At $12,500, Would You Have to Be Daft to Pass Up This 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet?

Nice Price or No Dice 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

It’s been said that nobody does weird better than the French, and it was Nissan’s former French CEO, Carlos Ghosn who was responsible for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe oddity, the Murano CrossCabriolet. Let’s see if such eclecticism can also be a straight-up deal.

It has often been said that “nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.” The quote is typically misattributed to baseball legend and phrase-coiner Yogi Berra, but I must say that it really fits the mood that surrounded yesterday’s 1989 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon in the comments. Nice as it seemed, with its inviting and spacious interior, and vinyl woodgrain exterior trim, the Olds couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for an $11,995 price tag. That’s a quarter of what the average new car goes for today. There just wasn’t enough old-school appeal for even that, ending up in a 73 percent No Dice loss.

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Consider for a moment how weird this 2011 Nissan CrossCabriolet is, and then wonder how you have lived so long without having one. What’s even odder about the car is that Nissan U.S.A. still glowingly touts the model on its website, seven years after it went out of production. On the site, Nissan claims the car to be “the world’s first and only All-Wheel Drive crossover convertible,” obviously ignoring the fact that Land Rover Evoque convertible existed for a hot minute shortly after the CrossCabriolet’s demise.

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It’s no surprise to learn that the CrossCabriolet was the brainchild of Nissan’s then-CEO Carlos Ghosn. After all, Ghosen was once a titan of the automotive industry, and is now a fugitive dodging an international arrest warrant. He’s like a Bond villain with crazy eyebrows.

The story goes that before he committed all the alleged crimes, Ghosen commissioned the CrossCabriolet for his wife, who somehow thought it would be a real cool car.

Regardless of who put the wheels in motion, the CrossCabriolet debuted in show car form at the 2010 Los Angeles International Auto Show and shortly thereafter entered production for the 2011 model year. The car would be offered with few changes through the end of 2014.

Image for article titled At $12,500, Would You Have to Be Daft to Pass Up This 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet?

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 outside of convertible season.

The Murano rides on a chassis that originated with the Altima and shares that model’s 245 horsepower 3.5-liter V6. Those ponies gallop through a CVT transmission and onward to a full-time torque-splitting AWD setup.

Here, the formal dress black paint is complemented by a black canvas roof with two glass windows in the back and handsome five-spoke alloy wheels down below.

Inside, things come across as more Infiniti than Nissan with buttery-looking leather and a sprinkling of light-hued wood trim. There’s some wear evident on the seats and the tiller, but overall there doesn’t seem to be anything seriously amiss in the cabin. Of course, this being a range-topper, it’s fitted with all the fancy gear like heated seats, nav, and automatic climate control.