Autoblog

Among the larger vehicles offered up at the Nissan 360 event that weren't the large commercial offerings from yesterday were the Japanese and "General Overseas Market" Elgrand Van and the Euro- and Japanese-market Qashqai.

The Elgrand wasn't a bad piece of kit for a great big honking van. While massive, the 3.5-liter V6 with 241 hp gets the thing up and going -- even uphill -- with an alacrity that feels almost driftworthy... for a great big honking van. The instrument panel is good looking and nice feeling, the three rows of seats can be moved every which way but loose, and the platoon-hauling mover weighs only 4,431 pounds. Nissan calls it "a first-class minivan fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of consumers for a relaxing experience." We call it a pretty good van.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on the vehicles and Nissan company stats. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.



Our travel and lodging for this media event was provided by the manufacturer.

The Japanese Transport Ministry says that Nissan Motor Co. will recall over 144,000 of its 2002-2005 Elgrand minivans and more than 11,000 2002-2004 March minicars. The Elgrands seem to have a problem with brake parts that causes braking distances to be longer, while the March minicar is having problems with its electric switch system that might cause backup lights to operate improperly.

[Source: AFX News via Forbes]