Any feedback on first generation Nissan Murano?

Craigslist says they're in my monetary wheelhouse.

Specifically ~2003

My mom has a 2005 S. She has about 80k on it. The only issues she has had was with the door lock actuators. The CVT has been solid. In fact, she got a letter from Nissan extending the warranty on the CVT.

When I visited home after she bought hers, I used to beat up the ricers in my home town. I found the CVT doesn't totally suck the life out of driving it and the V6 (VQ35?) is pretty punchy.

If it's an AWD the transfer case WILL leak, and it holds about a thimble full of fluid.

Oil cooler lines also leaks, o ring fails on most of them, rust is a concern. If it's got the power adjustable steering column the failed tilt motors ain't cheap, and they like to fail often too.

I lost count of how many transfer cases I warrantied with the 5/60 powertrain, early on we "resealed" them, then when all of the "resealed" transfer cases started leaking again 6-9 months down the road, we started replacing them. It was common enough that our parts department stocked several transfer cases.

My sister was shopping them, I successfully convinced her to not to purchase one.

CANT SOMEONE MAKE A VEHICLE WITHOUT A MAJOR NIGHTMARE ATTACHED TO IT?

Ok I'm buying a bicycle.

Failed engines, apparently due to sludge. At least both of the people I personally know with first gen Muranos lost engines at ~80k. Nissan replaced them both, too.

ebonyandivory wrote: CANT SOMEONE MAKE A VEHICLE WITHOUT A MAJOR NIGHTMARE ATTACHED TO IT? Ok I'm buying a bicycle.

Because manufacturers only build cars to last through the berkeleying warranty/lease. If they last any longer than that they are missing out on a new sale. Making them difficult to repair means that the secondary market is now E36 M3. This is happening all over the manufacturing spectrum and not just with cars.

Either drive older cars that you can repair in your garage and suffer through the repair efforts or buy newer cars and recycle them when they are ready for major overhaul. Sad, but true dude.

turboswede wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: CANT SOMEONE MAKE A VEHICLE WITHOUT A MAJOR NIGHTMARE ATTACHED TO IT? Ok I'm buying a bicycle.

Because manufacturers only build cars to last through the berkeleying warranty/lease. If they last any longer than that they are missing out on a new sale. Making them difficult to repair means that the secondary market is now E36 M3. This is happening all over the manufacturing spectrum and not just with cars.

Quote for truth! Ask me about my 5 year old "high end" Kitchen Aid / Whirlpool appliances.

I understand all that, and I'm kinda ok with it but is that REALLY the reason the Saturn Vue auto transmission SUCKS? Did Land Rover design the steel cylinder sleeves to drop due to heat-cooling cycles of the aluminum block? Did Subaru factor in head gaskets to eat themselves on purpose? Did Ford design the 4.6 and 5.4 to squirt out spark plugs like the Octomom squirts out children?

I know "they don't build 'em like they used to" but theses things i listed are just crappy, poorly designed pieces of E36 M3. This isn't a matter of thinner metal, less rust-prevention or smaller bearings.

Did BMW use all that plastic in the cooling system so they could all E36 M3 the bed at 60,000? (Maybe that's a bad example!!!)

Uh, they engineered those to meet the criteria needed at the time they were being designed, engineered and built. They didn't intentionally use inferior products to fail spontaneously, but there is a service life for those items and more often than not they are tested to last much longer than they do in the real world because the real world can never be truly replicated in a lab.

Think of the OEM supplier that is trying to eek every bit of profit from a contract after getting bent over by their customer to pull as much profit out of the contract as possible, the assembly line workers who may or may not do a decent job assembling things, or the QA folks or the dealer delivery people, let alone the previous owners and mechanics that owned the car before you did. E36 M3 happens, parts fail, some more so than others. Either deal with it or don't that's the choice we all face when diving into a used car of any kind.

ebonyandivory wrote: I understand all that, and I'm kinda ok with it but is that REALLY the reason the Saturn Vue auto transmission SUCKS? Did Land Rover design the steel cylinder sleeves to drop due to heat-cooling cycles of the aluminum block? Did Subaru factor in head gaskets to eat themselves on purpose? Did Ford design the 4.6 and 5.4 to squirt out spark plugs like the Octomom squirts out children? I know "they don't build 'em like they used to" but theses things i listed are just crappy, poorly designed pieces of E36 M3. This isn't a matter of thinner metal, less rust-prevention or smaller bearings. Did BMW use all that plastic in the cooling system so they could all E36 M3 the bed at 60,000? (Maybe that's a bad example!!!)

My guess would be that the manufacturers knew of the potential for these chronic problems early on, but gambled, in most cases successfully, that they wouldn't have a significant impact on warranty claims, or new car satisfaction ratings. If only a few fail while in warranty, its not worth re-engineering the product.

Failures out of warranty result in parts sales, work for the dealer service departments , and ultimately more cars being sold. There is no incentive to build a more durable car for the regular consumer. Sad, but true.

You think Im expecting a miracle?

Take the Land Rover for example: it doesn't take a metallurgist to conclude that aluminum and steel expand and contract at different rates. With that crazy theory, one might conclude pressed-in cylinder sleeves just miiiight work loose and drop. And just think, it only took a few years until they figured out a ledge machined into the block would keep the sleeve from dropping!

Now THATS BRILLIANT!

And you don't need to tell me about driving older used cars if I don't like the situation. I've been driving a 19 year-old truck for years and haven't bought new since 1988.

In the end, parts are manufactured by the lowest bidder that meets the minimum standards for the part. I know it seems easy to think "if they just spent 25 cents more on the part it would last forever". Then multiply that by most of the parts on the car. Then you have a $80,000 base model ToyNisHonForChrMaz with manual windows so the regulators don't break. And to get back to topic. Customers love Muranos until they have to pay to get them fixed. And the techs generally dislike working on them.

Another thing while I'm at it: in the Subaru example, how many YEARS has Subaru been aware that head gasket problems exist? And it takes a full reengineering to fix that? BULL E36 M3!

Hey Subaru, I won't buy or recommend buying a new Subaru to anyone and generally dissuade anyone from doing so due to HG problems.

Stupid me for thinking bad reputations might affect future new car sales!

Tyler H wrote:

turboswede wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: CANT SOMEONE MAKE A VEHICLE WITHOUT A MAJOR NIGHTMARE ATTACHED TO IT? Ok I'm buying a bicycle.

Because manufacturers only build cars to last through the berkeleying warranty/lease. If they last any longer than that they are missing out on a new sale. Making them difficult to repair means that the secondary market is now E36 M3. This is happening all over the manufacturing spectrum and not just with cars.

Quote for truth! Ask me about my 5 year old "high end" Kitchen Aid / Whirlpool appliances.

Funny this should be a topic today. Came home at lunch today and turned on my high end, flat screen, mega-pixel, Godzilla destroying TV and...........................well it didn't turn on. The ON button just sits there and flashes. Don't have time to diagnosis it now so it may be something simple and inexpensive (ya right and I might have just won the Publishers Clearing House BS thingy too!!) but I did have time to check my extended warranty that I purchased with it. Expired last month.

ebonyandivory wrote: Another thing while I'm at it: in the Subaru example, how many YEARS has Subaru been aware that head gasket problems exist? And it takes a full reengineering to fix that? BULL E36 M3! Hey Subaru, I won't buy or recommend buying a new Subaru to anyone and generally dissuade anyone from doing so due to HG problems. Stupid me for thinking bad reputations might affect future new car sales!

Guess people don't read much because Subaru has something like (I said "like" because I don't have time to look it up right now) a 36 month record of month to month sales increases and is generally considered one of the consistently best selling brands.

HappyAndy wrote: Failures out of warranty result in parts sales, work for the dealer service departments , and ultimately more competitors' cars being sold.

Getting a reputation for selling lemons can come back to bite you in the long run.

Uh, I was going to say I have an 03 AWD with 85K that I plan to put on the market shortly. You guys forgot the broken seat frames which mine has and I plan to fix before selling.

Looks like I won't list it here.

One of my neighbors had one for a while, it survived years of being started, backed out of the driveway, then full throttle to the stop sign at the end of the court. It eventually didn't sound sp good anymore after a few years though.