Nissan Quest 2004+

stever · August 2003

This week's New Vehicle Spotlight ad on the main Edmunds.com page features the new Quest.

Steve, Host

shenkar · August 2003

Has anyone actually seen the Rouge leather interior? How does it look up close? Anyone have pics or links you can post to show what this "other" leather interior looks like?

revracer · August 2003

We have seen the rouge and the color looks nice with the rest of the interior being black. I had a hard time with the stripes in the rouge leather though. We opted for the beige in spite of the dirt that will show. We found on the demo that the black plastic was just as conducive to shoe marks as the beige may be.

shenkar · August 2003

I know the "pod" will be black, but what about the headliner, overhead console, side walls, carpets, etc? Are there other Rouge or lighter surfaces to brighten the inside when you pick the Rouge seats?

I've seen maybe 25 new Qwests. Every single one had the beige. I've "Google searched" all over the web", including the Nissan websites. No good pics of the Rouge interior found.

Seems like the Rouge will be rare, but I wonder will it be considered odd? The van is pretty polarizing as it is; with the standout exterior, center pod and all.

jchan2 · August 2003

could be the next collector's item!

revracer · August 2003

Shenkar, if you can get the Quest brochure from your dealer, it will give you a good picture of the interior in rouge. The dash is rouge, but if I recall, all else is black or a deep gray with the aluminum accents. The brochure also gives a close up of the texture on the seats. I think the interior in rouge is very art deco. It also helps that the photo includes pillows and a bud vase in the cup holder, but this is Nissan's view of an environment. It is definitely a darker look overall, but I would not say gloomy. SkyView really brightens the look as does the rouge.

Another possibly limiting factor is that rouge only comes with the Silver or Smoke exteriors.

monicakm · August 2003

I bought a new Quest in 93. Sold it in 99 and have missed it ever since. I was SO excited when I saw the 2004 but WHY OH WHY did they have design that console like they did? What was Nissan thinking? I spent about an hour today looking at and driving an SL (they didn't have the SE). I'm torn. I want the SE but don't know if I could ever get used to the console. And I don't want to just get USED to it. I want to love it.
Monica

bowke28 · August 2003

just like ALL OTHER new products, there is a "getting used to it" period. anytime you get a new car, you will have to get used to it...get used to it...

FEHarper · August 2003

I have owned an 3.5 SE for several weeks and love the pod. It takes a little getting used to, but many controls on the pod can be accessed on the steering wheel, including DVD, CD, FM, AM, cruise, volume, changing stations, CDs etc. I have navigation and have learned the basics on the pod for navigating. Once you get used to the design, it all makes sense. This outlay saves space and makes access to vital driving functions a breeze, but there is a learning curve.

fryingbologna · August 2003

Other than the obvious CVT difference, can anyone explain why the Quest would be CDN$3100 cheaper than the Murano?

jchan2 · August 2003

Because the Murano has AWD, the Quest has FWD.

fryingbologna · August 2003

Kinda forgot about that one. The Murano price still bugs me, though...

xjbuilder · August 2003

I bought a 3.5 SL on Saturday. Paid 5% over sticker, but that included the dealer absorbing $5K that was upside down on my 2003 Subaru lease. So really, I paid about invoice, and then bought a 7 year 100,000 mile warranty for $3K to make up the rest of the loss on my trade. They wanted to get more out on the road. I am far more impressed with the Quest than I was the Sienna or Odyssey, but then I'm not a Toyota guy and the Honda doesn't have all the safety features and is getting long in the tooth.

I love it - I think the pod is excellent. I am 6'2" and I fit without knees touching anything. I have never been this comfortable in any vehicle. The seats are incredibly comfortable. Balance between noise and ride comfort is good. Seats are exceptionally comfortable. Take excellent interior ergonomics, from seat comfort to the touchpad controls on the pod) and add all of the latest safety features, and you have a winner for $28K in my book. I saw somebody post that a Sienna is cheaper. How so? Nissan packaged the SL right - you want all those features on a Sienna and you'll go over $30K due to the way Toyota sells option packages.

But what is this review about the Quest being smaller than some competitors? It has 2 and a half feet of cargo space behind the 3rd row of seats. Cubic space means nothing - you usually don't stack cargo, especially not groceries. It is floor space that matters. I had six people in the car and put 10 large paper grocery bags on the floor behind the 3rd row along with a ton of toddler gear down in the well. This thing is huge.

But I got lucky. I found a smoke color exterior with the silver cloth interior. It is gorgeous. The beige interior is awful. It makes it look like, dare I say, a Sienna. Those beige interiors look like they are five years old before you drive them off the lot.

For those asking about the rouge leather...I drove an SE with the rouge leather along with the skylights. Dash was rouge, lots of black. Pretty damn cool with the striped leather - it was getting a lot of attention on the lot but was also totally loaded and stickered at $34K. They skylights are too cool, but not necessary and I'm on a budget. The silver cloth is classier than the leather - if you want to look at a Quest look for the smoke/silver combo. When the cloth seats are this nice, there is no need at all for leather.

Nissan did good. The Quest is more like a really long car with sliding doors than a traditional minivan. A lot of people where pulling up at stoplights and staring - not your typical minivan notion.

Nay

clpurnell · August 2003

Did you like the seats

iserum · August 2003

I paid $800 for 6 year 72 K miles for extended warranty for SL, it is Nissan gold preferred plan. I think warranty is very cheap, the dealer told me the warranty is cheap because it is unlikely there will be problems for this vehicle. Nissan has powertrain warranty of 60K miles. The only reason I bought extended warranty is because it is 1st year production car and with all the electrical gadgets in it there is possibility of things go wrong and for $800 it is worth it. I paid $1400 for 2001 Chevy venture extended LS 2 years ago. I have seen 3K for warranty on this board looks high to me.

jchan2 · August 2003

I like the beige color interior. The Pod itself would seperate itself and the Sienna. The Sienna is more traditional minivan while the Quest is more radical minivan; more sporty, more unique. It may or may not work. The Sienna already has a recall; it was about the fuel tank.

stever · August 2003

I think $3,000 is too much too.

Most extended warranties are a form of insurance and can be cancelled without penalty. There may be a pro-rata charge based on time.

Plus, most factory extended warranties can be purchased at any time, from any dealer, before the regular factory warranty expires (aftermarket warranties can often be purchased beyond that time).

Steve, Host

clpurnell · August 2003

He really didn't pay that for the warranty. If you read his post it was a way for the dealer to "hide" the 5k he was upside down on his subie. He probably paid about 1k for the warranty and 2k for the trade. This is what you call creative accounting.

stever · August 2003

Ah, gotcha. That's ok then :-)

I always get burned when I don't concentrate on the out the door price.

Steve, Host

xjbuilder · August 2003

Right - the $3K was too much (the warranty value is more in the $2K range), even though it was the top of the line warranty (Security Plus or whatever Nissan calls it). But it was the creative accounting, because a bank will only allow so much on the purchase as loan to value (105%), and anything else has to be made up on the backside. Instead of simply having to throw $3K at it, which I couldn't do (I'd have had to buy an Expedition to get the $3K rebate), I could finance it and get the warranty to boot. One of those rare "win/win" situations in buying a car.

They wanted to get me in this thing. Maybe that's because I hung around for seven hours and was willing to leave because you can't spend money you don't have. I gave them my trade-in and a monthly payment I could make and the max downpayment I could make and said "if you can make something work, I'll take it". Ended up with an 84 month purchase at 3.99%, which goes well with the 100K warranty.

Love the seats, though :^). There's a story there, with Nissan. I bought a '96 Pathfinder when the new model came out and absolutely loved it...except I didn't do a long enough test drive. The seats were really weird...high on the hips and low on the thighs...kind of the reverse of a typical seat design. They had this metal cup right at the hip bone contact point under a thin bit of foam. I don't have a lot of rear end cushioning that travels with me wherever I go, and after two months, I couldn't even sit in it. No aftermarket seat brackets were available for it because it was new, so I had to get rid of it. Nice to see Nissan learned something.

Nay

bowke28 · August 2003

84 months?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

you could have leased for around 48 months and come out back at square 1 in half the time! i just dont get it...will you actually keep this van for 7 years? in 7 years, will you still want to make that kind of payment on a vehicle that will be upwards (or close to) 100k miles? im in the car business, and do you know how many people ACTUALLY complete a finance contract of 5 years or more? 3.6%!!!

the odds are against you, buddy, but i really wish you the best.

jchan2 · August 2003

The Quest is on eBay motors; just buy there and avoid the dealer.

bowke28 · August 2003

the one on ebay motors is either one of two things:

1. used, and titled to a private owner.

2. a dealer listing it there.

if its used, you lose warranty for the time its been used, and any miles on it. but more likely, its a dealer listing it, and you'll have to deal with them anyway.

if nissan sells a new vehicle to a non-franchised dealer, they could face a class action lawsuit from the dealer network for breach of contract. that wont happen.

uga91 · August 2003

It is interesting to see discussion here about the center IP. I have a 2003 Saturn ION and its center IP is also cause for much discussion--usually negative. I like it. It allows Saturn to use a smaller steering wheel and that makes getting into and out of the car is much easier. What was Nissan's main reason for using a center IP?

samnoe · August 2003

to be different

bowke28 · August 2003

the reason the nissan reps gave was so the average 5'6" woman can see the front of the car. this works along with the low cowl and beak-like front end. im 5'4", and i can see better in the quest than any minivan ive driven.

walterchan · August 2003

I don't know if anybody notice this but the all-new 2004 Nissan Quest is the first European design and feel minivan ever developed in history since the Volkswagen Eurovan and Microbus. If anybody didn't notice this, Renault of France controls Nissan of Japan. Nissan of Japan does not control Renault of France. They both agree to be alliance in the two in 1999.

Walter Chan

Kirstie_H · August 2003

Join us for tonight's member-to-member chat -- Our theme tonight is Vans!

http://www.edmunds.com/townhall/chat/townhallchat.html

6-7pm PT/9-10pm ET. Pop in for live chat with other members. Hope you can join us!

kirstie_h
Roving Host & Future Vehicles Host

uga91 · August 2003

I have to agree. On our ION, front visibility is much better--as compared to our two previous Saturns anyway. Who knows, in a few years, center IPs may be the norm? Toyota, Mini and Panoz use them now in addition to Nissan and Saturn, so their usage has grown a lot in the last couple of years.

bowke28 · August 2003

i dont think it will become the norm, just because lots of people hate it. i really dont like it myself...i can just see better.

st_pu · August 2003

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0308/14/b01-toid.html

shenkar · August 2003

Has anyone seen pictures of the Rouge interior anywhere on the web? I haven't been able to find any.

shenkar · August 2003

Uh-oh! "Full capacity"..."hottest model"! Seems like the increased popularity of the Quest is going to have an impact on what the dealers will take for them. Anyone seeing this happen? Are the best deals out there now, or will they come later on?

julizio · August 2003

There's a smoke colored SE with rouge interior on ebay. It's an SE, fully loaded. They have some pictures of the interior.

bowke28 · August 2003

best prices will come later on, but MUCH later. if you are willing to wait up to a year for a thousand or so, then by all means, wait. if it were me, id want it now, regardless of a minimal discount.

lando622 · August 2003

There are a couple of rouge interior pics here:
http://www.velocityjrnl.com/jrnl/2004/vmd9406ml.html

You can click on the pics again after choosing the one you want, and they blow-up well.

ctujackbauer · August 2003

Nissan did right with the Quest. The commercials showing the 5 (!) sunroofs/moonroofs are really quite nice. The fold flat seats are also impressive. The flared wheel wells look a little like my Cruiser.

I think Nissan has a good chance at hitting 80,000 units in 2004. Not quite sure how many they will sell this year, but I think they are off to a good start.

mehulj72 · August 2003

I still remember two years back when Nissan came with redesigned Altima and they started whole new trend (Toyota & Honda were forced to follow redesign pattern instead of just changing few lights and placing next year model). I think atleast Nissan has got good designer. If you see Maxima 3.5SE from inside you will definately feel this. And with Quest Nissan is changing defination of Minivan (I personally own Honda Odyssey EX 03 model, but I think Quest did good thing for consumer, now Honda will need to come with something really good if they want to retain there No. 1 spot - no more copy paste for new models).

MJ

jchan2 · August 2003

The rouge interior is on eBay motors.

budcpa · August 2003

Hi guys....my dealer tells me that he cannot get his dealership's ordering system to accept the SE model with both the nav system and dual screen DVD (I can build it that way with the on-line consumer system on nissan-usa). It will take the nav plus single screen, but not the dual. Anyone else seen this issue? Are dual screens available at all at this point? My wife really wants the dual screen, and we're trying to decide whether there is a delay in the production of this, an error in the Nissan brochure, or a dealer who doesn't know what he's doing. Thanks for any help.

modena2904 · August 2003

We were able to order an SE with dual DVD and Nav. It is supposed to arrive sometime in the second week of Sept. I'll let you know if it doesn't show up the way we ordered it.

exb0 · August 2003

We have test driven the Quest SL this weekend. My wife is gugu gaga over it. Nissan has done an excellent job marketing this van. I personally think it is odd looking, and its looks might affect the resale value. However, my biggest concern is the reliability. Historically Nissan was not as reliable as Honda and Toyota, but more reliable than most. In the latest J.D. Power survey Nissan has dropped below most of the American nameplates in initial quality.

http://www.jdpower.com/cc/auto/releases/search.asp?CatID=1

New Nissan owners, what do you think about Nissans quality?

thequest · August 2003

The Quest is my 3rd Nissan. I like to own a vehicle until I run it into the ground. I ran the '92 Sentra into the ground. My '98 Maxima is running fine with no unscheduled maintenance. The gas mileage is just as good as when I bought it. I have only 90,000 miles on it so who knows what might happen during the next 90,000.

thequest · August 2003

This questions is not unique to the Quest but, why does Nissan set up the fog lights so that they only come on with the headlights? The few times that I have been in enough fog for it to matter I wished I could have turned off the headlights because the fog only reflected the light back into my eyes. Anybody have insight on this one.

leagra · August 2003

My second new car was a sentra. I ran it for 8 years, and traded it for a Volvo. I just replaced that 1989 Volvo with 135000 miles on it, with a 2004 Quest SL. My brother has a 1996 Quest with over 118,000 miles on it. He is still driving it cross country. He gave his 1992 Maxima to my nephew. He recently drove it from Virginia to California. We have no problem with Nissan quality.

My Volvo was not well-rated, I followed routine maintenance and never had a problem with that car. The interior was falling apart, but the engine purred.

iserum · August 2003

Overall Nissans are not bad in quality, they are not as good as Toyota though, Honda has some problems too, I owned a Honda Accord 1984 had lots of problem with it, never bought a Honda after that.The only Honda I liked was the odyssey (it is practical)but after reading transmission problems, door problems, stereo problems we were skeptical about Honda Quality especilly if we have to buy at sticker price.
Few of my friends have Nissan Sentra the car ran more than 150 K miles without major problems.
I really don't care about JD Power rating I usually will buy the car if I like it and fits my budget, If people were paying attention to JD power no one will buy cars with problems. JD power rating put Lexus and Buick on the top three i can't afford to buy lexus or Buick (if I need to buy a mini van ) solely on JD power rating. I take JD Power rating as a measure what to expect in a car quality wise, if i am paying less money for a car what problems do I expect.
Car manufacturer should see JD power rating to improove their quality.

This is my first Nissan, since it is first year production vehicle i bought extended warranty. I don't see any issue with engine (it is one of the best out there) the interior quality might be an issue (lots of Plastics used inthe interior), Nissan should pay attention to it better quality material should be used, I liked the interior styling though the pod seems to look odd first but as I am getting familiar with it I like it now.

eflime · August 2003

I believe that there's not one perfect car manufacturer, but the chance of getting a reliable vehicle with Honda, Toyota & Nissan is better, sorry big three.

My friend has a Chevy Astro van & he's had to replace so many stuff it's incredible (alt(2), H2O pump, ac compressor, etc. all between 30K-50K miles).

I have a 1992 Sentra SE-R bought new, it now has 218,000 miles w/ the ORIGINAL clutch! and that's w/ alot of mountain driving (snow skiing). Original Alt., AC (never been re-charged still cold), H2O pump lasted 200K, it's been so reliable, I don't want to give it up.

So, I had no problem/hesitation buying the 2004 Quest SE!!!!

bowke28 · August 2003

you CAN get it with both...we've already had 3 in stock, and sold 2 of them (the owner is driving the other). more are coming, but i cant say anymore without sounding like advertising...lol.

one difference between the SE and the SL is that the SL's nav system comes with a 2nd cd changer in the rear, where the SE doesnt.

aggiedog · August 2003

That initial quality rating probably factors in quality and reliability. There's no doubt to most nissan owners that reliability is not an issue. Quality is another story. Of late nissan has begun to wrap their interiors in "aluminum foil" and cheap plastics. While this may appeal to some buyers, repeat buyers probably would prefer the styling of old. Of course I could be wrong.

vmaturo · August 2003

I have the last 16 years worth of Consumer Reports April (car) issue.
And here's how the Maxima placed against the Camry & Accord in the last 11 years ( that's when CR started to actually show how cars placed against each other.

1993 thru 2003. A total of 11 years, but each car is represented only 10 times. CR does not include the year a car has it's big makeover.

Maxima.........(1st) 7 of 10 times......(2nd) 1 time ....(3rd) 2 times
Camry...........(1st)3 of 10 times......(2nd) 5 times....(3rd) 1 time....(8th) 1 time (2003)
Accord.........(1st) 1 of 10 times......(2nd) 4 times....(3rd) 4 times

For 2003 it was Maxima 1st (again) and Camry 8th. No Accord due to new model.

I find JD Powers interesting, but remember they refer to the first 90 days. Consumer Reports covers years of data.

This is how Maxima/Camry & Accord placed agains each other, but in their catagory (Mid/Family) of CR reliability ratings, only one car company has placed FIRST in EVERY year of the last eleven. It is Nissan/Infiniti.

The only car that does better than the Maxima is Infiniti (almost any of them).

I think that speaks volumes about Maxima/Nissan reliability ( not that I'm keeping track).

Nissan Quest 2004+

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