Nissan Forum Concept

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What is it?
Nissan Forum Concept

What's special about it?
You have to dig deep to find out why the Nissan Forum concept is unique. After all, this is a minivan and there's only so much you can do with a one-box design. In the case of the Forum, Nissan's pitch is the division of space: a parents' zone up front and a kids' zone in back.

For the parents, it means the usual list of electronic features to help keep things under control behind them. In addition to rear-seat audio controls, the Forum includes what Nissan calls rear-seat camera monitors. We can only assume that these surveillance monitors give parents a seat-by-seat view of the action, but it does sound kind of Big Brother, even for a minivan.

Nissan's designers also figured that the distribution of food is a parental responsibility, so the in-car microwave is located in the center console. It's only big enough to fit a standard-size bag of microwave popcorn, so TV dinners are out of the question. There are more common features, too, like dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth connectivity and comfortable-looking captain's chairs, but we expect all that in a minivan by now.

As far as the kids' zone goes, the Forum serves up two rows of seating. The third row is your average bench seat, although it's covered in aniline leather like the rest of the interior. The second row consists of the "revolutionary" Turntable Seating — a pair of captain's chairs on a swiveling base. They can turn to face sideways or backward, depending on whom you want to talk to. It's a useful system, although the fact that Dodge already has such a setup in its current minivans does reduce the "revolutionary" aspect of it slightly.

For anything truly revolutionary, you have to look to the exterior design of the Forum. Between the low front airdam, extensive chrome trim and high beltline, the Forum looks less mommy-mobile and more mob-mobile. The deep-tinted wraparound glass adds to the effect, while the 20-inch wheels fill out the wheelwells like a sports car.

Structural reinforcements in the roof and door frames allow the designers to eliminate the B-pillars, further smoothing out the Forum's exterior shape. Combined with unique trackless sliding side doors, the Forum's profile is far less utilitarian than your average minivan. It's not quite cool, but it's about as close as a minivan can get.

What's Edmunds' take?
The Forum certainly has more style than any minivan currently on the market. Too bad that's where the innovation ends. If this is the future of the minivan, there's not much to look forward to. — Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor