Nissan Quest

The Nissan Quest is a minivan manufactured since 1992 by Nissan, and is now in its fourth generation. The first two generations of the Quest were a joint venture with Ford, which marketed a rebadged variant as the Mercury Villager. The vans debuted at the 1992 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Both vehicles were initially powered by the 3.0 L Nissan VG30E V6 engine until 1998, when the Quest received the 3.3 L version of the same engine and a few minor updates, including a driver side sliding door, and grille and rear redesigns. The Quest was completely redesigned for 2004, while the Villager was discontinued and replaced with the Freestar-based Mercury Monterey. The third generation model was built on the FF-L platform, which it shares with the Altima, Maxima, Teana, and Murano. It also shares the 3.5 L VQ engine with those cars. The fourth generation model is built on the same platform as the 2011 Nissan Elgrand.

First generation series V40 (1992–1998)

In 1987, Ford and Nissan entered a joint agreement to develop an all-new vehicle to compete in the minivan segment scheduled for 1991. Development officially began later that year under the codename VX54, with the final designs being chosen in 1989. Prototypes went into initial testing in 1990 at Ford and Nissan test tracks, later real-world testing throughout 1991, with development concluding at the end of that year. On January 6, 1992, the 1993 Nissan Quest was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Unusually, its design patents were subsequently filed by design chief Thomas H. Semple for Nissan Motor on March 5, 1992, rather than in advance of its introduction.