2012 Nissan Quest: An anything-but-mini van

 Nissan still calls its Quest a minivan. But there is nothing “mini” about it. The 2012 Nissan Quest LE driven for this column is more like a bus, an expansion of size variously attributed to the widening girths, populations and egos found in the North American markets in which it is sold.

No offense is intended here.

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Choose any available medical report on weight and obesity, including the latest (May 2012) by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. Succinctly stated, the findings are that Americans are fat and getting fatter — nearly two-thirds of adults and one-third of all children in the United States are overweight or obese. By 2030, the institute, a collection of 65 of the nation’s most esteemed medical doctors and health research scientists, estimates that 42 percent of the nation’s citizenry will be overweight or obese.

That’s a lot of weight. It is affecting health costs in the United States and Canada — an estimated $300 million annually for weight-related diseases. It also affects the size and fuel economy of the vehicles we drive.

It’s simple. You don’t develop sardine cans to transport whales.

The Nissan Quest bus is a case in point. The first generation of that vehicle entered the United States in 1993 as a joint-venture product between Nissan and Ford Motor Co., sold as the Mercury Villager. It was a smallish thing, a minivan in the truest sense of the word, although capable of carrying seven people with some deft maneuvering of cabin seats. It barely stretched 16 feet in length. It had a curb weight, poundage minus passengers and cargo, of 3,815 pounds. It was narrow, urban-maneuverable and, with the exception of several long-ago-corrected defects, an ideal people hauler for a small-to-moderate-size urban American family.

We’re now in its fourth generation. You can be pardoned for not recognizing the thing. It’s big — nearly 17 feet long, 6.5 feet wide and 6 feet high. Step-in height is 15.7 inches to 16.1 inches, depending on whether you choose 16-inch-diameter or 18-inch-diameter wheels. (Hint: You get slightly better fuel economy with the smaller wheels, but you get better handling and ride with the bigger ones.)

The new Quest LE, the top of the Nissan Quest line, weighs in at 4,658 pounds — a large portion of that weight attributed to a super-tufted, amenity-laden vehicle with motorized, automatic everything — power sliding side doors, power automatic rear hatch, power seats and glass roof, and electronic infotainment and connection systems. Meet the bus/minivan as motorized castle.

Why all of those changes? It all depends on who you listen to at Nissan. But the best answer can be found in a distillation of those heard around the global car industry.

First, the new Quest is based on the platform of the Nissan Elgrand — a tall front-wheel-drive luxury minivan sold by Nissan in Japan, China and Thailand. Those Asian markets are becoming the largest retail zones for Nissan and many of its rivals, meaning that vehicle platforms developed for those markets are likely to be used in the still-lucrative North American arena to save development and production costs.