While our 2000 Odyssey is in the shop, we’re living with a free rental
car provided by the dealer. It’s a 2005 Nissan Quest with only 3000
miles on it. Ordinarily, I’d be savoring my chance to drive such a new
and powerful vehicle over our Odyssey that’s been around the block quite
a bit. But oh my, the number of issues I have with the car:
1. Gas mileage is simply horrible. I’m guessing we’re getting 15-18 mpg
in a 50/50 mix of expressway driving and typical short trip suburban
driving. You can almost watch the gas guage drop on it.
2. Why are such key instruments as the speedometer in the MIDDLE of the
dash, so the driver has to turn his head 45 degrees to see them? It’s
really odd at night, having a black area straight in front of me where
I’d expect the backlit instrument panel to be.
3. The horizontally-oriented climate control and audio panel is just
weird. Plus, the area it sticks out of takes up a lot of key space.
4. Because the "pod" (for want of a better word) with the audio and
climate controls sticks out so far, it’s a major risk to attempt to
insert a CD into the player while driving. I can’t even see the slot
for the player because of the awkward way it’s positioned.
5. The rear hatch door opens so high, and closes so hard, that my wife
has a great deal of difficulty closing it.
It’s just a loaner, and we’ve only had it for five days. I’m wondering
if my observations above are shared by others. And does the overall
experience with the car improve over time? Although the car feels like
it’s well-built, it’s the most nonintuitive car I’ve ever used, and
seems like it wasn’t designed with much foresight.
The front end is positively fugly…it looks like the designer carved
it from playdough with a butter knife. Other than that it is another
van.
I know where your coming from with this. We just dumped our 97 Explorer for
a minivan. Being a Nissan fan (we have a 95 200SX SE-R and an 03 Altima 3.5
SE), we gave the Quest a good look. However, the interior is very cheap
feeling and the dash sucks! Although I love the Nissan VQ engine, we wound
up with an 05 Odyssey with the iTEC engine (esp with the current gas
prices). We’ve had the Odyssey a month now, and I’m not a minivan fan, but
this thing rides great and is very comfortable! Still, I like my Altima
better, but the Odyssey is a great vehicle for our family. My next Nissan
will have to wait a couple more years (G35 / Z) until the Altima is paid
off!
"2000OdysseyLX" <nospam…@rr.com> wrote in message
news:nospam4me-B9680A.14161529032005@syrcnyrdrs-03-ge0.nyroc.rr.com…
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
> While our 2000 Odyssey is in the shop, we’re living with a free rental
> car provided by the dealer. It’s a 2005 Nissan Quest with only 3000
> miles on it. Ordinarily, I’d be savoring my chance to drive such a new
> and powerful vehicle over our Odyssey that’s been around the block quite
> a bit. But oh my, the number of issues I have with the car:
> 1. Gas mileage is simply horrible. I’m guessing we’re getting 15-18 mpg
> in a 50/50 mix of expressway driving and typical short trip suburban
> driving. You can almost watch the gas guage drop on it.
> 2. Why are such key instruments as the speedometer in the MIDDLE of the
> dash, so the driver has to turn his head 45 degrees to see them? It’s
> really odd at night, having a black area straight in front of me where
> I’d expect the backlit instrument panel to be.
> 3. The horizontally-oriented climate control and audio panel is just
> weird. Plus, the area it sticks out of takes up a lot of key space.
> 4. Because the "pod" (for want of a better word) with the audio and
> climate controls sticks out so far, it’s a major risk to attempt to
> insert a CD into the player while driving. I can’t even see the slot
> for the player because of the awkward way it’s positioned.
> 5. The rear hatch door opens so high, and closes so hard, that my wife
> has a great deal of difficulty closing it.
> It’s just a loaner, and we’ve only had it for five days. I’m wondering
> if my observations above are shared by others. And does the overall
> experience with the car improve over time? Although the car feels like
> it’s well-built, it’s the most nonintuitive car I’ve ever used, and
> seems like it wasn’t designed with much foresight.
I’m loving ours. Yeah, parts of it take some getting used to, but one
of the huge advantages is the amount of room, both in front and back.
The "pod" allows you to climb all the way from the driver’s seat to the
far back, since it’s not blocking you (like some of the consoles on
other minivans).
My biggest problem (about to post on it) is that there’s no easy way to
hook up an mp3 player. I want to be able to read the id3 tags on the
dash, and there’s simply no way (according to several aftermarket
people) to do so, and Nissan doesn’t even offer one (?!).
Anyhow, my 2 cents.