There are few vehicles you can buy that are anywhere near as weird as today’s Nice Price or No Dice Nissan. The fact that the model existed at all is pretty remarkable. Let’s see if the price tag warrants remarks as well.
There were so many questions surrounding last Friday’s 1994 Dodge Caravan that it was difficult to know where to start. With that $6,000 asking price you all knew where to finish, however, and gave the questionable minivan a solid 58 percent No Dice loss.
When it comes to decisions about purchasing used cars and trucks, there are lots of questions that need to be asked. Is this a good deal? Does that engine sound right? What is that smell? So many questions. Now, if you’ve gotten to the point of asking those kinds of questions you’ve probably already gotten past the question of “Should this car or truck exist at all?”
That might be your first query when it comes to the 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. I mean, who was it that asked for an AWD convertible edition of Nissan’s mundane midsize crossover?
Well, the tl;dr of it is that the CrossCabriolet was the brainchild of Nissan’s then CEO and now internationally sought fugitive, Carlos Ghosn. Dig a little deeper and there are rumors that the blame for the car’s existence can actually be laid on Ghosn’s wife. Another rumor is that she tried to make “fetch” happen.
Regardless of who put the wheels in motion, the CrossCabriolet debuted in show car form at the 2010 LA Auto Show and shortly later entered production for the 2011 model year. The car would be offered with few changes through the end of 2014 when apparently someone from Nissan finally noticed what it looked like and called a halt to the suffering.
This one is from the first model year and despite the golem-like styling, it looks to be in pretty good shape. All CrossCabs carried LE trim and AWD, making them both well-appointed and capable of handling driving conditions even beyond of the typical convertible season.
The car is painted in Sunset Bronze Pearl and carries what looks to be a cashmere interior and top. There’s no apparent issue with the bodywork or paint, and that soft top looks to be intact. The top, by the way, is completely automatic, right down to the latches, and features a skylight over the diminutive back seats because of course it does.
The dealer offering the Murano has befouled the rear lid with its shop name under the model badge, something you’d probably demand to have removed or require payment of an advertising fee if it’s left in place. The interior is free of such commercialization and appears lightly used. A cool feature here is the reverse-mounting of the seatbelts in the back, which you can boast as being just like those on a Lamborghini Murcielago’s buckets.
The Murano rides on a chassis that originated with the Altima and shares that model’s 245 horsepower 3.5-liter V6. Those ponies stampede through a CVT transmission and onward to a full-time AWD set up. Disc brakes at all corners keep things in line.
The ad claims the car to have 108,286 miles and to have enjoyed a recent full service and professional detailing. The title is apparently just as clean as the car. The question, of course, is just who would buy and drive a car of the CrossCabriolet’s caliber? That’s got to be a fairly small segment of the population. Considering the stunted demand side of that supply/demand curve, you’ve got to figure that the Murano convertible would be aggressively priced too. Here that price is $10,996. That’s well off the $50k this car went for when new, but is it big enough of a drop to account for the car’s inherent red-headed-stepchild status?
What do you think? At $10,996, is this CrossCabriolet a great deal for its intended audience, such as that might be? Or is it just too weird to warrant that much?
You decide!
Cars.com out of Fairfield, Connecticut, or go here if the ad disappears.
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