Nissan Quest

The quest is now at 205k miles and the only things I've had to do to it was change the oil every 5-6k miles with synthetic blend and later high mileage castrol. Never had to tune up the motor at all, replace any belts, any of that, which is great considering how tight the engine bay is. I rebuilt the front suspension at 158k miles. Still fine almost 50k later. My wife rarely drives it to her speed bump jumping events these days.

There are some problems which I just deal with: the radio sometimes won't turn on, or it will and it just emits a way-too-loud buzzing sound--sometimes it works normally. You can pull the fuse and plug it back in to fix the problem or just wait a random amount of time and try again and it fixes itself eventually. The transmission bucks from time to time at a certain low speed range when applying moderate throttle (trying to maintain speed), I'd say 10-20 mph. It is always smooth when accelerating and at highway speeds.

My power steering fluid starting leaking so I have replaced it with automatic transmission fluid which I learned a long time ago works about as well but leaks at a slower rate than power steering fluid. This was around 165k miles. I have since located the leak in the tube that's running down along the bottom of the motor but I haven't repaired it yet, I just keep feeding it auto tranny fluid. Ironically, the last time I needed to buy some I was at Walmart and the only thing I could find was the stuff that had stop-leak in it, which I normally stay far away from, but since this is our beater vehicle I went ahead and purchased it. Lo-and-behold, it seems to have actually stopped the leak.

Overall this vehicle has given us five years and 100k miles of virtually trouble-free operation. It was well worth the money we spent on it. I plan to take it out of service this spring and do some pretty extensive preventive maintenance on the areas I haven't bothered with since buying it, drive it a couple more years, then probably give it away to a needy family.

Earlier this week while driving to work I unexpectedly had something fly up from under the van, hit the windshield, bounce off and continue on to the traffic behind me. Luckily no one was hurt and the van continued to run so I had to keep moving due to traffic. When I could finally stop, I discovered the chrome trim strip above the grill had broken off and that is what flew off. Upon inspecting the area where the trim "used" to be, it apparent that there are clips on only one side of the area where it was to be fastened.

Now I'm just a bit cranky because I'm researching replacing the trim and the only option I can locate so far is having to replace the whole grill system, even though it's just the trim and is installed separate from the grill, an obvious fact as it took flight and the grill stayed in place... so far. I love certain aspects of this van, but I must admit this vehicle has made me more nervous as an owner than any other vehicle I have ever owned.

I have a mechanical history and do all of my own preventative maintenance, I change oil, check fluids, and rotate tires every 5k. I noticed when the tires had only 10k on them that all 4 were showing pretty aggressive wear. I made an appointment at the alignment shop because I assumed it must be out of alignment due to the tire wear. Much to my surprise, they found that the vehicle was NOT out of alignment. So I chalked it up to tire manufacturer problems, after going down that road they advised me that they (tire manufacturer) had experienced the same problem on other vehicles of the same make and model??? I thought surely this couldn't be and that they were just trying to get out of replacing my tires!

The second hit came when the Quest had 93k miles. The transmission would not allow the vehicle to increase in speed, it was like it was stuck in "low" however I knew it couldn't be due to the way a CVT is designed. I made an appointment at a transmission shop, took the van in and was advised that the CVT needed to be replaced. The shop advised to purchase an OE CVT from Nissan so we did to the tune of $2500 (parts only). When I picked up the van after repair the tech explained the warranty and such and to be honest I kinda let it in one ear and out the other because I thought I'm good now!! WRONG!! The next hit came when the A/C compressor went out at 101k miles! After that I thought OK now I'm good NOW!! WRONG!! I had to replace the tires again, third set since 65K and three times on the alignment rack! With no solutions...

By this time we are thinking and looking about replacing this Quest with something else so we were passively looking at options but not with a lot of urgency... Man I wish I would've acted quicker. As the spring started and the temperatures increased we started to notice a delay when shifting from drive to reverse. So I went back to the transmission shop, they advised that the new transmission was OE so I needed to talk with the dealer for warranty. So I talked to the dealership and was reminded the warranty was 12mo or 12k mi. at the current time I was at 13 mo. and 19k miles! The dealer advised I talk with Nissan Consumer Affairs. So I started a case with them #**. I was initially advised that there was nothing they could do for me and there needed to be further evaluation of the problem...

I made an appointment with the dealer, dropped off the Quest, they called a day later and said that indeed there was an internal problem with the CVT and it needed replaced! Again!! The dealer went to bat for me with NISSAN and negotiated a 60% Nissan 40% me replacement. While I appreciate the assistance, I think leaving ALL the other problems aside, a complete replacement would be appropriate! I then went back to Nissan Consumer Affairs to explain my case and found Nissan Consumer Affairs to be completely worthless! My case was "elevated to the Regional Manager" Amanda. While Amanda was pleasant to talk with and said she "understood" there was no further that she could offer.

While I understand that I purchased a vehicle used and wear and tear is not the responsibility of the manufacturer, I think a vehicle in alignment that wears out tires every 20-25k miles and transmissions that only last 20k miles is unacceptable! Now I'm in a moral dilemma of what to do with this piece of junk from here... I can't keep putting good money into this Quest (total repair cost $7200) but I really don't feel right selling it without full disclosure which will make the value of the van 1/2 of blue book! Thanks Nissan! Keep up the poor manufacturing and customer service!

Now, at 52k miles I’m told my air compressor is shot. I live in Cali where I don’t need it on full blast all the time and never use the heat. When asked why an air compressor that has never gone bad on a car less than 10 years old for us or really anyone from reading the response was well these things happen. Nissan, please back up your crappy products and extend your warranties until you can start producing good quality cars and safe cars for your consumers.