USA Today reports, “Nissan says it will stop making the Quest minivan and its full-size SUV, the Infiniti QX56,” instead using the factory that currently makes the vehicles to produce “light commercial vehicles.”  Nissan “did not say when or where —or if — it will build next-generation versions of the minivan and big SUVS, which are slow sellers in declining market segments,” meaning production of the vehicles may cease altogether.  Nissan spokeswoman Frederique Le Greves told reports, “When we get to the end of each vehicle’s cycle, we look at the market” and decide whether to offer new versions of the vehicles.

While Nissan insists it has not made a formal decision to remove the vehicles from its lineup, the move may be a prelude to doing just that.  Kicking Tires comments, “Sounds to us like company speak that Nissan will not build new versions of the two. If it actually announced that fact today, though, it could impact sales of the 2009 models that will still be built and sold on new-car lots.”

The AP recently reported that Nissan suffered a 4-percent sales decline in the first quarter of 2008, and poor minivan and SUV sales were part of the reason for the drop.  “Nissan’s truck and SUV sales plummeted 20 percent, with the Nissan Titan pickup down 45 percent for the month and the Nissan Armada SUV [the QX 56 is a modified Armada] off 43 percent.”

USA Today called the Quest “an also-ran in the shrinking minivan market, with sales down about 38% the first quarter vs. a year ago, according to Autodata. Its sales rank it eighth among nine vans currently in production, behind even the nearly invisible Mazda5 mini-minivan.”  The QX45, meanwhile, “sells in such small numbers that it ranks 80th of 102 SUVs currently in production.”

Research the current models, and their competition, with U.S. News’ rankings and reviews of minivans and luxury large SUVs.