Carmax is the proud owner of a Nissan Murano
05-10-2017, 05:43 PM
#1
Race Director
Thread Starter
Carmax is the proud owner of a Nissan Murano
Mrs. Schnell's Murano got a swift kick out of the driveway Monday night. Sold that sucker to Carmax. To quote Danny Devito from Ruthless People, "Muffy, you've taken your last **** on my rug." While the Murano never took any pisses on the rug, I had NO interest in owning it beyond the expiration of the B2B warranty, let alone the powertrain warranty.
MY2011, bought new in mid 2012. 76K miles. My wife's DD, so it does not get abused in ANY way except it gets driven too fast on an ongoing basis.
New AC compressor connector
New AC compressor
(refused: new engine bay wiring harness to fix AC compressor)
V6 engine upper end (full valve train)
One CVT transmission
Two CV joints / front axle stubs
Steering wheel (material defects)
Shift **** (material defects/leather delamination)
Entertainment system - the whole infotainment system crapped out and needed to be replaced.
Radiator and coolant tank
I was blown away by the engine and transmission issues...Nissan makes hundreds of thousands of their V6 powerplant and tunes it a variety of ways depending on the vehicle it winds up in. Same with the CVT transmission - you'd think that given the sheer volume of those transmissions Nissan has installed, it would be the picture of reliability. Wow, was I just wrong about damn near everything.
Enough about the Murano. In its place is a 2017 white Cherokee limited 4x4 with leather, lots of good tech, and plenty of other creature comforts. The engine I'm not a huge fan of...the 2.2L multi-air does not exactly churn out gobs of extra power, but that engine and the layout of the engine bay make forced induction a definite possibility. I also have half a decade before its first smog check is due, so this is the one time in its life where I can say f**k it and give CARB the finger, at least until the first smog check rolls around.
I wasn't really interested in another Jeep right now, but 7 months old, CPO, with nearly 100K miles left on the 100K mile powertrain warranty. I do like Jeeps, but I'm just not willing to pay the Jeep premium for a new car. This was a solid compromise...
MY2011, bought new in mid 2012. 76K miles. My wife's DD, so it does not get abused in ANY way except it gets driven too fast on an ongoing basis.
New AC compressor connector
New AC compressor
(refused: new engine bay wiring harness to fix AC compressor)
V6 engine upper end (full valve train)
One CVT transmission
Two CV joints / front axle stubs
Steering wheel (material defects)
Shift **** (material defects/leather delamination)
Entertainment system - the whole infotainment system crapped out and needed to be replaced.
Radiator and coolant tank
I was blown away by the engine and transmission issues...Nissan makes hundreds of thousands of their V6 powerplant and tunes it a variety of ways depending on the vehicle it winds up in. Same with the CVT transmission - you'd think that given the sheer volume of those transmissions Nissan has installed, it would be the picture of reliability. Wow, was I just wrong about damn near everything.
Enough about the Murano. In its place is a 2017 white Cherokee limited 4x4 with leather, lots of good tech, and plenty of other creature comforts. The engine I'm not a huge fan of...the 2.2L multi-air does not exactly churn out gobs of extra power, but that engine and the layout of the engine bay make forced induction a definite possibility. I also have half a decade before its first smog check is due, so this is the one time in its life where I can say f**k it and give CARB the finger, at least until the first smog check rolls around.
I wasn't really interested in another Jeep right now, but 7 months old, CPO, with nearly 100K miles left on the 100K mile powertrain warranty. I do like Jeeps, but I'm just not willing to pay the Jeep premium for a new car. This was a solid compromise...
05-10-2017, 05:52 PM
#3
Race Director
Thread Starter
No, it was designed by Inky, Blinky, and Clyde Lai.
My preference was a Cherokee Trailhawk or a Wrangler, but this isn't my car so I kept the old mouth shut and got the one she most likes. I may be dumb, but I am not suicidal.
My preference was a Cherokee Trailhawk or a Wrangler, but this isn't my car so I kept the old mouth shut and got the one she most likes. I may be dumb, but I am not suicidal.
05-10-2017, 05:58 PM
#6
Burning Brakes
Damn ... if Mrs. Schnell is anything like Mrs. KoB, you really screwed the pooch with that Murano (because, after all, it had to be your fault somehow ;-).
Good luck with the Jeep ... shouldn't be too tough for it to be an improvement. CPO is hard to beat -- Mrs. KoB's DD is a CPO car, and the dealer gives her a service loaner for pretty much anything. The dealer doesn't have a barista, but in my book the loaner offsets the cost of the dealer oil change.
Good luck with the Jeep ... shouldn't be too tough for it to be an improvement. CPO is hard to beat -- Mrs. KoB's DD is a CPO car, and the dealer gives her a service loaner for pretty much anything. The dealer doesn't have a barista, but in my book the loaner offsets the cost of the dealer oil change.
05-10-2017, 06:16 PM
#7
Race Director
Thread Starter
The 2.2 liter engine is going to take some getting used to. I really didn't want to buy from Carmax, but if I had gone that route, the 150K mile MaxCare powertrain warranty would have been on the invoice.
As far as the Murano goes, she liked it and probably would have kept it, but my wife's DD needs to be reliable, and that Murano was anything but. When it crapped out on her and one of her sisters when they were out caroling last Christmas, its death warrant was signed.
The most interesting thing about this round of car shopping is how outdated some of my perceptions are (i.e. Brand X is reliable, Brand Y isn't) and how much other things have not changed at all (like at least 50% of car salesmen cannot deal with "uppity" women). Thankfully, a lot of the REALLY old-school "what's it gonna take to get you in this beauty today, little lady" d-bags have died or are busy controlling their blood sugar at the old folks' home.
As far as the Murano goes, she liked it and probably would have kept it, but my wife's DD needs to be reliable, and that Murano was anything but. When it crapped out on her and one of her sisters when they were out caroling last Christmas, its death warrant was signed.
The most interesting thing about this round of car shopping is how outdated some of my perceptions are (i.e. Brand X is reliable, Brand Y isn't) and how much other things have not changed at all (like at least 50% of car salesmen cannot deal with "uppity" women). Thankfully, a lot of the REALLY old-school "what's it gonna take to get you in this beauty today, little lady" d-bags have died or are busy controlling their blood sugar at the old folks' home.
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05-10-2017, 06:33 PM
#9
05-10-2017, 08:19 PM
#10
You know that the transmission in that Cherokee is a POS too right? They break, shift like **** and if you are unlucky they wobble. I bought a brand new one and I'm glad my wobble is finally fixed (with drive axles that are specifically designed to fix the wobble @$1400). My wife drives it and she doesn't care/feel the poor drivability. I wish I never bought the POS, hope you have better luck.
05-10-2017, 08:50 PM
#11
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Good luck with the Jeep. I rented a brand new one and seat belt sensor broke and warning chime came on...for the entire 2.5 hr drive from Big Bear to West LA with my 1 YO baby.
Regarding the Nissan, if you think we have intermix issues, you should Google Nissan automatic transmission cooler problems. I was going to buy a stick anyway, but this left a bad enough taste I avoided brand entirely. Kind of like the 996 IMS...oh wait.
Regarding the Nissan, if you think we have intermix issues, you should Google Nissan automatic transmission cooler problems. I was going to buy a stick anyway, but this left a bad enough taste I avoided brand entirely. Kind of like the 996 IMS...oh wait.
05-10-2017, 09:24 PM
#14
Race Director
Thread Starter
Had a Jeep before I got an X5 back in 2010, so I'm familiar with Jeep roulette. The Carfax was clean and the CPO report was clean, which is supposed to mean that nothing has been replaced, and there's nothing broken that needs to be replaced. It's a fairly high mileage CPO (19K), which is enough time for the new Jeep problems to have been resolved. Not sure what the previous owner did with it; nothing except the driver seat has ever been used.
The point of the jeep is to be able to beat on it in the snow and on the fire roads without feeling guilty that we're scratching and dinging a $60K car.
The point of the jeep is to be able to beat on it in the snow and on the fire roads without feeling guilty that we're scratching and dinging a $60K car.
05-10-2017, 09:34 PM
#15
My most recent issue with the Cherokee, which has the 3.2 pentastar, was a cracked oil cooler at 50k miles. Here is the kicker, the oil cooler is plastic, and to make matters worse the oil filter also bolts into it. When a ****ty oil change shop doesn't use a torque wrench, you can replace your whole oil cooler.
When Jake Raby runs out of 996s, he should move to Cherokees.
When Jake Raby runs out of 996s, he should move to Cherokees.