Our friends came for a long weekend. We drove in their 2005 Nissan Quest. One of the reasons we used their car I will explain later. Of course I drove it. This was my first experience with the Quest though I’ve owned Nissans and think in general they are great cars.

The features

The 2005 Nissan Quest that my friends have is an 4 door SE minivan.

It is an automatic with a 240 horsepower, 16 valve, and 3.5 liter 6-cylinder engine. This is a front wheel drive van.

Some of the standard features in this car are garage door opener, heated front seats (A really nice feature in the northeast.), 17-inch wheels, power driver Seat with memory, and along with passenger front airbags it has front side airbags, front, rear and third row head airbags.

This is a 7-passenger van.

The ground clearance is 5.8 inches. The length is 204.1 inches and the car is 71.9 inches high. The Quest is 77.6 inches wide.

Inside:

I was so impressed with the Nissan Quest. Although my friends’ children are grown they are with them a lot thus the minivan. If it could pull a travel trailer I would run out and buy it. The towing capacity is 3500 pounds. That's enough to pull a light pop up if that's what you have but not a travel trailer.

The specifications on the inside include 41.9 inches of front headroom; 41.7 inches of front legroom and 63.7 inches of shoulder room. I mentioned that my friend loves this car for a particular reason. She is a large woman who recently had her knee replaced. She told me that she is more comfortable in the Quest than in my Four Runner. In the Quest she can sit in a more natural position with her legs close to the seat. She doesn’t want to stretch them out. She isn’t as comfortable in our car. I found the Quest to be very comfortable as well. I had more than enough leg room and width.

There is 144 cubic feet of cargo space. With the back seat up there is enough space for lots of groceries and Target shopping. The back seat folds as one bench giving more room and the middle bucket seats both fold as well. You'll have enough room for anything (just about) that you may need to haul. The middle seats come out (We had a Caravan so I know that this feature though nice isn’t one used daily!) giving more floor space.

The Quest may have more storage than any car or van I’ve seen. I was overwhelmed with it all. Each side door has the usual map pocket. Cup holders for the front come out from the base of the seats which is really unusual. They don’t take up room if not in use. There is storage in front of the passenger’s seat.

What is most unusual is the storage on top of the dashboard. This is both good and bad. I hit a button and up popped a storage area. What is odd is that the dashboard display is off to the right so that takes some getting used to. I think this is a bit of a flaw design. It’s bad enough that we take our eyes off the road to look down at the odometer for example. But in the Quest until I got used to it I found myself looking over which I felt wasn’t all that safe. Still once I got used to it I liked the storage! There are cup holders for the middle row and back row.

One minor but annoying problem was that a plastic cover on one of the overhead lights came off. In addition one of the pop up storage units broke. The van is under warranty but I heard about a few problems and was concerned that it sounded like it was in the shop too often for its age.

Outside and other information:

My friends’ van is autumn red metallic which is a very pretty color. The Quest also comes in coral sand metallic, galaxy black, jade metallic, majestic blue metallic, Nordic white pearl, silver mist metallic and smoke metallic. I like the look of the Quest. For a minivan it looked sporty to me. It doesn’t have the boxy look that many of them have. I would call it pretty. The front lights wrap around adding to the nice look.

I was awe struck when with a push of the remote the side door on the passenger side slid open. This cannot be done while the car is on. In addition the tail gate door opens using the remote.

I also really like the feature of the van beeping if I backed up and got too close to the pole by my house!

The van gets about 18 miles to the gallon in the city and 25 miles to the gallon on the highway. It has a 20-gallon fuel tank capacity.

Another feature which I wish my SUV had is that the Quest beeps when the tire air pressure is low so you shouldn’t have a blowout or a sudden flat tire. They have already had a low tire. Another problem with this Quest was that the tire pressure light malfunctioned. The van only has 21,000 miles on it.

Handling:

I have an SUV so I am used to large cars. The Quest is certainly big. In spite of its size I found that it handled really well. I found that it held the road really well. We were on side streets, a highway and over a bridge during the weekend so I had a lot of experiences in the car. Both as a driver and passenger I was impressed.

The brakes are great. Actually they are better than those on my SUV. I didn't have to start braking until I was ready to brake.

Thankfully it hasn’t snowed yet in Massachusetts but my friends told me that it is very good in the snow. With four wheel drive I wouldn’t doubt that.

The Quest responded nicely as I turned the wheel. I found the ride to be smooth in both the front and middle seats. I know I would feel the bumps in the back seat and prefer not to sit in the back in any large vehicle. I found the Quest to make no jerky movements. The ride was quiet. The turning radius is sharp. I found that it drove like a car rather than a large van. The pickup even with the air conditioning on was good. I was very pleased all around with the drive of this van.

There is a problem with the Quest currently adding to my feeling that this is in the shop too much. It gets a vapor lock which means that though it didn’t happen to me when the gas pedal is pressed there is no response. So again it will be in the shop.

Warranty:

The basic warranty is 3 years; 36,000 miles. (I would recommend an extended warranty on this one.) The drive train has a 5 year; 60,000 mile warranty and there is a 5 year unlimited mile warranty on rust.

How does it fare in a crash?

In government crash testing, the Quest earned a perfect five stars across the board. In frontal offset crash testing conducted by the IIHS, the Quest received the highest rating which is “good.”

My final thoughts:

I love the look of the Quest, the ride and the features. If there were fewer problems I would give it 5 stars. My friends give it 5 stars but they don’t review products. I would buy the Quest for sure but I would have to make sure there is a Nissan dealer close by.


Additional features and specs that I may or may not have noted are below as are links to sites that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about a car.

Wheel Base: 124 inches
Curb Weight: 4209 lbs.
Gross Weight: 5732 lbs.
Max Horsepower: 5800 rpm
Torque: 242 ft-lbs.
Max Torque: 4400 rpm
Maximum Payload: 1200 lbs.
Maximum Towing Capacity: 3500 lbs.

Tachometer,Trip Computer Alloy, Anti-Theft Alarm System, Power Front Passenger Seat, Driver Audio Steering Wheel Controls, Cruise Control, Overhead Console With Storage Power, Adjustable Pedals, Tilt Steering Wheel, Multi-Zone Climate Control, Rear Window Wiper, Mirror Heated Exterior Mirrors, AM/FM/CD Changer Audio System and Bose Audio Rear Audio Controls

http://www.edmunds.com
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/NCAP/
http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ratings.htm

If you have any questions about this car, feel free to e-mail me.

Other car reviews I have written include:

How to Buy a Car


Mazda Miata ~ 2004 Mazdaspeed ~ Toyota 4 Runner ~ 2003 Toyota MR2 Spyder ~ 2003 Ford F150 SuperCrew
2003 BMW325I ~ 2000 Nissan Altima ~ 2001 Chevy Malibu ~ 2002 Chevy Prizm ~ 1998 Dodge Ram Van ~ 1996 Nissan Sentra ~ 2001 Pontiac Sunfire ~ 1999 Toyota Camry ~ 2001 Hyundai Accent ~ 1998 Chevy S-10 Pick Up ~ 1999 BMW 323is ~ 2002 Subaru Impreza ~ 2000 Suzuki Swift ~ 2001 Chevy Metro