It’s time for minivans to rise up and claim their rightful place at the top of the family vehicle chain. You’ve got to pity the poor minivan. Everybody who owns one appreciates it, to the point of wondering how their families could ever get along without it. But it is universally scorned, to the point of acting as though they’d never consider buying one, and even some of those who …
2013 Chrysler Town and Country Review: The 2013 Chrysler Town and Country can change minds faster than enhanced interrogation. Take the subject of dream cars. In that category, I suspect most folks rate minivans somewhere above a Yugo GVX but below a Chevy Vega. Ahhh, but then one of these people-haulers shows up in the driveway early Thanksgiving week, just as a cross-state family junket looms, and you find that …
2012 Chicago Auto Show Review: CHICAGO, ILL. — The 2012 Chicago Auto Show is not the site of a lot of strikingly new vehicles, but it easily maintains its position as the most casual and most fun of the four major U.S. auto shows. The setting was a good opportunity for Ford and Chrysler to show off future stars, with Ford’s 2013 Fusion and the 2013 Dodge Dart both being …
The restyled Nissan Quest can be viewed two ways: as an excellent people and luggage hauler, or as a boxy, ill-styled minivan. I have no qualms with its minivan-ness. I think each generation of minivans becomes more useful and more fuel efficient. The tested Platinum Graphite (metallic dark gray) Quest 3.5 SV seats seven comfortably, featured a quiet interior, had good power and a smooth overall performance. It t’s easy …
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. — Through good times and bad, Mazda has held true to its ‘Zoom-Zoom” image. Its vehicles may vary, but they always rank high in the fun-to-drive quotient. The 2012 Mazda5 shines as the latest example, proving that even a mini-minivan can zoom. Mazda would prefer to call the Mazda5 a “Multi-Activity Vehicle,” but the chances of adding MAV to the consumers’ automotive lexicon is remote. Mazda …
Some people call the Mazda5 a station wagon. Others say it’s a sport wagon. But a minivan by any other name is still a minivan. Despite the opprobrium that has been heaped upon minivans over the last few years, for reasons known only to the heapers, the minivan in is still the most useful vehicle on the planet. It is unsurpassed in its amalgamation of passenger and cargo space, …
Unless you’re a building-trades person who favors cavernous rolling crates, you’re not likely to get terribly excited about the all-new vehicles from Nissan. But if you are such a person, the 2012 Nissan NV line of commercial vans opens up a host of possibilities. It’s rare that closed-vehicle manufacturers pay much attention to plumbers, electricians, carpenters and handymen. Except for the Ford Transit Connect, a recent small panel truck, and …
Like a sleepy homeowner who manages to unlock the door after fumbling with his key, Nissan has finally gotten the tumblers to drop and gained parity with the leading minivan manufacturers. The instrument of this achievement is the 2011 Quest, once an oddball contender against the big guys in the field: Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, and Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country. When the previous generation Quest arrived in …
