2009 Nissan Murano LE -- YES OR no

2009    116 :/- Miles 2 owner

SC Car it whole life

Use for trip up the Alcan to Fairbanks then on to Dead Horse  (4,200 miles)

Donate to Charity after returning to Fairbanks from Dead Horse.

YES or NO

What Say the Hive?

If CVT.. no

Checking with fueleconomy.gov.  The only Murano drivetrain offering for 2009 was a 3.5L w/ cvt (and calling for Premium Fuel)  

Nissan CVTs are notoriously unreliable.   NO

No

Not unless you are planning a manual swap.

If its working fine now, its probably got another 5k left in it. Make sure you have a way to get help if dies in the middle of nowhere.  DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IN WINTER!

So, NO it shall be

In reply to RacingComputers :

Staying with Nissan, I was going to suggest the body-on-frame, reliable engined and strong transmissioned Nissan Pathfinder and Nissan Xterra.  If neither of those are available then also the Infiniti QX4 which is just a rebadged and tarted up Nissan Pathfinder.  In general, these are reliable Nissan Frontier pickup truck derived suvs.  The Infiniti QX4 version is highly overlooked because no one ever thinks to look for one.

Sample QX4

Side note:  All QX4's are awd/4wd but some/many Pathfinders and Xterra are just rwd.  Spotter guide is rotory knob on dash, under radio and shift lever area   

Sample: this Pathfinder is 2wd.  The rotary dial is missing and replaced with just a blanking plate.  

I'm not sure what your budget is but I stumbled across this "whiskey-bumped-bargain"  2005 Trailblazer w/101k @ $2.7k

Thanks John

Budget is important as this vehicle will be donated to a Charity in Alaska, once the Trip from Charlotte to Dead Horse, and then back to Fairbanks is completed.

Reliability on the ALCAN Highway and The Dalton Highway portions is the 2nd driver for selection.

Simple, no custom, everything off the shelf setup seems to be the choice for this trip.

Yes, the trip has been made in anything from a Corvette (Brock Yates) to Ma and Pa Kettle in their 19'o' E36 M3 Winnebao.

Challenge is trip needs to be completed by the end of September or it will not happen till next summer.

Next summer might not happen, who knows?

Thanks All

Especially not an early Nissan CVT, those are timebombs with a short fuse. Later models seem to be somewhat less explodey if carefully maintained.

Thanks

Appreciate everyone's input.

The search continues

Before you dismiss the Murano, you may want to research the V6 CVT vs the version in the 4cyl.  My understanding, which might be wrong, is that the cvt behind the V6 was for more durable than the version in cars like rogue.  We have one in our work fleet and, while nothing spectacular,  it drives quite nice.  The CVT is not particularly noticeably different from a traditional AT.  It may be worth a bit more research.