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My apologies for being late to the discussion table.
I beg to differ from everyone else. I was in your shoes (sort of) about eighteen months ago: my 1997 850 was quickly getting old and I was getting tired of fixing it. I took a dive and bought a 2009 Vol^Z^Z^Z Mazda5 Sport with a manual transmission. It was over $14K, not by much though - I paid $14.9K plus my beloved 13-year old Volvo (yes, I was in love with my Volvo - pretty much like all or most of you are). Am I sorry 18 months later? No! If anything, I am sorry I did not move a year or two sooner. Other manufacturers did after all come a long way since 1970's (safety wise). If you do not want to talk safety though, let's switch to driving experience. My new car, believe it or not, performs very similarly to the old one (both, acceleration and handling). I actually (gasp) enjoy driving it as much as I enjoyed the 850 (and I did like it a lot). Space inside is also very similar (850 was a wagon). Mazda is a little smaller on the outside, but I'd consider it a plus. Where Mazda certainly trail behind is a quality of interior materials - it certainly looks and feels cheaper. But the car IS cheaper than a Volvo - roughly by a factor of 2. However, in my book, hard plastic on the dashboard (assuming that car cheapness does not manifest itself 10 years later in some other ugly way) beats replacing the air pump, heater core, torque converter, and many other parts that I can not remember.
To summarize - I am very happy with my decision to go with a Mazda5 and do believe that it is a legitimate replacement for a Volvo wagon (and this comes form a former long-time Volvo owner - we have been a two-Volvo family forever...)
The last point: If $14K is a hard cut-off, check used prices. I am sure, you can get a 2010 for less than that. And, by the way, if you are not stock on getting a manual (like I was), you probably can do even better...
A former Volvo owner
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