[brandt irvine]

new to the forum, live in westchester county, ny. just purchased an SE AWD (polished pewter, charcoal leather) a month ago. love the car, love the handling (and i've owned many porsches in my missspent youth, so handling's important to me) anyway, what i'm real curious about, because it's almost upon us, is how the murano does in the snow? thanx in advance

 

[rebo]

Welcome,
I purchased my MO in Mt Kisco, where did you buy yours?
I ride my motorcycle to the Black Cow during the summer, nice area.

 

[brandt irvine]

got mine at geiss. they pulled a small bait and switch on me - but still got a pretty good deal. their service department's great - wish i could say the same about their sales people.

 

[Mr3Putt]

got mine at geiss. they pulled a small bait and switch on me - but still got a pretty good deal. their service department's great - wish i could say the same about their sales people.

All things considered, I'd prefer a good service department over a good sales department any day! After all, you buy the thing once and service more than that. As far as the snow goes, I saw another post from a guy in Canada who says Da Mo Go In Snow! I'm in PA and have a ski shack about an hour away from home, I can't wait to drive this thing into a snowbank!

 

[jaak]

Got my Murano in January and there was a few others around here who got it before.

It's great in the snow.

 

[GMTURBO43]

The M handles great in the snow.

Hey Jaak - that sure doesn't look like a Candian snowfall to me...Or was that pic taken in July?

 

[GoldSL]

I drove over a pass in the snow recently. The Murano was like driving on dry pavement. I put 160,000 on a 1999 Suburban. Much in the snow. The Murano handles great and gave me complete confidence.

At the bottom of the pass a Suburu Outback that I passed pulled in to the same restaraunt I did. The old guy was really nice and loved the look of the Murano. I blew past him so fast on the pass I don't think he new it was me.

I tested the VDC and stabbed the brakes on sime wide sections of the hiway and could not get the thing to slip or slide. I REALLY am enjoying the MO!

 

[Chezman29]

I will double that last comment. I live in N. Dakota and the Murano is almost a joke in the snow. It is like driving on pavement it does so well. I was trying to spin out and do get wheels to spin in a parking lot during the test drive, the salesman got a kick out of it, but it wouldn't slip hardly at all. Then we went into about 2 feet of untouched snow and it tromped right through it like it was nothing.
I feel totally confident letting my wife drive to work in this thing with a blizzard and 3 feet of snow on the ground, no lie.
Its amazing. With the 18's and the way the driveline is set up this thing is just made to do well in the snow from what I can tell.
I still haven't taken it out for my "own little rendevous" when I try and get stuck and have a little fun, but I have a feeling I won't need a buddy to pull me out. Unless of course you high center, I guess it only has about 7in of clearance, so that is the only thing not going for it in my opinion.
Chez

 

[ZUV18]

The MO handles quite well in the snow. I have a question though, when AWD kicks in for you guys, do you ever actually feel it or is it that fast? Maybe the MO being fwd initially has something to do with it too.

In other AWD trucks Ive driven (rwd/awd ones) you can feel the rear end slip, than the awd kicks in a split second later. I tried to reproduce this in the MO but I never could pinpoint when the AWD kicks in. Its not a bad thing, it might mean the system is VERY QUICK at detecting slippage of the front wheels. I even locked the AWD to see if I can feel a difference in launches with it locked and without. No difference that I can tell.

 

[jaak]

The M handles great in the snow.

Hey Jaak - that sure doesn't look like a Candian snowfall to me...Or was that pic taken in July?

That was February, but there's two things that affect the snow here.

Lake Ontario and the fact that I'm farther south than much of the US!

 

[Chezman29]

I just got done having a little fun in the snow here and I couldn't tell when and if the AWD kicked in.
I had a blast though. Doing donuts, spinning around in circles and pretty much just going out and having as much fun as I could while in the safety of an area without any dangers.
I had a GREAT time.
I just totalled a 2002 4runner which I loved. It was also fully loaded and cost $37000. So it was the best of the best. It was a fun vehicle, beautiful, fun to drive, ect. Although I must say this new Murano takes the cake. It is just a blast to drive. Especially in the snow. It sticks to the snow like glue. It is hard to get it to break free and slide. Whereas the 4runner was a lot more looser and easier to break loose in the snow. The real test though will be when I have to tow my 2nd vehicle on a tow dolly when me move from (military) here. The 4runner had a little bit of a hard time getting "pushed" from behind due to the weight and stuff, and braking was hard in the snow obviously while driving out here.
Chad

We have the same color as Jaak with a sunroof, crome wheels and all the other options available, except a tow package which I am trying to get right now.
The Copper with crome wheels is really, really nice. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it until we pulled up. If it didn't have the chrome wheels, I don't think we would have gotten it.

 

[GoldSL]

I put 100k miles on a 96 Four Runner. I liked it too. Before that I had a Suburu that was easy to drive in the snow. Muran is easier than all of them.

I forgot to mention on my first Murano snow trip last week, that this is my first car with heated seats! Man I felt like a million bucks quietly zipping along in the snow-outside temp reading 29 degrees, big fluffy flakes coming down, and I was toasty on nice leather seats!

I have been learning the handling limits on dry pavement too, and I am just about temped to show up at a car club meeting at the Portland race track (PIR) and do some hot laps. It would embarrass some of the sports cars that I have run around in.

This is a great multi-purpose car/ute. Fast, quiet, AWD pretty cool!

See ya on the pass sometime. 2800 miles in three weeks! I use this as my daily work transportation criss crossing Oregon.

 

[luvnissan]

Snow Tires

Has anybody installed snow tires on their Murano? Are the good handling charateristics based on the stock tires? Thanks.

 

[jaak]

I didn't bother with snows last year, but I don't really need them in Toronto. A bud of mine in Montreal put snows on his Maxima, 'cause he needs them! He was asking me what I put on, and I just looked at him funny...

So it depends how much you have to deal with if you'll need them... Even when the streets weren't plowed, I had no probems getting through snow that was Murano deep. Snows would have made it grab a bit better...

Yesterday we had winds gusting to 65 MPH and I was really pleased at how little the MO was getting blown around. The wind was trying, but it was very controllable. Must be the rounded shape??

 

[dklanecky1]

I noticed the exact same thing in the wind Wednesday-Thursday. I could hardly feel it on the Murano. My 00 Maxima SE would blow around like a kite on the roads in high winds.

I suspect the weight difference may also have something to do with the resistance to wind (Maxima ~3200lbs/Murano ~4100lbs).:2:

 

[jaak]

I also wondered if the larger wheels and the gap underneath, have something to do with it...

 

[wayne p]

Hi all. I am new to this forum and I must say I find it very informative.

I have a champagne MO with the orange/brown interior ( my wife knows the proper name for the colors ), SL AWD. It has the stock 18" eagles as tires.

On Wednesday I drove north from Minneapolis to Thunder Bay, Ontario (approx. 500km) during a snow storm. A good 3 hours of this drive is along the north west shore of Lake Superior, an old two lane highway (Hwy 61) full of sharp twists, turns and hills. It is a very scenic road that I have traveled many times, but it can be a difficult drive this time of year. Being right along the shore of this huge lake it is exposed to high winds and icy conditions. Much of the road side is also a game preserve making deer a real problem.

I was unsure how the MO would handle in the high winds and slippery conditions. My previous vehicle was a GMC Jimmy SLT which was good on snow and ice, but really rocked in the wind.

I found the MO outstanding in these conditions. It held the road like dry pavement and seemed undisturbed by the wind. I was able to drive at 100km/hr (60 mph) without a problem. At no time did I feel the vehicle slip. I believe I could have comfortably driven faster, but I did not want to push it being the first time in the snow with this new vehicle.

I was particularly impressed when passing. I could accelerate sharply and cross the hump of snow and slush in the center of the road without any major steering corrections. Much better performance than my Jimmy. I also faced an emergency situation when a deer jumped out. The MO stopped well, but with some ABS chatter.

So far this vehicle has exceeded my expectations. Living this far north I will have a lot more to report on this topic come June
:2:

Wayne P

 

[Chezman29]

I live in the Northern Great plains. The winds here are insane. People plant huge trees around their houses. I noticed it but never figured out why. Until I noticed the winds here. There is nothing to stop them. So we get some killer 40-70mph winds (which also attributes to wind chills in the -70s, no crap) so the driving conditions here can be hazardous. I felt safe in my 4runner and even safer in the Murano.
We just got back from a 5 hour trip(each way) and we felt fine with the high winds, snow/ice on the road and driving 70. And the wife was driving the whole time. So if there where ANNY reason at ALL, she would have driven slower, she does when I talk to her, so I have to watch how often we converse!!! LOL
The biggest thing we noticed was how many deer we saw. Each way we saw a minimum of 20 deer each way. Luckily none in the middle of the road, or none rna out in front of us. We weee just surprised.
I was even more since I am from yuppieville beach town southern California. So this was very surprising to me. I expected to see a few, but the amount we saw was ridiculous.

Chez