Nissan Quest: If You Gotta Own A Van..

I vowed I'd never own a mini-van: NEVER. But, when I needed more space to haul around my work equipment and supplies, a van was the only answer.

Most of the minis look like bloated bread boxes on wheels: UG-G-GLY. The Quest has some style to it, inside and out.

Now let's get this straight right off. The Quest is built in the USA by Ford. It's just a Mercury Villager with a Nissan nameplate. And this causes a few problems, because neither Ford or Nissan want to take complete responsibility for it when it comes to parts or maintenance.

It's neat how the first row of rear seats come out, and the second row can be folded up flush behind the front seats: Lots and lots of cargo space. And the front captains' chair seats are really comfortable.

This mini-van has plenty of power with its 6 cylinder engine, and fuel mileage is acceptable but not great (around 20 miles to the gallon). Handling is sweet, if you're used to driving a larger vehicle.

The Negatives:

1. The rear hatch has always bothered me (aesthetically); looks like an after-thought stuck on an otherwise nicely designed vehicle

2. I really can't live without a center console. Had to buy and install an after-market one

3. The interior is a little chintzy (as compared to say our Subaru Forester), and overall construction is a little less solid than other cars: It clucks on bumps and squeaks and rattles sometimes

4. The damned front nose of the van really takes getting used to. It sits so low that it's out of sight of the driver. You have to "guesstimate" where the front bumper and corners of the front fenders are; a problem in tight spots

5. Would have been nice if they made the removable rear seat a little lighter. It takes two people to heft this unit out of the van

6. Lots of under-utilized space that could have had storage cubbies, nooks, trays, or compartments built into them.

7. It's a VAN - give us lots of tie downs in the cargo area so we can secure stuff adequately! Please!

8. Would have been nice if they could have figured out how to store the spare tire in an on-board pan (without loosing cargo space). The external spare, located under the rear end, is a b-tch to get down and even harder to re-mount; and there's no way of doing either and staying clean

9. I've had a persistent problem with the "check engine" light. The Nissan dealer says its a design problem, with carbon getting sucked into the EGR assembly and tripping the sensor. Doesn't affect driving or mileage (apparently), but is damn annoying.

10. The rear seat fan/AC died, and no one seems to be able to fix it (a strange electrical problem)


Overall, it's a decent mini-van, if you have to or want to own a van.