Nissan Axes the Murano CrossCabriolet and Cube

2014 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet (Credit: © Nissan)

Ding-dong, the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is gone! Oh, and with it the Cube has also been shown the door, as far as the U.S. auto market is concerned. Both models are singing their swan song with the 2014 model year, thanks to disappointing sales.

The CrossCabriolet was an odd duck, an answer to a question that nobody ever asked. Nissan took it upon itself to give the public a convertible crossover, because nobody ever wanted to cross those two things. It looked weird, and meant that the backseat passengers got to eat all kinds of air when the top was down and the vehicle was taken on the highway. At least it had a decent trunk, which is a unique feature for any convertible, making going to the mall and engaging in a shopping binge at Nordstrom’s a much more practical endeavor.

Of course, to purchase the Murano CrossCabriolet meant shelling out an extra $13,000 versus the regular Murano, which could have been used to purchase a pretty loaded Versa.

The death of the Cube is a little more surprising. The quirky, boxy vehicle has had its admirers, but apparently there were too few of them, or at least too few who could finance the cash to purchase one. The model lives on in Japan, which is home of all things quirky. In fact, the Cube has been selling well in the island nation for the past 15 years. For the last 6 years it has been available in the United States, it has seen some pretty severe drops in demand, including a 31 percent sales drop between the first half of 2013 and 2014.