#Nissan nv 12 passenger van update

The front seat headrests pitch your head forward, which can be awkward on a long drive. When we’re packing our van for a long trip, it’s nice to know we don’t have to worry about somebody getting the back door slammed on them while we’re trying to decide where to put the sleeping bags. The back doors swing all the way open and then magnetize to the side of the van so no one will get hit by the doors.It helps to have some notice if there’s something behind me. There’s no fancy button that opens and closes it, but the door glides easily enough that my eight year olds can handle it. The side door can be opened by the kids.Side air-bags all the way to the back.The headrests are removable if you prefer. This has never been available in a van before to those of us who exceed the mini-vans. Shoulder belts and headrests for all twelve passengers.There are even two 120-volt plugs that you can plug things directly into. Power, power, everywhere! There’s a plug-in outlet on every row to accommodate our geeky selves with our laptops and iPads.It was designed to hold a laptop and hanging file folders… or small children, apparently. We haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure we could store baby Finn in the center console. I can see everything I need to for safe driving. With the headrests and such, you can’t really see out the back but you don’t need to because Nissan put big and small sideview mirrors in all the right places. Plus, we can hear each other now, so it’s like a date!

A non-contraction-inducing ride for the grown-ups and lots of room. It’s like driving a truck, not a top-heavy van. But you quickly realize you will fit between the parking space lines and you don’t have to swing as wide as you think you do. It feels really wide when you get behind the wheel. Here’s a list of the other things we like: The fact that I can get my double stroller in the back of the van means the cargo space is definitely adequate. We can also put a trailer hitch on the back and use one of those back end attachments for more trunk space. And the option to remove part of the back seat means we have much more flexibility to haul all our stuff.

But we have more cargo space than some of the Chevy Express vans I’ve been in. Hooray!Ĭargo space… We gave up some cargo space when we sold our Sprinter. The good news is: even if we remove seats for cargo, we will still have an extra seat to take a helper with us wherever we go. When we take big trips, we’ll move everyone around a bit so that we can remove half of the very back seat for cargo storage. We chose to remove one of the seats to create a sort of aisle for the kids to get to their spot. It’s like the Baskin Robbins’ 31 Flavors of the transportation world. And the first back row can actually face backwards if you feel so inspired. The reason for this is that all three back rows have split seating and each section of seats can be removed. It took Andrew and I two hours of pondering to figure out the best way to arrange our people, so, yea, there are several choices. Nissan claims there are 324 ways to configure the seats.

Speaking of seats, there are a lot of seating options. In the NV, as long as the music isn’t turned up too loud, I can hear the requests/demands/complaints/jokes/stories from the child in the very back seat. Driving in the car is part of “family togetherness” but it’s useless if we can’t understand what anyone has to say. But when you’ve got a bunch of people in the car, it’s important to be able to hear each other. Now, we were coming from a Sprinter, where we sat on top of the engine, so just about anything would seem quieter. One of the first things we noticed about the van was how quiet it was. And what red-blooded American can’t appreciate a good SUV? I feel like I’m driving an extra large SUV rather than a van. To me, the van looks like the Nissan Titan truck and the Nissan Cube had a gigantic baby. With the NV we stand out, but it has less to do with looking like the FedEx truck and more to do with driving a spiffy-looking van that no one has seen before. When we rode around town in our Sprinter, we couldn’t help but be noticed as we roared into the parking lot. The van is eye-catching without being an eyesore. That’s why we were really excited to test drive the Nissan NV 3500 as soon as it came out. It was very hard to let go of our Quest when we needed more room. We’ve been a Nissan family since our pre-marriage days, when Andrew sported around in a five-speed Maxima.

#Nissan nv 12 passenger van update

If you’re in the market for a new van, start with this explanation of why we got rid of our Sprinter.Īn update to our review can be found here.