Used 2003 Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT) Consumer Reviews
Used Murano for sale
1...
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.
Renault is tarnishing Nissan's reliability
mkh142, Louisville, KY, 06/02/2013
Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
57 of 63 people found this review helpful
These Nissans in many respects are Renaults in disguise. Renault has consistently produced unreliable cars for decades and now that they own Nissan, many of Nissans products are suffering. The Nissan Murano looks nice, and has nice features, but it is a reliability disaster as with every other "Renault". They are not designed to last, but instead designed to be "profitable" to the company. I'd reccomended not buying and going for a more reliable brand.
2003 Murano SE Excellent, Comfortable and Reliable
DANZ, Los Angeles, CA, 10/11/2016
Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
32 of 37 people found this review helpful
"I bought this vehicle USED and it has turned out to be a very nice vehicle to drive, I commute 210 miles a day to work and this vehicle makes the trip with ease at 70 mph and uses just over a quarter of a tank to make the trip. Handles turns nicely, 2WD version, The Café Latte interior looks great and is very quiet and comfortable inside, but the FM radio gets bad in the mountainous regions. I had to replace the passenger side view mirror, the glass only. I had to take to the dealer because the memory needed to be flashed and I had to replace the three original catalytic converters at 210,000 miles and the Murano now has 236,000 plus miles on it and still going Strong. All in all I like my Nissan Murano very much. "
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Comfort
- Reliability
Worst winter car ever.
Fuzzbean, Hancock, MI, 12/08/2017
updated 06/13/2022
Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
7 of 11 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
CVT needs replacement after 5 years
bummed about cvt, 03/18/2008
Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
At 60000 the transmission was already having problems. At 70000 miles and 5 years old my transmission needs replacement. While driving for about 10-15 miles, it would have resistance at a stop sign, trying to pull into traffic. I would press the gas pedal and the Murano doesn't want to go, it's scary when I pull into traffic and a car is coming. I love all other features of the Murano, just the CVT stinks. Today my Murano is stuck in the shop and I need $5000-$6000 to replace the transmission.
Traded it in
sdwtchlvr, San Diego, CA, 02/01/2011
Nissan Murano SE Fwd 4dr SUV (3.5L 6cyl CVT)
2 of 4 people found this review helpful
I owned a 2003 Murano from 4/06-5/10. Here are a few bullet points. The SE ride is very rigid...the suspension is supposed to be sport tuned but it is awfully rough and rigid. Had to replace struts at 70K and when I traded it in, a couple of the motor mounts were shot. The frame on the driver's seat broke, so the window side of the seat sagged down. Did some research and found I was not alone. Nissan wanted to replace the seat at $1500+. No thanks. The HID head light went out. Bought a replacement bulb for $180. That blew right after putting it in. Bought another one, same thing. Turns out it was the transistor housing for the bulb. Headache. Traded it in for a Camry.
1...