LexFather

There is a difference between radical and God awful, cheap, poor, crap.


KATHY JACKSON | Automotive News
Posted Date: 7/28/05

Nissan Division has been on a roll with U.S. sales up 16.0 percent this year through June. The sole sore spot is the Quest minivan.

Its unusual redesign for the 2004 model year failed to connect with U.S. buyers. Quest sales are barely half of what the company projected. Nissan sold 22,673 Quests through June.

Shiro Nakamura, the top designer for Nissan Motor Co., says that Nissan will stay in the minivan segment. But when the Quest is redesigned in a few years, it will not be traditional.

Nakamura talked with Kathy Jackson at Nissan's design center in La Jolla, Calif., on July 14.

Nissan prides itself on edgy, distinctive design, but your Quest has not scored well with the U.S. public. Does a minivan fit Nissan's image?

I think we need a minivan. So there will be a next Quest. The exterior is not that much different from other minivans. The interior was too radical. That's why we did a (interior) face-lift for the (2006) model.

Will the redesigned Quest be more conservative? Will it resemble other minivans?

We're discussing the redesign now. We don't need to go so much on the conservative side. We should maintain the authenticity. We still want to be as distinct as possible, but we also have to be accepted.

What do you need to change to be accepted?

We need to give new value to the minivan. People are bored with the minivan. The minivan is getting too conservative. Our direction was OK, but the execution was not.

Will it be an entirely different type vehicle?

We're still trying to find our possibility. We do not plan to go back to the traditional minivan.

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102856

flipside909

The whole van is ugly. Back to the drawing board. I think Nissan did better with the previous generation Quest/Villager design. The awkward turntable/barrel console, those awkward skyroof theme and the whole disproportionate design makes it a winner for Hertz & Enterprise rental car fleets.

mmarshall

Mr. Nakamura, unfortunately, fails to see the choice he is going to have to make. He states in the interview that he wants to keep the Quest's "distinct " interior ( with a minor re-resign ) , yet he wants the public to " accept " it.

Can't have it both ways, chief....it's going to have to be one or the other. Either redesign the interior or face continued poor sales....and loss of money. It's your choice.

This is the same trap that Chris Bangle and the rest of BMW management fell into. They acknowledge the negative image that the new BMW's are giving, but blame it on the public instead of on their own stylists. BMW's attitude, and apparantly Mr. Nakamura's also, is that the public WILL accept it sooner or later.

Well, good luck, dudes....don't hold your breath.

np20412

Can I wash my clothes in that center console? Or maybe the top flips up and its a garbage can. What were they thinking?

mmarshall

Not quite, flip. Ask yourself....who would RENT it? They're all renting Caravans.

LexFather

I actually like the exterior

mmarshall

I agree.......the exterior is not bad.......but it just shows how you can't judge a book by its cover.
This minivan, according to Consumer Reports, has also had relibility problems.....but the low sales has prevented a really big data base to get a clear picture of its reliability.

flipside909

People will rent anything if there's nothing available. Trust me, we used to rent Mazda MPV's (and they still do) for the same price of a Freestar or Venture. The MPV was far more smaller than the two vans..I felt sorry for the people who rented the MPV..they got ripped off.

LexFather

OMG, I read this from a guy on the VW forum and fell out my chair. I thought he was going to say something good from reading the begining....

flipside909

I never liked it. I remember the month it came out back in 03...we walked from Toyota of Cerritos across the street to Cerritos Nissan. At the time the Quest just came out and there was one pre-production Nissan Titan to show to the general public. The salesman comes up to us and asks..."so what do you think about our new Quest and Titan?" I looked at my friends...smiled at them...and we all told him "To be honest with you they're ugly". The salesman turned red with embarrassment but he whispered to us saying "Yes I agree with you guys.". That made my day LOL. The interior of the Nissan Quest is an ergonomical nightmare.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

holy cow, that's how the quest looks inside? man, that's one super ugly interior.... and mike is right.... radical is an overstatement.... they don't know what's ugly i guess....

we have been shopping for a minivan, and sad to say, we only look at the odyssey and the sienna.... i didn't even give the quest a single look. the outside is already one horrible car, it just looks sooooo.... weird (that's the nicest word i can find). god if i spend 1 min with that interior i will need to go throw up in the bathroom

thank god i didn't waste any time,...

jrock65

The exterior of the Quest is ugly, and the interior is even uglier. I'm surprised that they even sell 45,000 to 50,000 annual units of this thing.

The minivan segment is probably the most conservative segment. So who had the bright idea to put the most radical Nissan interior in there?

LexFather

LexusChris

iTrader: (1)

I personally think the Nissan Quest exterior is okay, the interior is would have been so much been if they used better materials in my opinion. It could have been so much better.

np20412

Why does the driver have to avert his eyes so far from the road to check his speed? That's gotta be difficult to read using peripheral vision only.