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It's a heavy duty nylon-covered foam mat that fits under and behind the seat to protect the leather. It's rigid enough (think about the thickness of double-wall cardboard boxes) to keep those sharp plastic edges of the seat from putting dents/lines/etc. in your new leather seats.
I googled it and only found what must be last-year's model, because ours is even more rigid than those look in the picture.
Search for "Two Stage Car Seat Protection" on Amazon and you'll find the one I have.
Thanks.
Millege went down from 17.2 to 16.8 mpg. Not sure if this is because we are starting to use the engine a little more (racing other minivans, hehe).
I did buy the extended 5 yr/100K warrantee because
I was expecting puting this many miles on it... Specially being a 1st year model...
And, to save bowke the trouble, there is no rebate, and there is no rumor of a rebate. It's amazing how somebody asked a question about this awhile ago and now the "rumor" has taken on a life of its own.
Keep in mind, TEAM is a nationwide retail group (part of the old AutoNation group, I think). I also looked at their store in Lithia Springs and they had secondary stickers on all their Quests with $2,000 additional dealer markup on them. Their Marietta store had $1,000 additional dealer markup on the same identical vans, so dealers can play all kinds of games.
Take this "$4,000 off..." stuff with a grain of salt.
lumbar...thanks for saving me from carpal tunnell!!!
Also, does anyone know if the acceleration of the 4 speed SL is much slower than the 5 speed SE?
Thanks
Selecting the Model: targeting at SL at beginning. Went to local dealer and checked one carefully. Quickly we decided that automatic side door is not good for us. The sensor on the edge of door is only about 12-14 inches long, not like the sensor on elevator. There is some potential injury possibility for the kids (we have two kids, one 2 yr and one 8 yr). Besides, we normally check everything before starting the engine. Closing the door manually ensures us to check the 2 yr old carefully. So if we want to get manual door, we have to go with S model.
Comparing S and SL: The power and memory seat for SL may be nice, but not worth the additional 2000 bucks. The S model has almost everything SL has. We could use the savings on some other options, such as DVD, Alloy wheels and rear sonar system (my wife loves the sonar system very much). However, S model does not have the rack on top. Most of the new minivans have racks nowadays. 4 people in our family so we have plenty of room in the rear. Is rack really useful? Or does it look really cool with rack on top? I don’t know. Can I get a rack later from dealer? Maybe. I don’t know either.
Purchasing Price: After test driving a SL model, we felt this car is really good on handling, power, quietness, and all other features. We decided to buy one. I insisted at invoice price. The manager spent a lot of time to explain that they need to make some money so we settled on invoice + $200. I was about to leave for another dealer 20 miles away and the manager made the deal (with all options MSRP: 27,880; Invoice: 25,480; and Paid: 25,680). I thought it is an OK deal.
Driving and Styling: As I said, it runs like a Beast. Very powerful. It merges the lane beautifully. Engine never needs to pass 2800 rpm (not like my Honda), on highway and hilly road. It runs under 2000 rpm within the city. When stops, the engine is so quite and I doubted several times if it was still running. I tell you this: the dash board is amazingly comfortable!! I want my next car to have the dash board as well. Your eyes can check different objects easily when they are horizontal. I rarely lose my sight on the road when I check the horizontal screen and gauge. For the vertical objects, your eyes may not handle as well as horizontal objects. You can try it by yourself. Overall styling is good. Even strangers (several times already) asked me about the car!
Mileage: Only put about 500 miles. Dealer gave us a full tank of gas. Run out at about 270 mils (only 15mile/gal from the computer). I added premium gas. And reset everything. The recent mileage is about 18-19 miles/Gal in city and 27 miles/gal on high way (at 60-75 miles/hr). Yes, 27 MPG, no kidding. 4 tires at 41, 41, 42, 43 psi (maximum 44 psi), reading from the panel computer.
Problems so far: I did not find the problems mentioned on this forum. I did hear some noise from the passenger side door with the SL model when I did a test driving. However, the S model I got does not have the problem. I am not satisfied with the material on the window bar of both front doors. You can hear some squeezing sound when you touch them. Some interior materials may not be good too. Another thing is the rack on top. My wife wants it because the rack will make the car looks cooler and nicer (according to her).
Overall we are very satisfied with this car. We call it a “Beast” instead of “Quest”.
Check the owner's manual for the correct setting and do it when the tires are cold.
Tire pressure may be a little high...
The temperature here is about 70/56 F right now, we are expecting a drop anytime to 55/38 F range. So I will keep the tire pressure for a while and see how the weather affects it.
I don't know if the review in Consumer Reports had anything to do with the dealer willing to deal or not, but I for one am happy they didn't give the quest a great review. I think they're wrong (and biased, but hey, they're human), but people won't know until they investigate for themselves. I bought one of their top rated cars, VW Passat, and had a miserable time with it. Just because CR rates a car highly doesn't mean I am going to be happy with it!
Other than the styling, which is subjective, I don't believe this van gives up much to the Sienna, and in fact in the price range I was looking at I was happy to get alloy wheels, side airbags, heated seats, power rear hatch, reverse sensors, 4 wheels vented disc brakes, and fully independent suspension. For less money than the Sienna.
I am quite happy with the van, it's quiet, roomy, powerful, comfortable, I have not noticed any squeaks or rattles (I am very particular about noises) and had a great buying experience.
I didn't get leather because I figured I could add it later once my kids ruined the cloth seats or when I got bored of the cloth. It is much nicer to sit on cold cloth seats than cold leather seats though.
Hope this helps someone. I have enjoyed and learned from reading all of your posts.
Tom
My wife loves the van, I think it handles great and is incredibly roomy, wish it had AWD. One annoying thing;
What's with the band-aid type sections below the middle doors? Makes car look cheap, and I suspect they're not going to hold up. I've never seen a car with this type of "patch". -Vince
Actually the styling is not the main reason we bought it. My wife likes the overall handling and performance. I like the powerful nice engine.
By the way, I've seen the smoke and, IMO, it is VERY nice looking.
get your orders in now if you will want one in the next 3-4 months! for some reason, this color/trim combination has hit the market HARD!!! as a dealer, we got one in 2 days ago, and already had 30+ dealers call us for it. there are only about 5 in the entire country, so jump while you can.
If you look at the south end of the sliding doors, immediately below between the rear wheel well and the door is a rectangular, painted same as the car, patch. Like a label stuck there and painted with the car. I know I should have asked the dealer, but they really know very little about this van. Does anyone else have these patches on their van?
First - with the 3rd row folded, it's a 4 passenger vehicle. There are 5 of us. With the 3rd row up, although there is a fair amount of room, it would never be enough for a road trip with the family. Now if they had made it a 60-40, or an optional bench 2nd row ... But there's still be:
Second - while we both liked the dash and the column thing, we both agreed (geez, we seldom agree down the line like this) that the leather interiors are, well, poorly thought out and executed. The 'beige' leather looks like it comes pre-dirtied. It just doesn't look clean. And the red leather - whew, somethin out of a French whore's bedroom. Perhaps the Renault influence? :>) And the leather felt cheap and the stitching deal looked well, I could go on but I think you all get the picture.
It's too bad, because it really is a nice vehicle otherwise.
1. to hide dirt...same effect as a gray exterior...its dirt-colored.
2. durability...will hold up better over time than conventional leather.
On the Quest, however, I plan to keep the passenger side middle row captain's chair folded down the the floor. It is so incredibly easy to climb into the back bench and I plan on "permanently" affixing car seat bases on the outsides of the back bench and putting my 6 year old's booster in the middle. My 3 year old's car seat will be "permanently" attached to the captains chair behind the driver. If I have an extra passenger, I can easily flip up the passenger side mid-row captains seat. In contrast, if I traveled with this seating arrangement in the Sienna, I would have that passenger side mid-row captains chair sitting in my garage--which would not allow for picking up a friend on the fly (and hoisting it in and out would be a pain). Sure I could go with the Sienna and put the infants in the second row captains seats and make the bigger ones crawl back. But I'm going to have to crawl back too to get the 3 year old properly buckled and I won't be able to fold those mid-row captains chairs forward to go in through the side because they will have car seat bases attached to them--leaving no option but to crawl through the middle. The Quest also looked more spacious with on captains chair on the floor compared to the Sienna with the 40 section folded away.
I suppose if Quest also had the 60/40 back bench they really would have a huge edge on seating convenience.
As for leather, I didn't mind the beige--haven't seen the rouge, though. Given the better price for more features and better seating (for me) on the Quest vs Sienna, I would do aftermarket leather on the Quest if I truly had a problem with the texture of the beige. Good luck!
Becky
BTW - have you heard of anyone making snow tires in this size or can a different size (60 instead of 65) be used?
We have gone from an AWD van to this one, and are a bit paranoid about it making it through the snow as effortlessly as the old caravan did. (My wife insists on getting to work, even in the snow, about 8 miles away, up and down some windy, moderately hilly roads. She is a very careful driver, though)
If Nissan decides to offer in the future a rear split seat, I hope they will make it this way (70-30) - this will really be a big edge over Sienna - and they should also add the power windows in the sliding doors.
SO, all you SE owners, warm the car up, then lower the temperature setting to turn on a/c and let us know if HOT air blows from the foot vents. We would appreciate it. Thanks,gg