The Ford VX54 platform was a mid-size minivan platform developed by a joint venture with

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

automaker, Ford Motor Company and Japanese automaker, Nissan Motors. The platform was specifically developed in 1993 for production of the Mercury Villager and

Nissan Quest The Nissan Quest is a minivan manufactured and marketed by Nissan for model years 1993–2017 over four generations. The first two generations (internally designated V40 and V41) of the Quest were short-wheelbase models co-developed and manufac ...

. The goal was to market a smaller and more stylish minivan that was comfortable and more family-oriented. The minivans were designed to be in between the sizes of Chrysler's

Dodge Caravan The Dodge Caravan (and the long-wheelbase Dodge Grand Caravan) is a series of minivans that was manufactured by Chrysler from the 1984 to 2020 model years. The Dodge version of the Chrysler minivans, the Caravan was marketed as both a passenger v ...

and Dodge Grand Caravan. It is a modified version of the J30 Nissan Maxima platform.

Overview and History

Both minivans continued to be built on the platform until 2002 when Ford discontinued the Villager due to sagging sales. Though sales of the

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

version were declining due to customers' preference of larger minivans such as the

Honda Odyssey Honda Odyssey can refer to three motor vehicles manufactured by Honda: * Honda Odyssey (ATV), an all-terrain vehicle (1977—1989) * Honda Odyssey (minivan), a brand of two different Honda minivan models for different markets ** Honda Odyssey (inter ...

and Toyota Sienna,

continued to use the

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...

nameplate on a new and slightly larger minivan based on the

Nissan FF-L platform The Nissan FF-L is an automobile platform for front wheel drive automobiles. It has been a huge success for the company, along with the rear wheel drive Nissan FM platform. FF-L cars are built at Nissan's Smyrna, Tennessee factory, and the Mura ...

. Image:2nd-Mercury-Villager.jpg, The last Mercury Villager produced was one similar to this 2002 model Image:01-02 Nissan Quest.jpg, The first and second generation

was built on the Ford VX54 platform {{Modern-auto-stub VX54 platform