Perseverance is a quality that many car manufacturers encompass, especially those who build and sell minivans. Spacious, practical yet unloved and ridiculed, the minivan also has a name that betrays almost all of them (save for the Mazda5). After all, they aren’t exactly “mini” anymore.
The Nissan Quest is a good example. This momma’s long, tall and wide. It boasts styling that heads in a completely different direction than its competitors, including the segment sales leader by a significant margin, the Dodge Grand Caravan. While others are trying to look sporty, streamlined and dynamic, the Quest’s square body looks like a toaster on wheels, especially with the dual-tinted sunroofs.
Is being different a good strategy? Well, in this case, it certainly doesn't hurt.
Muscular powertrain
Like many Nissan products, the Quest gets a mean-sounding, 3.5-litre V6 that develops 260 hp and 240 lb.-ft of torque. Combined with an automatic CVT, which works well in this application, this minivan hauls butt. Zero to 100 km is achieved in 7.7 seconds, while the quarter mile is clobbered in 15.7 seconds at 149 km/h.
That’s quick, but not as quick as the 283 hp Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country cousins, or the 271 hp Kia Sedona. Still, the aggressive throttle tip-in and racy underhood sounds make the Quest feel like it wants to take on sports cars at traffic lights. It even boasts very effective brakes.
In addition, the CVT keeps the V6 revving low. At a steady 100 km/h, the tachometer shows 1,700 rpm and our overall fuel economy average of 11.8 L/100km is a reasonable result.
Nissan’s minivan may offer a sporty driving experience from a mechanical standpoint, but the sheer size of the Quest negates that point somewhat. Parking this vehicle at the shopping mall takes some getting used to, although the good turning radius helps. The LE trim comes standard with a backup camera which, to a certain degree, makes backing out of a tight spot safer.
Class-leading headroom
The Quest’s sense of spaciousness inside is complemented by the generous amount of headroom; all three rows have the competition beaten in that regard. Front-seat legroom is also best by a good margin, while hip room and shoulder room are near the top, too.
On the other hand, the Chrysler minivan’s Stow n’ Go system still can’t be beat, and Nissan didn’t even design the second-row seats to be removable, figuring very few people take them out anyway – and they might be right. Unlike other minivans, the Quest’s third-row bench doesn’t flip backwards into the floor; instead, the seatbacks fold down like an SUV. The recessed cargo area behind the rearmost row includes removable covers which create a flat-load floor.
The obvious result of all this is less cargo space. Every other minivan boasts a maximum cargo capacity rating of over 4,000 litres, while the Quest barely tops 3,000.
Irritating beeps
Power-operating side doors and tailgate are nice-to-have features, but unfortunately they’re all accompanied by warning chimes when they’re in operation. Those warnings are particularly aggravating in the Quest. When both the tailgate and a side door are in movement, the cacophony is downright infuriating.
Base price for a Quest 3.5 S is $29,998 before taxes, freight and delivery, which includes all the basic ingredients you need: A/C, power windows, an intelligent key system, and more.
Stepping a couple of rungs up the ladder to our 3.5 LE, however, requires dishing out $50,498, a hefty sum for a family-oriented people-mover. On the other hand, you do get a loaded vehicle with leather, two sunroofs, a rear-seat DVD player, and safety gizmos like a lane-departure warning system.
The verdict
Our idea of a minivan is one that contains a minimum of content and one that remains an affordable proposition for budget-minded families with more than the national average of 1.4 kids – not one that costs 50 grand.
Still, the Quest 3.5 LE is supremely well equipped – as much as the competition – which includes the Chrysler Town & Country Limited, the Toyota Sienna Limited and the Honda Odyssey Touring. If a big minivan with a sporty character is what you want, the Quest will deliver. However, and like the previous-generation Quest, it tries to be different to distinguish itself from the pack.
If Nissan’s most recent effort at the greatest minivan on the market got your attention, maybe their strategy of trying something different really is working.
