New Member looking to buy minivan

[Hoopdaddy]

have been looking to by a 2005 minivan. in the past we liked the Dodge Caravan/Chrysler Town and Country vans. The new "Stow and Go" seats, while a great concept, are very uncomfortable for my family and me because we are very tall people. To make the Stow and Go concept work, Chrysler made the second and third row seats shorter and with much thinner padding (using memory foam). However, by simply squeezing the top of the seat, you hit hard steel very quickly. That steel hits you and makes it extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, we ruled out the Chrysler products on passenger comfort alone.

We have also looked at an '05 Nissan Quest 3.5S. We like what we see and like its statistics.

Can anyone comment on the Quest as it stacks up against other minivans on the market?

We're needing to buy in the next few days, as we are down to a single vehicle in our family of five.

Thanks for your responses!!

[mwebber78]

I think you would do well if you upgrade just a bit to the base SL model since it has almost all the features of the stow n go models that Dodge and Chrysler offer. I have a late prouction 04' Quest SL and overall I am happy with it. it rides wonderfully and is sportier than most minivans. My wife drives it 90% of the time and is the only minivan she'd drive. Some people had issues with early production models. In 05' they have reworked certian trim and hardware to be of a higher quality and stand up better. I would go with a SL and enjoy it!

[DRTQUEST]

My family is also very tall - up to 6'-6". We love the Quest - we have the 2004 S model. The seats are thick and plenty of head and leg room throughout. We were able to get a great deal because it was a 2004. We looked at the Honda and Toyota also, but loved the Quests looks (the others seem really boring to me) and the standard safety features seemed superior (4 wheel disc, ABS, amount of air bags, traction control, etc) - and how can you beat the silky smooth Z engine (running regular no less!).

By reading the topics in this forum you can get a good feel for any problems that have come up. I still prefer the Quest.

Personally I think that the big three Japanese minivans will last much longer than any of the other minivans on the market and that it would be hard to go wrong with one of them.

Good luck with your decision!