous]

Highlander. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

I bought a 2023 XC90 Recharge. I've put about 2k miles on it and have only visited the gas station once to put in about 8 gallons of gas - the rest has been electric miles. It turns out 99% of the places that I go are within the electric range (40 miles).

Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:
- Turning radius is great (previous car did not have a great turning radius)
- The electric engine component is awesome! I didn't think we would use it as much as are...a plug in hybrid is absolutely having the best of both worlds
- We specifically bought the Volvo for the ability to seat 7 adults comfortably - it does
- We paid sticker for it - no dealer premium or mark up, which I guess is a win because there are many dealers (I'm looking at you Toyota and Honda) charging a few thousand dollars above sticker
- The Volvo app is junk. I feel like I can't reliably use it to do remote start or unlock my car. It works maybe 50% of the time for me.
- The no hands driving option is pretty cool. I'm not sure how Tesla's auto pilot works but Volvo's is nice
- The car does not come with a surface phone charger (you need to plug it in) because there was a chip shortage. That bothers me for the price that I paid.
- Car handles super smooth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highlander. Not even close.

Only if you don’t care how your car handles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highlander. Not even close.

really? US News etc aren't gospel, obviously, but ranks below many competitors.

https://www.edmunds.com/suv/3-row/#midsize-3-row-suvs
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/midsize-suvs

[Anonymous]

We've owned both an XC 90 and a Highlander hybrid. The XC 90 was fine, but the Highlander was a great car -- super-reliable and great for long road trips We only got rid of it because our youngest left for college and we no longer needed a bigmobile.

[Anonymous]

Went with the CX-9. Most fun to drive out of the 3 and very easy to maintain. Also, I liked the way it looked more than the other two. Almost went with the Acura MDX.

[Anonymous]

We just got an xc90 and are enjoying it. I haven’t driven the others. Cx9 feels like a deferent category of car- it is nice looking but seems lower and like it would have less trunk space. Really depends on your needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got an xc90 and are enjoying it. I haven’t driven the others. Cx9 feels like a deferent category of car- it is nice looking but seems lower and like it would have less trunk space. Really depends on your needs.

Yes, all of these cars are like $20k less than the Volvo. So yes the Volvo is "nicer" but sure as hell not $20k nicer. But if you are rich I guess it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just got an xc90 and are enjoying it. I haven’t driven the others. Cx9 feels like a deferent category of car- it is nice looking but seems lower and like it would have less trunk space. Really depends on your needs.

Yes, all of these cars are like $20k less than the Volvo. So yes the Volvo is "nicer" but sure as hell not $20k nicer. But if you are rich I guess it doesn't matter.

Pp here. Didn’t mean lower class. Meant literally shorter, xc90 and Highlander seem taller and bigger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love our 2021 highlander. We got the hybrid too, which I’d encourage you to consider. Huge amount of trunk space with third row down. Third row up still gives a solid amount.

DP here. They are just crazy expensive.

But likely to last 20 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love our 2021 highlander. We got the hybrid too, which I’d encourage you to consider. Huge amount of trunk space with third row down. Third row up still gives a solid amount.

DP here. They are just crazy expensive.

But likely to last 20 years

Ok? I don’t want to drive the same care for 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love our 2021 highlander. We got the hybrid too, which I’d encourage you to consider. Huge amount of trunk space with third row down. Third row up still gives a solid amount.

DP here. They are just crazy expensive.

But likely to last 20 years

Ok? I don’t want to drive the same care for 20 years.

But you might want to have the same car for 10 years. That's how long we had our Toyota Highlander hybrid. All three of our kids learned to drive with that car. When we finally traded it in, it had scrapes and dents and scratches, but, it ran great and we still got a great trade-in deal on it.

[Anonymous]

Mazda is best bang for buck. Volvo is horrendously overpriced and very expensive to maintain. It doesn’t score well often on reliability rankings. Buy a Volvo if you care about shallow image crap. Buy the Mazda if you care about value and bang for the buck.

[Anonymous]

OP here: decided to go with the CX-9.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought a 2023 XC90 Recharge. I've put about 2k miles on it and have only visited the gas station once to put in about 8 gallons of gas - the rest has been electric miles. It turns out 99% of the places that I go are within the electric range (40 miles).

Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:
- Turning radius is great (previous car did not have a great turning radius)
- The electric engine component is awesome! I didn't think we would use it as much as are...a plug in hybrid is absolutely having the best of both worlds
- We specifically bought the Volvo for the ability to seat 7 adults comfortably - it does
- We paid sticker for it - no dealer premium or mark up, which I guess is a win because there are many dealers (I'm looking at you Toyota and Honda) charging a few thousand dollars above sticker
- The Volvo app is junk. I feel like I can't reliably use it to do remote start or unlock my car. It works maybe 50% of the time for me.
- The no hands driving option is pretty cool. I'm not sure how Tesla's auto pilot works but Volvo's is nice
- The car does not come with a surface phone charger (you need to plug it in) because there was a chip shortage. That bothers me for the price that I paid.
- Car handles super smooth

How's the XC90 held up for you?