Here’s how the Villager minivan was far more Nissan than Mercury 

Do a video on the Ford Explorer sport trac pickup

The 3rd gen Quest was definitely the best of the Quest minivans. I personally liked it's weirdness but what made it impressive was how it drove. It was quick, responsive, felt planted on the road, and handled extremely well. A lot of features on it were pretty cool too, it would have been nice to see the 4th gen retain some of it.

Had a Villager. Went cross country with my wife and 5 kids aged 6 months old to 14. Absolutely had no problems with it. I had it for a few years. It was extremely reliable and very comfortable. I sold it at about 90k miles with no issues at all. I upgraded to a Toyota Sequoia. Another vehicle I loved.

My parents bought a 1st year, 1st Gen Villager LS in 1992 that was emerald green with silver on the bottom. We used it to drive from Washington state to Washington DC that first summer. And a few years later, to drive to Alaska. It was a great van when it came out. As a kid, I remember the rear controls in the middle seat area for the heat/AC and controls for the radio with two headphone jacks. It was great for hauling stuff too.

It was a pretty good "starter minivan" back in the day. We got a nice mid level 95 GS model back in 94 after our second child was born. It was $19,990 with a sticker price of $22,605. I still have all the paperwork and brochure! One of the reasons we got it was the fact it was basically a Nissan Maxima power train. The sliding third seat was a good idea for us. We kept it until 2004, and it stayed in the family for another 10 years or so.

My mom bought a top of the line Villager brand new in 1995. She liked the adjustable pedals (she's 5'-2") but it started nickel and diming us after less than 40k miles. The leather seats even had to be redone despite her being the only person in it most of the time because my brother and I already had our own cars. It just wasn't a quality product and a family friend's Toyota Sienna was across the board better than it. After decades of owning Lincoln and Mercury cars it soured her on them and it was replaced by a Subaru Forester. She now has her 3rd Subaru and will trade it for a 4th soon. My dad had a Sable wagon at the time and traded it for a Grand Cherokee. That ended his streak of owning Mercurys too and he is now on his fourth Grand Cherokee.

I remember driving my parents' 2000's Quest. For some reason I could never get used to the ridiculously weird body shape and proportions, and I almost always found it nearly impossible to park straight.

Digital gauge cluster is one of my favorites of the time. Looked soo futuristic

Trivia: the last Nissan Quest also shares with the Nissan Elgrand which rivals the Toyota Alphard/Vellfire/Lexus LM and as of today........it's still on sale in Japan

My family owned a 99 Nissan Quest in Maroon. We had it running consistently for over 20 years with maintenance.. when things usually broke. It was old enough that when I was born, I was taken home from the hospital in it, and when I got my license I was driving it. Unfortunately the NJ Rustbelt had its firm grasp on her and she became too expensive to fix. The final blow was when I tried to stop while coming home from school, the breaks gave out and my foot went to the floor. Avoided any accidents, but most of the break lines were shot and we didn`t know how, or had the money to replace them. I really miss that Van sometimes, and she had the get-up and go whenever you needed it. Anyone who says cars can`t be a part of the family has no idea. ❤

The second driver's sliding door became so popular, that Chrysler made it standard equipment. It was originally offered as an option.

Gotta respect Nissan for trying different things with their styling in the early '00s - the Quest, Murano, and Maxima with the fixed longitudinal skylights definitely were unique, even if they were poorly executed. I never knew they even made a 2nd gen villager, although the 1st gen was popular where I lived (although the quest probably outsold it 2-1).

The last generation Quest always felt like a cargo van converted to passenger use, we had them in the rental fleet rarely.

I worked at a Lincoln-Mercury car dealer in the early 2000s and I saw a ton of these. I'm not big on Vans but I always liked these. Dark blue and black were the best colors IMO.

I actually learned to drive in an early 2000s Nissan Quest… one of my relatives had one and would let me drive it while I had my learners permit… good times…

People don’t realize what a status symbol some of these vans were in their time. If you had a long wheel base or grand caravan grand voyager and town and country you were the shit. If you had the short wb ehhhh depended on options. Same with Chevy venture lwb and short I thing the second gen quest and villager did nice slotting between and they sold well. Then the SUV’s started touting their “ commanding road views” and massive interiors which still sometimes were less ergonomic and useful over vans. I know people with Escalade esv’s that borrow Toyota siennas and odysseys for work.

The problem with these were they were smaller than a caravan, more expensive than a grand caravan, and you couldt remove the 3rd row bench. They sold well because they were reliable, unlike most chrysler minivans.

My mom had 2 villagers. A 1997 fully loaded and a 1999 sport. Fun fact the villager sport and quest SE had suspension upgrades to make them handle better. I learned how to drive in that van. And I still want one to this day.

I know this episode wouldn't focus on a particular old car, but have you ever considered doing an episode on the Cash for Clunkers program that pretty much took the bulk of these cars on the channel off the road?

I'm not sure why but knowing that we both grew up in the same area makes me love this channel even more.

I remember the angry car CEO in these ads. Ironic he says, "Who would want a minivan that drives like a car?" as we all know he's a caricature of Lee Iacocca, the guy who INVENTED the minivan, which was FWD and drove like a damn CAR!

Thanks for this episode. I commented that this was my first ever vehicle and while it may have been seen as uncool to drive a minivan to high school I gotta say I loved driving this van, I had so much fun with it and surprisingly a lot of my friends loved driving in it as well mainly because of the automatic seatbelts and the fact I had a massive stereo in it.. I still have it but it's parked now with a blown head gasket, it's being saved for parts since my father has a '94 Villager that's still going today. Great work on the video!

I owned a decked out 2000 villager. Leather, sunroof, built in child seats(loved those). One of the biggest things I miss about that van, was the fact that the glass in the rear hatch opened, made it easy to just throw small things in. I wish modern cars would bring back opening rear glass on all these SUVs and crossovers.

That Nissan Quest concept from 2002 recently got sent to a junk yard and was in some articles a couple months ago. The one at 9:25

Sir, as a former employee of a Nissan dealer for over 20 years, I saw everything was on spot (and more), except for a simple mention at the end... The 4G Quest was not only imported from Japan, but it was an WIDENED (6" / 150mm) version of the existing Nissan Elgrand midsize van in the Japanese Domestic Market which is why it lasted 1 generation even with the lower sales. Competitors to the JDM Elgrand were / are the Toyota Alphard / Lexus LM and Honda Elysion / 5th generation JDM Odyssey, which, unlike the Elgrand never made it to The States, modified or not. These midsize vans belong to a narrow + high roof style of "people movers" that are coveted by Japanese and Chinese (non-corporate) luxury car buyers.

The last new car my grandparents bought was a red base model 1994 Mercury Villager. Everytime my brother, cousins and I would visit our grandparents house in Tacoma,WA we'd all fight to sit in the 3rd row seat, good times. That. van is as old as I am and I miss it.

My family had a 97Nissan Quest and a 98Mercury Villager. I had to drive them occasionally and let me tell you, these vans were FAST compared to the other ones of the same era, I would race myself across three cities and pick up friends to go to conventions and expos, it was good on gas too. Good memories. Haha

I purchased my first gen Villager from a family member that was the caregiver of the first original owner. The van has endless factory upgrade options so I have the leather seats, digital cluster, keyless entry, etc. It has it’s quirks and features for a newer classic vehicle and most definitely very fun going up mountains.

My best friend in high school’s mom used to have a green Mercury Villager that I drove a few times when we ditched school to go to the mall. It was actually pretty easy to drive. I got my first ticket driving that van by running a stop sign 🥴

This was my family's first and only minivan, a 97 green and silver Villager with the machined alloy wheels. I drove it on every family vacation since I had my temp license, and up to that point it was the most powerful car i'd driven. It looked much better IMO than the others at the time, and unlike those it never gave us any real issues until it got totaled in 2011 by someone pulling out in front of my mom. I have great memories of many family road trips and moving in/out of my dorm using just the Villager. So many places on the body had both Ford and Nissan stamped in, and its funny to see Fords and Nissans of that era and seeing which parts bin the pieces came from. I still remember people who owned one made it feel like a private group, always parking next to each other and such or waving as we drove past each other. I still see some first get models driving around

Im shocked that the gen 1 and gen 2 quest had different sheet metal. It looks like the exact same body shell. I thought the newer one was just a facelift. Thanks MOC

The 2004-2006 Nissan Quest was very unique. For a minivan, it was very nice and had a very stylish exterior. The SE trim gave you those sky lights that went all the way into the 3rd row seats. It was THE minivan to get at the time.

I almost got crushed by a 2012 Quest sliding door at the NYC car show.

My family had a 1994 Nissan Quest GXE in Aquamarine that we bought used in 2004. It had a Gray leather interior and all the badges were plated in 24k Gold. It was a good van (although we were left stranded once because the 3.0 engines had a problem with the camshaft; I didn't know about that problem until I read about it on Wikipedia a few years ago), until an unlicensed driver crashed into it and our 1998 Dodge Ram 1500. We sold it to our neighbor and they fixed it and resold it to another neighbor and they drove it until the engine broke...

The previous generation Nissan Prairie to the one you discussed was also sold in Canada as the Multi, and in the US as the Stanza Wagon. It also had dual sliding doors. My parents had an '87.

I helped build the Villager for all 10 years of its run…and I leased the 95, 97 and 99 models, the last getting the much needed second sliding door (we had 3 kids)….made a huge difference

We actually had two of these when daughter was a baby/toddler.....both were marvelous vehicles for what they were at the time for us. Put over roughly 150,000 miles on both with no major problems. General maintenance was all we did.......

I actually dig that central control stack in the 3rd gen Quest, it's like a control panel in a space pod or something - I don't like it enough to go out and buy a 3rd gen Quest, but that kind of deviation from standardized design has always appealed to me.

My dad had a Ford Aerostar minivan and I was surprised how much I liked driving it. I think it was because it was rear wheel drive. I've driven a Nissan Quest so I guess I've driven a Mercury Villager since it's the same. I didn't like it. I guess I'm more comfortable in rear wheel drive vehicles

I worked for a Nissan dealership from '05 to '08. In '07, I bought a '00 Quest with under 40k miles on it. I left Nissan to work for a Honda dealer in '08, but I kept that van until 2018, and it had way over 200k miles on it by then. I could have kept it on the road, but it had spend it's whole life at the seashore, and it was SO rusty. I have fond memories of than old van.

I visited the Petersen Auto Museum last month, as I and my friends I was traveling with headed back north after the Long Beach GP. I knew I was in for a treat when I saw a '57 Continental Mark II in the parking garage before I even walked into the museum itself. It's definitely a cause worth supporting. I saw so much good stuff while I was there. We planned to spend an hour there; by the time we left we'd been there TWO hours.

I worked for Nissan at the time. Dispite being identical, The Mercury Villager had the highest customer satisfaction in Ford Motor Companies lineup. The Nissan Quest had the worst in Nissan’s lineup. Goes to show you what different customer brand expectations are.

I am on the east coast, and back in the 90's when i was in high school a lot of my classmates parents drove the Nissan Quest and the Mercury Villager (some of our teachers drove them too). I hardly see Villager's on the road anymore, or the early model Quest's.

I first learned the Villager and Quest were the same when I was a teen. Local guy had one that was half red and half green. The red bits were Nissan green were Mercury.

You never see any Mercury's anymore

Kate jackson actually drove a 1983 Ford LTD squire wagon (the fox based midsized one) in the first season of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. That car shared its platform with the Mercury Marquis Villiager.

Lol, the first car I ever drove, my mom’s car, was a Nissan Axxess. Didn’t know it only lasted one year, it was a hilarious looking car but very reliable and had pretty advanced interior design for the day.

I loved the weird Quest design. It’s funny because it seems Toyota and Honda tried to follow suit. I saw a Sienna yesterday and it was a trip.

2002 mercury villager at 240k going strong.still perfect for another 20 years!!

Now looking at the 1st gen Villager, I like the light bar style grille. - side note; I personally think that sliding rear doors can be a great feature on SUVs today, especially with consumers that have a family.

Congtats on 50k!!! Thanks for the great vids! Keep them coming!

Awesome content as always! Lately I've been getting into 80s and 90s GMs since I picked up a 95 z28 for a weekend toy. It would be awesome if you could cover the Monte Carlo or El Camino in a future video.

I love the Mercury Villager. It’s just so unique. I love the classic Nissan Quest. The Villager’s digital dash has a tachometer unlike the one in the Grand Marquis even though that’s an entirely different car for a different purpose. The quirky design and details.

The Mercury Villager was the official vehicle of "Buy here, pay here" used car lots everywhere.

Really glad to see some sponsorship for this channel it's well deserved for this quality content.

my mother's mom which is my grandmother bought a 1996 Mercury Villager GS red brand new off the dealership lot, had it for years, after my grandma passed away it was given to my mom, in 2006 got my driver's license, and started driving it in 2008, that was one of the best minivan I've ever driven, I missed driving it, my mom got rid of it in 2010 traded it for a 2008 Ford Taurus SEL silver... memories, I loved that van! everybody in the neighborhood recognized me and that van when I drove it... they knew it was me 😂 we got rid of it at 156,000 mi.

Those cars made the road look futuristic.. what can't all cars look like that.. its nice seeing them park on the side of the road

Wow! This is a throwback. My parents bought one of these new in 1996. The only new car they ever bought. I have so many fond memories in that vehicle (and the Dodge Caravan we had before it). We had it up until 2005 when my sister pulled out into traffic and it got t-boned. Fortunately her and I walked away without a scratch.

Great way to start my Saturday, I love the channel.

I have a 1995 Mercury Villager GS (you can find a funny video of it on my channel) that my parents bought new from Cherner Lincoln Mercury. It has 220k miles and I take it car shows where people stop and reminisce or show their kids how vans were back then!

I have a 1991 Nissan Hardbody with a VG30E out of a Villager. I had a timing belt break on the highway one time (turns out the previous owners put in a square tooth belt when the engine needed a round tooth). Since the one out of the Villager is Non-Interference I had to get a new timing belt and put one in. Still is a solid truck.

My neighbor had a 3rd gen Quest I will never forget going on a hike in the mountains in that car and her dog throwing up, urinating and defecating all over the 2nd row seats.

Mercury could have made it more Mercury-like by equipping it with wire wheel covers, white sidewall tires, and a padded vinyl roof. Inside a bench seat with backrest & headrests so low they didn’t offer any whiplash protection in a rear collision. 😉

Center gauge clusters are good for vehicles designed to be sold in right hand drive markets. Helps keep cost lower

My band's drummer owned a Toyota minivan (the one with the engine under the front seats and looked like an egg) because it could swallow up his kit and still have some room for amplifiers. He kept it and later used it for his family hauler. He loved the thing and the only reason he let it go was that it got rear-ended by a crew cab duelie and was totaled out by the insurance company. I owned and drove an '88 Toyota Celica for almost a decade. It was the fourth gen car and was the first one to go to front drive. That car was so overbuilt that nothing I did ever managed to kill it, and the reliability of the go bits amazed me. Almost 200K before it was totaled. I never see the fourth gen Celica (or any Celica, for that matter) and I wonder if it's something worth considering.

Totally forgot about these! One of the neighbor’s parents had one. Thought it looked good with the Taurus like light bar across the front.

Love my 2004 Nissan Quest! Well built van with the ZX 3.5 DOHC VVT engine-very powerful.

That was enlightening. I knew about the vans, but got more info with the video. The footage was great. The effort put into the video was grand too. I cannot say enough about that. Every week it is a surprise as to what car we will see. Thank you. Please keep up the great work. I look forward to more GM videos. How about Pontiac Parisienne and Pontiac Bonneville?

First off...I actually wanted a Villager as a kid because it looked so cool! At least in 1997 and having parents that owned a 94 Aerostar. Lightbars were kind of my thing. Second I grew up in NE Ohio where the Avon Lake assembly was located. I remember seeing the Nissan Quests literally lined up outside the plant while the Econolines rolled off the line. And I asked my dad when Ford bought Nissan! We were both confused why these Nissan minivans were inside the gate. Of course the Villagers were there too and that did make sense. The 90s were cool and weird.

Aunt and Uncle had a third gen Quest, Went on a few road trips in it. Thanks for doing this one.

My friend had one that was very reliable. Over 400k on motor and trans. Never had any engine problems. Suspension wore out and was replaced entirely at 250k. He really liked it. I always thought it was ugly. But kept him going to his guitar gigs for many years

We bought a new 1995 Quest in late 1994 and kept it 11 1/2 years, 129,000 miles. At that particular buying moment, it was the best-driving minivan, although if I'd waited a year, I probably would have got the first (small) Honda Odyssey. My suspicion as an engineer is that Ford and Nissan didn't do quite enough development testing of the combo of the Nissan powertrain with Ford platform; we cracked both exhaust manifolds at a pretty young age. The buying experience was also kind of odd, at one dealership which happened to be a combined LM/Nissan one, the salesman insisted that a Villager would be a better deal, even though the two-tone paint I did not want was $0 on the Mercury and extra cost on the Nissan, while the captain's chairs I did want were extra cost on the Mercury but standard on the Nissan. We bought elsewhere. Our Quest basically served us well, but by 2006 it had developed a yard-long list of niggling little problems which weren't worth the effort to fix. Then, miracle of miracles, it was totaled in an accident for which I was completely blameless, the police actually eye-witnessed happening, produced no injuries, and left the Quest just drivable enough to get us home and to the body shop for an estimate.

I’ve always loved cars and movies. Love seeing what cars are in what movies. As soon as a seen the Villager I thought of Boys on the side. I was thrilled when you played a bit of the movie at the end!

Thanks for doing this one. I lived in my 94 quest for almost two years. Absolutely loved this car

I love you for the "Boys on the Side" clip at the end ❤️

Future vehicles for videos recommendations: - Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe - Lincoln LS - Toyota Previa - Honda S2000 - Toyota T100 - Isuzu Rodeo - Mazda Protogé 5 - Geo Storm - Ford Ranger

WE HAD A VILLAGER!! The weird green color of the 90s kind. It's tied for first place as my mom's favorite car. Whenever I see a green one on the road somewhere I like to assume it's our actual family van.

Gotta love that dashboard cylinder on the 04-06 Quest.

Another great video. Thanks so much!

I know in Canada in the 1990's we did get the Mercury Villager vans, and they discontinued them after the first generation, and we never got the second generation, however we did get all versions of the Nissan Quest vans, in every generation. I think by 1996 the majority of Mercury branded vehicles was on the decline, as Ford slowly phased out each model of Mercury starting in 1996 with the Tracer (we never got the refreshed version of this 1997 Escort), then the 2 generation of the Sable ended, followed by the second generation of Mystique ending, up until the Cougar & Grand Marquis were the only 2 models left, and they were gone when their model lines ended production as well.

You did a great job on this video, My Old Car! 👍 I liked that you included a commercial with the Rugrats characters. Rugrats is one of my favourite Nicktoons alongside Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Jimmy Neutron, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, The Loud House and it's spinoff show, The Casagrandes. I'm still looking forward to seeing a video on my suggestion about the history of Volkswagen TDI cars in North America. Keep up the good work, man! 👍

I worked at a Lincoln Mercury dealer in the late 90's-early 00's. These things were toilets. We hated them, and working on them.

I bought a 2002 Nissan Quest for $6000 with 40000 miles. Good reliable van that is cheaper than a Toyota or Honda van by at least $2000 . It eats gas though and Nissan dealers stopped stocking parts. It's like a small pickup or camper solid rear axle not independent. Front wheel drive very good in snow. Vans drive great long distance in captain chairs. It's my second one.

My dad had a Villager Nautica. It was peak 90’s!

The first-gen Villager was the coolest minivan back in the day. I wish my parents had one... Alas my mom inherited an old Mercury Monarch coupe from her dad and it was... unreliable to say the least!

When I was growing up, my best friend's mother had the Villager with a VHS player. It was absolutely amazing on road trips. I just saw her last week for the first time in about 20 years, and she's still driving the same van.

Can you finally do a Video on the Chevy Citation, we've been waiting for a Long Time but i still Love your Videos😀

Our family had the first-gen and it was the car I learned to drive in. Always thought the digital gauges were so cool when I was a kid. Never knew it was a Nissan.

Thank you for listening to my request for this video

Had a 2000 Quest, it was essential for my family because we already a family of 5 when guess what! Not only was there one more on the way but they were twins. It was a tight fit for all of us but it did its job well. Never had any problems with it, drove it all over the country even on the Azores. The only glitch ever was sometimes when it was hot the speedometer would cut out. You'd just have to use your best judgment. Definitely worse problems to have than that on a vehicle with 140K on it. Minivans never looked as cool or tough as SUVs but for the money you could never bear the cargo volume and gas mileage.

I had a scion XB for 9 years...speedo on the top of the dash, just left of the center, was perfect. No more looking through or over your steering wheel to glance at the speedo, it was just a hair beneath where you are always looking through the windshield. That car had a lot right about it. If they had made the second gen just have cruise control and a 1.8l, it might have been a perfect car.

Side note for the quest, the quest was used as the cash cab in the show

The Villager/Quest is one of the more random plentiful cars I see in my area today. Side note, the Nissan Axxess deserved way more than one year in America.

Minivans are cool, change my mind. The reason why is because I used to drive a 2004 Honda Odyssey.

Frasier is my favorite show ever so thank you

The last Gen and second to last Gen looked so cool though

I miss the good old days in the 90s and early 2000s. The Quest and Villager were some nice vans used to love 1st generation Villager always pictured myself in one that was 28 years ago. I saw a 1st generation Quest other day looked like new love those vans, used be crazy about minivans that was before SUVS start getting more famous, a woman knew had a green '94 Villager and church joined many years ago the pastor he had a Gray one also my grandfather that is also a pastor the church member had a '96 GS it was White. These Villagers were just Nissan's same platform that is why they are so dependable wish Nissan would bring back the Quest had few brochures of the 2010s Quest. I always thought the first generation Quest was nice especially when got refreshed around '96 looked more modern the Stanza Van was replacement of Axxess as it was replaced with the Quest. Love Nissan's so glad they are coming back to their roots used to have '97 Altima GXE thought was a really nice car especially with exterior luckily mines rusted but was old tough machine also had '07 Altima was very reliable now driving a 2015 Rogue that is also great car though not a Quest wish could find used first generation Quest loved those vans Quest/Villager platforms.

The gen3 quest was a carlos goshn piece. I think it was cool for its time. People hate on Goshn now but he really did save nissan in the early 2000s with new modern designs like the 02 Nissan Altima with its after burner taillights and the gen 2 quest. His mistake was getting obsessed with CVTs (we all know how that went) and growing markershare which lead him to depending on fleet sales, same mistake pre-bankruptcy gm made and that sunk their resale value and thus retail salea and markershare. Theyre finally starting to recover.

Man, I loved mine. It was fun, quick and woul plow through snow like you wouldn’t believe

87 Dodge Aries Station Wagon Spent some of my childhood riding around in one, the best was going to Drive-Ins since you could fold the back seats down flat. But to be honest I wish we had a Buick Roadmaster.