LexFather

Nissan Planning to Trim Three Models
http://www.kwtx.com/money/headlines/38854207.html



According to a recent article on MotorTrend.com, Nissan will be discontinuing the Quest minivan, full-size Armada SUV, and its platform mate Infiniti QX56. The plant in Canton, Mississippi that is currently used to build the three vehicles will retooled to build a new line of small commercial vehicles that Nissan is hoping to sell in the US.
The Quest has been a mainstay of Nissan's lineup since the early 1990s. Back then the minivan market was red-hot, and the Quest was built as a sibling to the Mercury Villager minivan. The Villager died in 2002, and the Quest morphed into an upscale, futuristic-looking van that never really caught on with buyers who seek practicality and value. The minivan market is rapidly shrinking; Ford and GM have both discontinued their minivans, and even the popular vans from Chrysler Corporation have been dealing with dwindling sales.
The Armada and QX56 have been around since 2003. At the time they were designed to rival popular large SUVs like the Lincoln Navigator, Toyota Sequoia, and Chevy Suburban. Neither vehicle ever really caught on, and has been plagued by un-Nissan-like quality issues since their debut.

LexFather

Now that the Armada and QX are gone as I said they would I will post an old 1SICKREVIEW of the QX I wrote but never put in public. It is by far the worst luxury badged anything I've ever driven in my existence yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Its is horrid beyond imagination.

The only news is I do believe the Nissan Petrol which was just redesigned will be rebadged an Aramada and QX56 here and built in Japan.

Its sad, just sad that Infiniti I believe has discontinued at one time or another EVERY SINGLE MODEL they have produced. Then fans wonder why their brands image is so low or people can't even spell it right.

pagemaster

No way. They worst ever rebadge has to be the first generation Cadillac Escalade.

Lexmex

Armada/QX56 are easy cuts. The Quest was really sandwiched with the Sienna and Odyssey being front runners.

mmarshall

We had a thread on this back in December, but I guess it doesn't hurt to bring it up again:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...size-suvs.html

The one sad thing I see about this whole decision is that the Armada and QX56, after years of being far below average in reliability, have now, according to Consumer Reports, finally achieved average reliability....only to be dropped. The Quest is still below average in reliability, and its goofy first-generation styling and dash turned off a lot of potential buyers that the somewhat more conventional, second-genration model failed to bring back.

Shawnmack

I couldn't understand why Nissan had the Armada. The Pathfinder looks just like it.

speedflex

After all the mega SUV insanity of the 90's and early 2000's it makes sense to get rid of these behemoths. In fact, I think most other car makers will be following the trend.

I do think the QX should become the next generation Patrol we saw in the spyshots a few weeks ago. But the Pathfinder should be Nissan's top-line truck-based SUV... as it was before the Armada.

Crossovers are killing the minivan so that's probably why Nissan won't go again with a new Quest, (although I had heard that the next gen Quest was also going to be Japan-built, but that was before the market shrank).

IS-SV

No loss, drop 'em before demand drops to near nothing.

Indio

iTrader: (1)

Agreed, in haste to quickly compete with the hot selling Navigator (GM never thought it would sell) the rebadge amounted to a grill and Cadillac crests on the seats and steering wheel

IS-SV

How about the lame Cimmeron, or Cinnebun or whatever that POS was....

IS-SV

But the Escalade was a profitable crude truck at it's peak. The profit margin on this glorified Chevy Tahoe was off the hook for a few years. GM actually thought they knew what they were doing.

mmarshall

The Armada was larger and more of a people-mover. The Pathfinder is smaller, done on a rugged frame, and is more of an off-roader.

GFerg

Saw this coming. I liked the Quest because it was so different from other minivans inside and out. Armada and QX I never got into.

Seems like minivan sales got hit hard recently. Should Toyota do the same and cancel the Sienna as well after this generation?

mmarshall

No. The Sienna, like the Odyssey handily outsells the Quest, by a wide margin. Toyota and Honda would be foolish to drop them. The Chrysler and Dodge minivans, despite their deserved reputation for poor quality, also continue to sell relatively well.

Nextourer

I wonder if Toyota has any reason to drop the Sequoia? They do have the Land Cruiser and if I had to pick between the two, I'd keep the LC.