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.
At the current rate of depreciation for one that’s not wrecked or otherwise trashed, Matt, Jason and David have three years to decide who gets stuck with the official Autopian redemption Cybertruck.
Better make it four for good measure.
The Autopian’s Automobile Redemption Tour continues!
Now, David was able to to make the case that the Aztek is a perfectly cromulent vehicle. I still can’t defend the design, but I concede there’s adequate transport under those looks.
And Jason, of course, put up a brilliant defense of the Yugo. Hardly the worst vehicle of all time.
But this? Good luck.
This, the Aztek, the Nissan Pao…
All of this only makes sense if you are actually assembling a motley group of transforming robot misfits.
AUTODORKS, ROLL OUT!!!
This is a horrendous car, but I am so glad YOU bought one!
There’s a weird (read: bad) idea we batted around at Donut for ages: The cross cab has a VQ, meaning you can *in theory* adapt a Z turbo kit. Since we already had two turbo’ed VQs just sitting around after LS swapping the HiLow Zs, this seemed like a reasonable thing to do, but we never got around to it.
These always reminded me of the Toyota Solara, another ugly vehicle that made little sense to me.
So, where is the divide between XPEL and non-XPEL going to be? And are you going to find a wrecked GT-R and do an engine swap?
I was expecting the answer to be “because someone slipped something in our drinks.”
Land Rover made a similar turd. I’m not sure which car is worse. I mean, I assume the Nissan is a worse car but is it worse that Land Rover made such an ugly, hairdresser car.
“more Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet content coming than you could ever have hoped for”
I already read the article, and I’m a member, haven’t I paid my dues? What did I do to deserve this?
I’m a bit blown away that someone put 100k on a CrossCab.
I assumed they were all bought by octogenarians in Florida that drove them 6 miles a year to play Bridge.
I pledge that if I ever become the husband of VW’s ceo I will request a brown manual diesel wagon be built.
Also, I saw that the top was having some trouble. I own a 350z Roadster, and diagnosing the issues I am having with the top not folding down has been a monumental PITA with little support from the forums or any of my local convertible shop. However, I do think I know the fix for the problem where the top is fully folded/ “accordion-ed” and is slowly moving. If it’s any similar to the top on my car, it more than likely has bands/straps of some kind that assist it in moving it down. Those wear out over time and lose elasticity.
edit: I learned that it’s hydraulically operated. Good luck.
Will the Murano Cross make you, ‘jump, jump!’?
I’m sorry you had to buy a 350z that has a severe glandular issue.
Strange car for a strange market. I used to see them used by real estate agents in beachy areas. I thought the design was coming from the Nissan studio in England because they came up with some wild things that made you ask what they were on. Seems to be a theme of strange Nissians.
Look on the brightside the evoque convertible is used by tweens to drive around London in the rain
They use the juke r to do stunts on buildings too
These were never imported to Canada and yet I saw one in purple with the license plate “Oddball” when it was new.
I think it looks quite nice but 50k for a Nissan of the time, or even now, is insane. That slowdown and jiggle at the end is common trying to get proper fold and fit.
Never really understood the hate for this car. It’s effectively the same idea as the PT convertible, which got no similar hate.
Are you sure about that? I’ve never seen a positive comment anywhere about the PT convertible.
Well, the PT isn’t an SUV, so there’s that.
Not a fan of native advertising slowly creeping into this site, I thought the membership model was to avoid these common pitfalls.
Websites are expensive.
Got to pay the bills seems very unobtrusive and they have partners to reduce the costs to members. Need to realize everything costs money even free government handouts cost taxpayers
Easy solution. The partner posts are marked such. Much like I stopped clicking on morning dumps cause I am not a fan of politics. Nothing wrong with them, I just don’t like them. But some people do, so why should I ruin their fun.
You may want to XPEL the interior, too, knowing the way you guys eat in cars.
You’re suggesting they XPEL the entire car?
Makes a certain phonetic sense.
Ok, so 10 large isn’t insignificant, but…
If you end up doing serious destruction-testing, I’d submit that the world NEEDS footage of those hoops popping up through the roof.
(The keep-keep-it-running guy in me admits that this would be gratuitous destruction of a useable part. But, c’mon: who *doesn’t* want to see that?)
It doesn’t really matter to me whether XPEL works or not. It would have been about $8,000 to do my 4Runner! No thanks, I’ll just have scratches.
About the same price as I was quoted for my 4Runner. Maybe I’m just old, but I do not understand the PPF thing. Why would I spend 15-20% of what I paid for the car to have it PPF’d? Where’s the value in that? Also, it lasts for like 6-7 years, MAYBE 10 if you’re lucky, then you have to get it removed and repeat the process all over again. There’s a 0% chance that you’ll ever recoup that investment when it’s time to sell/trade.
Hell if you don’t damage it and keep the color a good paint job is cheaper
People who buy $40k cars are not the target market for full ppf.
You’re right, they’re not, but that doesn’t stop people from dropping large coin to have their $30k car PPF’d. My other car was more like $70k, and I still can’t see the value in having it done. Maybe if I had something crazy expensive or whatever, then I might have a different opinion, but for a normal car, it makes no sense to me.
It really made no sense for David to install it on his Wrangler, especially with so many cars in his fleet that could really use the additional structural integrity it would provide.
I always wanted to get one of these and do a Safari build. Closest I got was my G35x Safari build.
David, you likely have some Jeep XJ wheels laying around that will fit that. I managed to stuff 235 75R15’s on the G35x with pretty minor mods and XJ wheels.
Polk shows 5,262 Cross Cabs still registered as of January. I love the stupid fact that the second window is for the roll bar to pop though in the event of a rollover
That’s where you get that kind of info? I really want to see someone do a study of what % of a given make/model’s production is still registered after, say, 20 or 30 years. Call it a “cockroach rating.”
I bet the Saturn SC would be high up there.
18K SC’s still out there
It’s a fact 110% of Subarus sold in the last 100 years are still on the road
There’s something like this for UK vehicles. Check out howmanyleft.co.uk and it will show you how many vehicles, by make, model, and year, are still registered in the UK. It doesn’t include original production figures, however.
Wow! Well, at least it’s better than the cab…that’s all I’m gonna say…
I have seriously looked into getting one of these as I wanted a convertible the whole family could fit in. I did end up with a 4 door Wrangler with a soft top…which I sold less than a year later as it kept having engine problems. Who would have thought. If that amazing Jatco Xtronic holds up and it’s still mechanically sound after your ‘tests’, I may legit buy it off you…
Cue our favorite transmission….