Q Is For: 2005 Maserati Quattroporte vs 2016 Nissan Quest

Good morning! We’ve reached a letter for which I had to resort to model names. I couldn’t find any Qvale Mangustas for sale, nor – surprisingly – a single Qingyuan Xiaosun. I know! You’d think Craigslist would be littered with them, but, strangely, no.

Yesterday’s P cars were really an H body and an L body, but whatever you want to call them, they were not popular with you lot. The Pontiac Astre won, mainly due to being rear-wheel-drive and a stickshift, I think. A few of you wanted to ditch the Vega four-cylinder and drop in a V6 or V8 engine, and I think that might be the best use case for this car.

But you all know me well enough by now to know that it’s not my choice. I have admired the styling of Chrysler’s L-body coupes since I was ten years old, sitting in a Shelby Charger in the showroom while my parents hammered out a deal for our new Dodge 600 sedan. I have model kits of an Omni 024 and a Shelby Charger in my stash. And I was genuinely disappointed that I couldn’t score that free 024 in college. Make mine the Plymouth.

My wife and I have a tradition of playing Scrabble when we go camping in our little vintage trailer. We’re quite evenly matched; usually the winner comes down to the luck of the draw on letters. Specifically, it sometimes comes down to whoever gets stuck with the Q, and can’t manage to draw a U. That damn thing will sit there on your tray, just waiting to cost you ten points at the end, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.

But one thing we’re both good at is not being too proud to make small plays. Those little two-letter, two-point words can sometimes make a huge difference. You don’t always have to swing for the fences; sometimes a little grounder just to get you on base is all you need. (Sorry for mixing metaphors there.) With that in mind, I took the easy way out today, and looked for the first two Q cars that I thought of. Here they are.

2005 Maserati Quattroporte – $9,500

Engine/drivetrain: 4.2-liter dual overhead cam V8, six-speed automated manual, RWD

Location: Brentwood, CA

Odometer reading: 66,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

The Italians are lucky in that they have a language that makes everything sound sexy. “Quattroporte” just means four doors; it would be like Hyundai just calling the Elantra the “Sedan.” It wouldn’t fly. But Maserati makes it work, simply due to the language. And it worked for a long time; Maserati built the Quattroporte for sixty years, off and on, across six generations. This is the fifth generation, introduced shortly after Maserati re-entered the US market after more than a decade away.

This generation of Quattroporte featured a kick-ass four-cam V8, courtesy of Maserati’s then-corporate-partner, Ferrari. It’s de-tuned a bit from Ferrari’s spec, but you can’t blame the folks in Maranello for keeping the best stuff for themselves. It’s backed by Maserati’s DuoSelect transmission, a six-speed manual with paddle shifters and no clutch pedal. It has an automatic mode, but the consensus I read on Maserati forums is to just ignore that feature, learn to drive it well in manual mode, and you’ll enjoy the car more and the clutch will last longer. This one has 66,000 miles on it, which sounds low for a twenty-year-old car, but for a Maserati it’s practically ancient. Someone has kept up on the maintenance, or this car would not still be on the road.

These cars have gorgeous interiors full of leather and wood, but unfortunately, out of fourteen photos in the ad, not a single one shows the front seats. That usually means they’re hiding something. The seats might be fine, but if so, why not show them?

The outside looks good, and I like the blue; like so many cars, these are usually seen in boring colors. It’s a Pininfarina design, and photos don’t do it justice; it really is a lovely design. The golden hour photos are meant to show the car off, I’m sure, but the shadows and reflections make it hard to see any flaws. Again, maybe that’s the idea.

2016 Nissan Quest SV – $6,900

Engine/drivetrain: 3.5-liter dual overhead cam V6, CVT automatic, FWD

Location: Monterey Park, CA

Odometer reading: 107,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

The Nissan Quest minivan started out as a joint venture with Ford, which sold its own version as the Mercury Villager. When that joint venture ended, Nissan got weird with the Quest’s styling, with an everything-in-the-middle dashboard design and individual moonroofs for every passenger. It didn’t sell all that well, and Nissan toned down the design quite a bit for this final generation.

Like practically every larger Nissan at the time, the Quest is powered by a VQ35DE V6 engine, mounted transversely and driving the front wheels through everyone’s least favorite transmission, the Jatco CVT. These have a terrible reputation for reliability, but they do seem to hold up all right if you keep up on the maintenance. My biggest complaint with them is that they suck all the joy out of any car so equipped, but I guess that doesn’t matter too much in a minivan.

It’s in pretty good shape, except for the driver’s side seat bolster, which gets beaten down in any car after a hundred thousand miles. We don’t get a good view of the second and third rows of seats; I’m hoping they’re as clean as the front seats are.

It’s in good condition outside, with just a few minor bumps and bruises. The rear bumper in particular has seen some action, it looks like. The Quest’s styling is toned-down from the previous generation, but it’s still a funky-looking vehicle. Looks pretty good in black, though.

So, with a big sigh of relief, I am proud to announce that I have managed the letter Q. The back half of the alphabet is proving much more challenging to find cars for than the front half. But I already have one car picked out for tomorrow, for the letter R. Tune in tomorrow to find out what it is. In the meantime, you’ve got a Japanese minivan and an Italian sports sedan to choose from.