Cars.com's Bill Jackson takes a look at the 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. It competes with the Buick Enclave and Ford Flex.
Transcript
(energetic music) <v Narrator>Cars.com Auto Review. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Bill Jackson, and this is a 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. It's a luxury all-wheel drive convertible crossover.
So it's a pretty unique car on the market and it has some features and some trade-offs. The first thing that you get with a convertible that's based on a crossover is a higher ride height. And that means that the Murano CrossCabrio is very easy to get into, so if you're a person of limited mobility, it's obviously easy to get into the CrossCabrio, but I don't think it's too tall that a short person would have a problem. Another nice thing about the CrossCabriolet, as a convertible, is that there's not a lot of wind noise or buffeting when you're driving, even on the highway. It's a nice thing. (energetic music) One thing you will notice when you do have to close the roof, is it closes with a pretty loud, almost unsettling bang. (convertible top bangs) But with the top up or top down, the Murano drives like a convertible does. You lose a lot of rigidity when you cut the roof off. So it kind of shimmies and shakes a little bit over uneven pavement. All in all, it makes the Murano CrossCabriolet more of a cruiser rather than something to drive aggressively. Of course, with the convertible, there are times when you have to put the top closed, like when there's a thunderstorm about to happen. The good news is there's still a lot of room in the backseat, even with the top up. As you can see, I've got plenty of headroom. I'm also not cramped for leg room. A trade-off though, is that I find it's pretty hard to get into and out of the CrossCabriolet with the top up, so it's not the greatest. When it comes to carrying things in the Murano CrossCabriolet, one thing to keep in mind is like a lot of other power-retractable, convertible tops, there's this divider that has to be in place in order to allow the top to fold. What that does is it cuts down your cargo area. With this up and out of the way, you can carry about 10 large grocery bags in back. With it down, you can only carry about six. Ultimately, the Murano CrossCabriolet offers a series of trade-offs that I've discussed in this video. For more information about that, as well as mileage and more information about how it drives, check out my review at cars.com. <v Narrator>For more car-related news, go to cars.com or our blog, KickingTires.net.
