Why We Just Bought One Of The Weirdest Cars Of All Time: A Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

The Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet may be one of the most awkwardly proportioned cars of all time, but by chopping the roof off a standard, boring Murano crossover, Nissan built something truly memorable. And since The Autopian is obsessed with memorable cars — especially noble failures — we’ve always wanted a CrossCabriolet. Now, thanks to our friends at XPEL, we have one. Here’s a first look at our beautiful Merlot-Red Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet, and what we plan to do with it.

Last year we did a series of articles with our friends at XPEL, purveyors of the finest Paint Protection Film known to humankind. This series involved me having to make the huge sacrifice of 1. Having to have my 1991 Jeep YJ detailed and protected with PPF and 2. Having to take my Jeep off-roading to see how well that PPF did its job. The whole campaign was awesome, and my Jeep still looked so gorgeous that I used it in my wedding.

But this year, when it came time to brainstorm ideas, Matt, Jason, and I — along with XPEL’s team of car-nuts — all unanimously knew what had to be done. We had to get a CrossCab.

 

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The Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet was an utter failure when it launched for the 2011 model-year. It cost almost $50,000, it weighed far more than a standard Murano, and with only two doors it just wasn’t very practical.

But 15 years later, we’re keen to give the CrossCab another chance at glory, because we believe in our hearts that — at the $9,600 price-point we picked ours up for at a dealership called “My T Motorz” in Arlington, Texas — the CrossCab might actually now be the bargain it never was when new. We’ll see.

CrossCabs are rare in the U.S., with only about 6,000 having been produced between 2011 and 2014 (by comparison, Ferrari probably sold around 20,000 458 Italias). As such, it was hard to find one in Merlot for a reasonable sum, which is why ours is a bit… rough around the edges. I’ll do a full article on its condition, but as you can see in the video above, that top is rough.

The 100,000-mile body itself has a few scratches, which is good, because our plan is to put many, many more into it. We’re going to apply XPEL PPF to half of our CrossCab, then we’re going to send it through a series of fun challenges to see how well that clear film protects our paint from the pain we’re about to inflict on this vehicle’s body panels.

Get excited — we sure as heck are — because there’s more Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet content coming than you could ever have hoped for.