R O A D    T E S T

For many families these days, five seats are no longer enough.  The desire to bring along the whole clan during weekend jaunts to the mall or out of town dictates a form of transportation other than the typical four-door sedan.  Fortunately, the vehicles that are up to that task have been proliferating lately.  Just a few years ago, the choices would have been one of the AUVs or a refrigerator van.  Now there are several minivans, SUVs, AUV-SUV hybrids and even versatile wagons that can do the job with a minimum of fuss and some semblance of style. 

Enter Nissan’s Serena Q-RV.  Nissan chose not to revive its AUV (a wise decision, we think) and instead came out with its own minivan that can officially seat—you guessed it—10 persons.  That’s two front buckets, second and third-row benches good for three each, and two side-facing jump seats in the rear.  It retains the classic minivan two-box body style with sliding rear doors and hatchback-style tailgate.  It’s at once shorter (from nose to tail) and taller than its chief competitors, the Kia Carnival Sedona and Chevrolet Venture.   

If the body configuration is all too familiar, the face certainly is not.  The Serena’s visage could have been painted by Picasso.  Its has oversized eyes—er, light clusters—which contain low and high beam, with the signal lights mounted on top and  the park lamps wrapping around to the sides.  The current favorite exterior part for denoting luxury, the large toothy chromed grille, is duly present.  The rear features a large backlight and bulging trapezoidal red-and-clear lenses. 

Viewed head-on or directly from the rear, the fact that the Serena is one of the tallest minivans out there is pretty obvious.  From the sides, the short glass area, two-tone color scheme, pronounced crease, glass-covered rear pillar, and thick window frames all help to disguise the vehicle’s tall stature.  The side-view styling makes the van look more stable and better proportioned.   

While the height may not do the exterior looks any favors, it does pay dividends inside the passenger compartment.  Anyone shorter than the Incredible Hulk should have headroom to spare, and all passengers will enjoy enough clear space above their heads, all the way to the rear jump seats.

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