Nissan Designer Blames Slow Quest Sales on Unorthodox Interior
The updated 2006 Quest couldn't come any sooner for Nissan
retailers, who no doubt would want a more competitive model in the hotly contested, highly profitable mid-van segment.
Yes, mid-van, a term coined by GM when it launched its Chevy Uplander, Saturn Relay, Pontiac Montana SV6 and Buick Terraza minivans last year, seems more suitable to a segment whose models have grown in size to rival the once popular full-size passenger vans of yesteryear. And the Quest is sizeable for sure, wider than most of its competitors and equally long and accommodating inside.
So why has it been the segment's wallflower? Was its redesign too radical for the sporty soccer moms it was intended for? According to Shiro
Nakamura, head designer for Nissan Motor Co., when the Quest is redesigned in a few years it will continue in its non-traditional nature, but just like the 2006 update there will be changes from the current model in the future van.
"I think we need a minivan," said Nakamura. "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."
It's odd for major Japanese automakers to get products wrong, and it usually happens when they attempt to do something that no-one else ever thought of in a foreign market, rather than the typical "make a good thing better" approach used in the land of the rising sun.
The updated 2006 Quest couldn't come any sooner for Nissan
 |
| The Quest is wider than most of its competitors and equally long and accommodating inside. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Yes, mid-van, a term coined by GM when it launched its Chevy Uplander, Saturn Relay, Pontiac Montana SV6 and Buick Terraza minivans last year, seems more suitable to a segment whose models have grown in size to rival the once popular full-size passenger vans of yesteryear. And the Quest is sizeable for sure, wider than most of its competitors and equally long and accommodating inside.
So why has it been the segment's wallflower? Was its redesign too radical for the sporty soccer moms it was intended for? According to Shiro
 |
| According to Shiro Nakamura, head designer for Nissan Motor Co., when the Quest is redesigned in a few years it will continue in its non-traditional nature. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
"I think we need a minivan," said Nakamura. "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."
It's odd for major Japanese automakers to get products wrong, and it usually happens when they attempt to do something that no-one else ever thought of in a foreign market, rather than the typical "make a good thing better" approach used in the land of the rising sun.