CARSHAVA

Nissan has not had an easy time of it in the U.S. minivan market. The original Quest, codeveloped with Ford and sold also as the Mercury Villager, was undersized. Nissan's next Quest was a solo effort that featured avant-garde design -- too avant-garde, as it turned out -- and which was built at the company's brand-new U.S. factory in Mississippi. That Quest was dogged by quality problems, and sales were disappointing. Nissan has now given up engineering a minivan specifically for the American market, and its latest Quest is instead an adaptation of the Japanese-market Elgrand minivan, and is imported from Japan.
The styling of the new Quest is 180-degrees out from the previous one. Where the last Quest was all wavy and swoopy, the new one flaunts its slab-sided boxyness. The oddball interior of the previous Quest is only a fading memory, as the new model is conventionally configured. My test example was leather-lined and nicely padded just about everywhere -- as well it might be for $43,750. That's for the top-spec LE, optioned up with dual, opening sunroofs (the kids can control their own). Otherwise, the LE comes with pretty much everything, including navigation, a backup camera, the aforementioned leather, and a rear-seat DVD player. Kids loved the wide (11-inch diagonal) flip-down video screen, which powers open at a touch of the button on the remote. It's standard on the LE and optional on the SL. In addition to DVDs, the system can play movies or other media contained on a flash drive, which you can plug into a USB port.
This big box feels huge from the inside. The second row has plenty of space, but accommodations in the third row are somewhat dependent on the generosity of those in the second-row seats, which can slide fore and aft and which also recline. If spiteful older siblings are in row two, the third row can be tight; with more magnanimous passengers in the middle seats, the third row can be fine, even for adults. Cargo space behind the third seat -- in important measure for families that often travel full-up -- is 37 cubic feet, including the extra-large well beneath the two removable floor panels.
From the driver's seat, the Quest feels dead conventional. The ride is fairly comfortable, and the chassis does nothing to encourage high-speed cornering through the subdivision. The steering earns points for being reasonably direct and not overboosted. Nissan's 3.5-liter V-6 has been much maligned for its coarse nature, but it's barely audible here, and it's certainly powerful enough to get the team to soccer practice on time. It plays well with the continuously variable automatic transmission, as it's torque arrives low enough in the rev range that there's none of the rubber-band throttle response you get when a CVT is paired with the small four-cylinder engines more typically used with this type of transmission. Fuel economy is quite good in the city (19 mpg) but the highway figure (24 mpg) can't match the class-leading Honda Odyssey. [A side thought: Shouldn't the EPA come up with a new test cycle, suburb, for minivans?]
So, the grown-ups' verdict is that the Quest has finally achieved the normalcy that should enable it to grab a decent slice of the minivan market. But what's the kids' point of view? Well, we asked one young lad who is a keen -- bordering on obsessive -- observer of cars. His parents just bought a Toyota Sienna minivan, but upon seeing the Quest, young Johnny was smitten. "I love your Quest," said the boy, who is 5. "I'm going to buy one tomorrow.

Standard Equipment
 
- 3.5-liter V-6
- CVT automatic transmission
- Front seat active head restraints
- 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS and panic brake assist
- 18-inch aluminum wheels
- Automatic climate control with air purifier and auto recirc
- First- and second-row power windows
- Auto-dimming rearview mirror w/Homelink
- Blind-spot warning system
- 8-way power driver's seat w/memory
- 4-way power passenger's seat
- 2nd-row sliding and reclining captain's chairs w/removable center console
- 60/40 split-folding and reclining 3rd-row seats
- Quick release 3rd-row folding seatbacks with power return
- Leather seating and door trim
- Heated front seats
- Leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob
- Wood-tone trim accents
- Tilt and telescoping steering column
- Illuminated steering-wheel-mounted controls for cruise control, audio, and navigation
- 13-speaker Bose audio system with AM/FM/XM/CD, USB and aux. inputs, and 9.3GB hard drive
- Navigation w/XM traffic and weather, and Zagat survey results
- Rear-view monitor and 8-inch color display
- 2nd-row 11-inch DVD screen with remote and two headphones
- Power sliding doors
- Power liftgate
- Xenon headlights
- Power mirrors w/turn signals, memory, heating, and auto-tilt in reverse
- Keyless ignition
- Bluetooth connectivity
- 2nd- and 3rd-row sun shades
- Roof rails
- Chrome-accented side sill spoilers, door handles, and license plate finisher

Bad day in the design dome

I still remember going into the design dome at the Chrysler tech center in Auburn Hills to see the upcoming 2006 Dodge Charger. The recently introduced Chrysler 300 was a sensation; the Dodge Magnum was a ballsy station wagon. Now there would be a sedan. There had been a Dodge Charger R/T concept car, back in 1999, that was very promising, its styling inspired by the excellent '68-'70 model. But when Chrysler design boss Trevor Creed pulled the drape off the production Charger, I could only think, "What happened?"
The cool influences of the iconic Charger were nowhere to be found. Instead there was a weird hop-up ahead of the rear fenders that didn't match the shape of the rear side glass, the graphic for which came to a point even though the glass area and the door opening didn't. The car had the same squashed roofline as the 300 but none of that car's design cohesion and none of its presence. To make matters worse, the interior, cheapened compared to its Chrysler counterpart, was an unrelieved house of rubberized hard plastic.

The Meathead Division

Here was a rare beast, a V-8-powered, rear-wheel-drive, American sedan, but it was impossible to get excited about it because the execution was so dumbed down. This was around the time Dodge was running its "That thing got a Hemi in it?" ads, with white-trash actor dude Jon Reep. It was as if Dodge was trying to position itself as the Meathead Division.
In the years since, we've seen a spate of mostly disappointing products. A redesigned Charger, developed during Chrysler's darkest financial hours, was not hotly anticipated. All of which makes the new Charger one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2011 model year.

A wholesale improvement

The new Charger's exterior dimensions are all within an inch of the previous car, but the overall impact is far greater. (The new car is significantly more aerodynamic as well). A new greenhouse features a more raked windshield and taller side windows, and the pillars aren't quite as fat, all of which improves outward visibility. The upsweep at the rear fenders flows from the C-shaped side scallops, which recall the '68-'70 Charger (and the '99 concept). Full-width rear taillights give the back end a lot more distinction, and also echo the muscle-car-era Charger. Here, however, they're modernized with 168 LEDs.

Exit the cave

The previous Charger interior was a dark cave that was impossible to see out of, and yet given its cheap materials, one wonders why Chrysler designers would want to focus your attention inside. Now, however, not only is the Charger (somewhat) easier to see out of, but when your gaze returns to your surroundings, what you see is a whole lot nicer.
The interior has a fairly simple dash, with the instruments and the huge touch-screen encased in a swath of machine-turned silver trim -- which may be to everyone's taste. The sleek fonts for the gauges, however, are unlikely to find any detractors, nor will the large, grippy knobs for the fan speed, the stereo volume, and the radio tuning. The touch-screen is huge, but it has sucked up too many functions that deserve their own, dedicated switches or buttons. The radio band and presets should move off-screen, because they'd be easier to use by feel and they wouldn't disappear when you switch the screen to navigation. So, too, should the seat heaters. The screen graphics and resolution, however, are top-notch, and the procedure for pairing a phone with Bluetooth is the quickest and easiest I've yet to experience -- and you needn't talk to the dashboard to do it.
My particular Charger presented particularly well, as it was equipped with supple Nappa leather. The seats have a neat sew pattern, which is repeated in the contrasting-color door panel inserts. The driving position is quite good, with a prominent dead pedal. Getting into the rear seat is hazardous to one's cranium due to the sloping door opening (a problem in more and more sedans). Once you're plopped down on the soft seat, however, headroom is adequate and legroom is okay.