Another in a series of my reviews that appeared in the online version of African Americans On Wheels, a now defunct automotive magazine that was included as an insert in the Sunday newspapers of major cities.
By now, you probably know I like a good minivan. Even as a young Gen Xer, I was very impressed with the first generation Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager. It seemed that someone finally got the hint and took the successful Chrysler formula of using a transverse-engine, front-wheel drive car-based platform and draping it in a much more attractive – not weird – shell than the Chrysler trio. Although not as dramatic as the second-generation Chrysler minivans, I still liked the look of this Quest. I also liked its “tweener” length, which was not too short, not too long, but just right.
It’s too bad that Nissan completely lost the plot with the following two generations, then dropped the Quest altogether because, “People don’t buy minivans anymore.”
The following review was originally posted on January 4, 1999.
When the Quest debuted for the 1993 model year, its smooth styling and good handling proved that minivans didn’t have to be boxy and boring. However, as its contemporaries were improved, its small cabin and lack of a fourth door soon relegated it to “also ran” status. The new Quest is longer, wider, and taller than its predecessor, and most importantly, comes with a fourth door.
Nissan, who has had a lead touch regarding styling lately, smartly left the look alone. The most obvious change is the front end, which now has a strange asymmetrical grill and head lamp treatment that hopefully will be restyled down the line. With the two-tone paint scheme and alloy wheels, however, the Quest is still one of the best looking minivans on the road.
At 194.7 inches in length, the Quest falls right in the middle in minivan lengths, and all of that space is put to good use. Our mid-level SE model had second-row captain’s chairs and the “Quest Trac Flexible Seating System.” The highlight of the system is a rear bench that can slide to any position from just behind the front seats to the back of the van. By folding up the cushion and pushing the bench forward to just behind the second row, I was able to haul some bulky cargo without the hassle of removing seats (although it’s not difficult if you must). In all, there are 66 possible combinations, and all seats fold forward to become trays with built-in cupholders. A rear tray with mesh netting can be set in three different positions to help separate or hide cargo. Passengers understandably have less legroom than in the longest minivans, but it’s not a bad way to travel.
The Quest still has above-average handling and a good ride. A more powerful 3.3 liter V6 that’s shared with the Frontier pickup is under the hood, but it feels and sounds unrefined. Nissan should have used the silky smooth Maxima V6 instead. The standard four-speed automatic is flawless.
The Quest is an excellent minivan. Even my wife, a confirmed minivan hater, would consider one. That’s high praise indeed.
For more information contact 1-800-NISSAN-3
SPECIFICATIONS
Type:Four-door Minivan
Engine:170-horsepower, 3.3 liter V6
Transmission:Four-speed Automatic
EPA Mileage:17 city/24 highway
Tested Price:$25,517
“The standard four-speed automatic is flawless.”
Remember when you could tell someone you were driving a Nissan and their first question wasn’t about whether or not you’ve had CVT issues yet?
The venture capitalist I used to sail for went on a family vacation with his three sons and his second wife. Having met his second wife and spent many days on the ocean with him, I really can’t begin to imagine this actually happening. He didn’t fly commercial, because he said he always thought he was surrounded by people being comped their first class upgrade. He had a plane that flew the wife’s horses back and forth between their homes. The horses became pets after failing to win the Kentucky Derby.
His personal car was a Bentley 8, his wife’s was a Corniche, and two of his sons had big BMWs. He also kept a few Lincoln Town Cars for being driven in. The third son claimed he was too tall to sit comfortably in a BMW. No, he did not appear to be close to 6’3″. Claiming excessive height for BMW driving, his first car was the Lexus SC400 I’ve mentioned in other comments.
The most bizarre part of this family road trip, or at least the only part that I know, is how it led to the SC400 being at my disposal. The lot of them rented a Mercury Villager(Quest-rebadge) to embark on their trip. Apparently the Lexus driving son, then an underclassmen at an Ivy League university, was truly struck by the joys of minivan utility. He decided that he no longer wanted a Lexus coupe. A minivan that could haul all of his friends and their snowboards would be more fun, and this one would do just fine. They bought the very Mercury Villager that they’d rented from the major rental car company, which wasn’t ready to sell it.
I don’t recall if I ever saw that Villager, but I did ride in an ex-girlfriend’s sister’s Quest. She needed a family car and she picked up a 60K mile Quest with a TV and VCR in its back seat for less than three grand at auction because it had rather obvious rear bumper damage. I don’t think she ever fixed the duct taped-on bumper, but the Quest seemed to serve her well for a few years.
We had a 1993 Villager (same as Quest) that was our first of five minivans. It provided a nice jump in comfort on our regular long (1000-1500 mile) trips in a Taurus wagon… with four kids and a golden retriever.
The car handled far better than the others we tried (Chrysler’s, Aerostar, and Previa), had adequate, smooth power, and was very well finished vs the competition. Overall, a good car for us at the time, though we later bought a bit larger (a ’96 Windstar then three Odysseys (’99, ’03 and ’07).
I don’t know that I realized that the redesign included the fourth door or that it was missing previously. I guess I wasn’t in the market back then but know that when we shopped for a minivan around 2008 that the Quest wasn’t even considered. Minivan snobbery at the time, I guess. (we ended up with a Sienna, and eventually an Odyssey a few years later).
The first Quest (and this one), while smaller, would seem a good size for those that were concerned about the sheer mass of some of the other offerings, the apparently good handling and decent power should have done more than they did to help sales, but I suppose size is the single most important criteria for much of the market. Given the sizes of roads and driveways in modern suburbia that’s not much of a surprise.
Nissan did have some chances to improve things down the road but obviously didn’t have their heart in it, with the current trajectory of minivan sales, that may have not been a huge mistake in the end. While it hasn’t really worked out, putting finite resources toward developing trucks and the Leaf was (on paper) likely the better choice.
These were also rugged, as the number of survivors here on the streets always surprised me. But suddenly they all seem to have gone.
And yes, the format was a good one, in terms of size. The golden middle, except for those that really needed a significant amount of cargo space behind the third seat, which only the Chrysler lwb vans had.
I agree with Paul, in hindsight they turned out to be rather robust. The iron block VG30/33 is a sturdy unit without too many serious faults (knock sensor, neglected t-belt). The Jatco automatics weren’t quite Aisin robust but really not bad for the class of vehicle where everything seemed to have shortened transmission life. A favorite of Hispanic immigrant families, I think both for the bang for the buck factor and the familiarity with Nissan in Mexico (very dominant car maker there).
Rust and general neglect/depreciation has taken most of these off the roads here, but the same applies to most other minivans of this generation. In the midwest I think a lot more Chrysler vans were sold so you see more of them still plodding along and junkyard donors get picked clean.
The comment on them using the older VG33 from the trucks instead of the VQ is prescient, as they brought on the potent VQ35 for the next generation (along with atrocious styling inside and out). I do think the VQ30 would have felt much better in there than the agrarian iron block VG, and it would have brought a timing chain to the party as well. I had a VQ30 in a beater ’00 Maxima, a total gem of a motor, turbine smooth, power everywhere, reasonably efficient.
I think the in-between size sold a lot of Quests and Villagers. Villagers could typically be gotten for less than the comparably equipped Nissan and there was an excellent Lincoln-Mercury dealer whose service department was modeled along Lexus lines nearby, which contrasted with the profiteering local Nissan dealers who had a shoddy reputation for service.
On this basis, I recommended a Villager, one each from the first and second generations, to two different people in the 1990s. Both were very happy with their purchases and the vans proved to be very reliable. The owners of the first-gen one kept it for nearly 20 years, until the last of their three children had learned how to drive on it. In the other case, the arrival of a third child precipitated the purchase of what the dad had wanted all along, a GMC Suburban, which his wife grew to loathe due to its bulk – she wanted her Quest back!
I remember the curious thing about the 1st gen Quests and Villagers was that apparently FoMoCo absolutely insisted that the engine be made non-interference for the Mercury, whereas the Quest’s VG30 was kept in its normal interference state. Any truth to that? Anyone know how they achieved that? Made valve recessions in the pistons maybe?
According to wiki, both the Villager & Quest shared the non-interference version of the engine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_VG_engine#VG30E
Here’s more of a conversation on the topic:
https://x.nissanhelp.com/forums/quest/28611-1995-nissan-quest-mercury-villager.html
Have a 2007 Quest ( NISSAN ) Used to be a NISSAN fan until the problem with the CVT transmission. The design of the 2007 window ( middle back / side windows ) that can not be open is a bad design. Also, longevity of the POWER WINDOWS technology is bad. I will never invest on another NISSAN product.
BE SAFE ! KEEP SOCIAL DISTANCING !! TAKE ALL THE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS !!!
I rode in one of these in the late 2000s and it seemed a bit more solid than my folks’ 1995 Plymouth Voyager. I remember the owner not liking the radio controls in the second row because people would change the station without permission.
These Quests and Villagers were all over South Central Los Angeles in 2012, but I imagine most are gone by now. I like the looks of the next two generations of Quest, but I won’t buy one.