Used 2003 Nissan Murano Consumer Reviews
Used Murano for sale
See Edmunds pricing data
Has Your Car's Value Changed?
Used car values are constantly changing. Edmunds lets you track your vehicle's value over time so you can decide when to sell or trade in.
Best SUV Ever
Qtipp73, 11/08/2002
2003 Nissan Murano SL AWD 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
7 of 9 people found this review helpful
This is a great car and is probably one of the best suvs opn the road and deserves a perfect ten.
Can't drive very well over 65 mph
tauris2000, 04/14/2010
2003 Nissan Murano SE AWD 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
I am having trouble driving my 2003 Nissan Murano over 65 mph on the highway. It revs really high and then engine sounds like it is going to explode. It seems like it is already in the highest gear possible and it of course won't shift any higher. I am afraid to take it out of town on longer highway trips because of this. I have an extended warranty but don't know what the problem is or if it would be covered. I have taken it to one Nissan Dealer and one Carmax dealer and neither have been able to diagnose a problem. They also aren't allowed to take it out on the highway which seems absurd. Any input would be much appreciated.
2003 Nissan Murano for sale near you
Showing 3 of 12 listings
- SL 4dr SUVMSRP: $4,75012 mi away
- SE 4dr SUVMSRP: $3,90029 mi away
- SE 4dr SUVMSRP: $5,999104 mi away
See all 12 listings
TERRIBLE RELIABILITY!! DO NOT PURCHASE MURANOS!!
bobby125, 04/19/2012
2003 Nissan Murano SL AWD 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
8 of 11 people found this review helpful
HEARD ALL OVER OF THE SAME PROBLEMS ONCE I STARTED HAVING ISSUES W/MY MURANO. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND MURANOS!!! Bought used, had engine timing/engine chain problems HAD TO REPLACE WHOLE ENGINE MOTOR!! can cost thousands, mechanics also report problems w/ under hood accessibility on front end due to everything being compacted so poor front end design which takes more time&labor costs for mechanics to fix, also had work done on ball joints, tie rods and rear sway/axle bars TOO MANY MECHANICAL PROBLEMS for a foreign vehicle w/ only 120k miles.
Worst winter car ever.
Fuzzbean, 12/08/2017
updated 06/13/2022
2003 Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
8 of 12 people found this review helpful
I got this car used from my elderly dad, who got good service out of it in Florida and during Michigan summers. He even drove it successfully through several Upper Michigan winters, but only occasional retiree-style use on flat roads in nice weather and -- critically-- he always parked it in a garage. He had the luxury of picking which days he wanted to drive. For seeing several winters and being about 15 years old, I will say it has held up well as far as rusting. Then again it only has about 110,000 miles on it. While my dad was highly pleased with the car, my opinion is entirely different and I only drive it because my better Honda Odyssey got totaled by a teenager who failed to stop at a stop sign. In my opinion this CVT transmission is the worst drive system ever invented for winter driving. Once a wheel breaks traction, the transmission thinks "Wheeee! I'm going downhill!" and instantly shifts into higher and higher gear ratios. When you are going 15 mph and your wheels are going 60 mph, it is very hard to re-establish traction. Even more maddening are the windshield wipers. The passenger side wiper arm is about 3 feet long, and parks into a closed pocket under the rear edge of the hood. Inevitably snow will get into the pocket, and it has no way to escape. Engine heat turns the snow into hard ice. More snow piles on the ice, etc. etc. until the wiper arm slips on its shaft and "parks" way high on the windshield. Then the wipers start to click together. Then they get totally snarled up and you are lucky if nothing serious breaks. Because of this one feature alone, the car requires 3 times as much care as any other car I ever drove in the winter. It is one of the stupidest design features I have ever seen on any car, and could kill somebody driving during a blizzard of heavy wet "packing" snow. Since it is snow gathering below the wiper blade that causes the total system failure, driving slower would actually make it happen sooner. In addition, the wiper arms' location under the hood means you can't stand up the wiper arms/blades for any reason, such as to prevent them freezing to the windshield, or to scrape frost/ice off the windshield, or to change wiper blades. And the windshield defroster is too hot at the bottom and too cold at the top, resulting in a windshield that is externally wet at the bottom (refreezing into hard ice) and internally fogged at the top. If your wipers happen to be working, they smear the wet from the bottom up onto the cold top area, where it freezes and creates an even bigger vision problem. Another bad feature for winter driving, shared with many other cars I know, is that the rear hatch door swings too close over the bumper. So you better not have any crusty snow piled up on your rear bumper. The plastic bubble headlights on this car get covered with ice and snow in winter, and any attempt to scrape them clean with a windshield scraper (especially the brass-edge scrapers I use) will permanently scratch them. This is the first car I ever owned that has no "tow loops" at the front end; a fact I only noticed when I tried to tie a canoe on the roof, but which could make it hard to get a quick tow out of a snowbank. The angle and width of the front roof pillars seem perfectly calculated to block my side vision efficiently when I pull up to 90-degree intersections. The factory CD player ate my CD and sometimes will play it but will never eject it. The heater/air conditioner controls are very un-intuitive; I just press buttons randomly until something happens that approximates what I want. The gas mileage is very poor, about 17 or 18 mpg in mixed driving and maybe 21 on pure highway. I had a 1987 Toyota that got 38 mpg... this is 15 years of technological progress? I hate the anti-lock brakes, the way the pedal vibrates and rumbles is very startling, like suddenly rubbing a metal bar against a rough spinning rock. It also seems like one wheel hits a icy spot and the whole braking system gives up completely... I could stop faster without this system, and more than once have rolled out helplessly into highway traffic. It is one thing to slide on ice, but much more alarming to be ROLLING forward helplessly. Also the transmission offers a degree of engine braking -- which could be a good thing -- except it cuts out suddenly at low speeds and leaves you in free-fall, just as you are closing in on another car's bumper. The door locks on this car are incredibly badly designed... they rotate on the same axis as the door handle, and simply opening the door in a very normal and typical way often allows the heel of your palm to unintentionally rotate the lock into the locked position. I have been locked out of the car to where I had to call a mechanic with fancy tools to get me back in, and my dad was also locked out several times. And how the heck are you supposed to get the radiator cap off? Finally, I HATE the cold-looking brushed stainless steel interior trim. Yech. Edit, June 2022: I wrote this review several years ago, but I just recently remembered another thing about this car to dislike. Once when I was driving on a long trip, with the cruise control set, my wife in the front passenger seat was sleeping and happened to bump the shift lever into neutral. It took me a couple seconds to realize the sound I was hearing was the engine racing at about 10,000 RPM! The cruise control was trying to maintain vehicle speed when the transmission was in neutral! There really ought to be a safety interlock to disconnect the cruise control, and prevent this from happening... it just seems like common sense to me. It could also be made harder to accidentally knock the transmission out of "drive."
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
beautiful gas guzzler
Jonn B., 06/20/2006
2003 Nissan Murano SL Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I have owned the Murano for 8 months and have discovered a few key things. As related to its size, this car does not get any where near the gas mileage it should. It does however pack a good bit of power. The ride is smooth but the driver seat has poor lumbar support and gives me back pain if driving an extended amount of time. The auto. handles very well and has room to store more than it appears. Still, with the price of gas I would recomend that Nissan rethink the fuel efficiency of their engines. You would think it would be possible to get performance and fuel economy wrapped up in one attractive package.