We Ruined Our Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet With A Lift Kit, Mustang Wheels And All-Terrain Tires

There are few modifications that can ruin a vehicle as thoroughly as a lift kit and big tires. Acceleration gets worse. Braking gets worse. Handling gets worse. Fuel economy gets worse. Ride quality gets worse. Wind noise gets worse. Durability gets worse. And yet, we — like so many Americans — went ahead and did it anyway, raising our 2014 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet’s suspension by 1.5-inches, and then installing 1.3-inch larger diameter all-terrain tires on very, very cool wheels that I found on Facebook Marketplace. Let’s look at how we simultaneously ruined our convertible Nissan Crossover SUV and also made it so, so much better.

A few months ago, we bought one of the weirdest cars of all time — a 2014 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet — and had our brand partner, XPEL, cover half of it with paint protection film. The goal of our partnership is to test how well XPEL PPF protects our vehicle as we subject it to a barrage of brutal tests meant to simulate, among other things, a police hood-slide and the harsh environment that is the parking lot/parking deck. Our next test is going to involve off-roading, and before you chuckle at the idea, you should know that the Crosscab is far, far underrated in terms of its theoretical off-road potential.

First off, the most important element of any good off-road vehicle is geometry, and on that front the CrossCab crushes it. Look at these numbers:

• Angle of approach (degrees) 28.8
• Angle of departure (degrees) 25.5
• Breakover angle 15.6

 

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OK, that breakover angle is rough, but the approach angle of almost 29 degrees and a departure angle of 25.5? Those are great!

To put this into context, you may have seen our review of the new off-road focused Honda Passport Trailsport — a review titled “The 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport Is An Excellent Off-Road Starting Point To Keep Up With Your Subaru Pals.” Here’s a look at that vehicle:

The Passport Trailsport’s angles are:

• Angle of approach (degrees) 23
• Angle of departure (degrees) 23.1
• Breakover angle 16.7

So our CrossCab crushes the approach angle, beats the departure angle, and loses out to the breakover angle by just 1.1 degrees. Overall, the CrossCab’s geometry is actually better, and geometry is huge when it comes to off-road capability.

Of course, I have some concerns about the CrossCabriolet’s gearing. Per Nissan, the CVT offers gearing ranging between 2.371 and 0.439. The final drive ratio is 5.173, and the transfer case ratio is 0.4048, yielding a crawl ratio of just… 5:1. Which doesn’t sound quite right to me; that seems way too low, with the Honda Passport Trailsport’s crawl ratio sitting at around 22 and a proper off-roader’s (one equipped with a two-speed transfer case with low range) often hitting above 50:1. Two hundred and sixty-five horsepower and 248 lb-ft of torque aren’t bad, but with tall gearing and a 4,438 curb weight, the Crosscab’s powertrain/drivetrain definitely doesn’t sound ideal for off-roading, even if the world is filled with CVT-equipped ATVs and side-by-sides.

But the geometry is good, and beyond that, there’s this “AWD Lock” switch just to the left of the steering column:

This should ensure that torque goes to both the front and rear axles at all times. So there should be traction, there should be ground clearance/proper geometry… but there may not be enough torque at the wheels to propel the vehicle without frying that CVT.

But hey, two out of three ain’t bad, so I decided to jack up those approach/departure/breakover angles even more and increase our grip by lifting the Murano CrossCabriolet and installing some 31.5-inch Vredestein Pinza AT tires (see below — Vredestein sent us these for free; thank you!). That’s an increase in tire size of about 1.3-inches, which — along with the 1.2-inches of lift — yields about 2-inches of overall vehicle lift.

The only issue was that the CrossCabriolet comes with 20-inch wheels, which are not going to work off-road. After searching everywhere online for some good aftermarket wheels, I decided to cheap out and buy a used wheels from Facebook Marketplace. But what wheels would fit a Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet?

I chatted with Autopian writer Thomas Hundal, and he told me that about a vehicle with the same 5×114.3 lug pattern as the Nissan, and with a center bore big enough for the Nissan: The SN95 Mustang. And, after a bit of searching, I managed to find the ultimate SN95 wheels: Tri Bars.

They cost me $250 for the set, and they’d been absolutely beaten on, with three coming with tires that had metal cords poking out (never grab a tire with cords poking out; they will pierce straight through your skin). It’s no surprise, and these had been drifting wheels for the seller’s Mazda RX-7.

Getting the Plasti-Dip off the wheels was an absolute nightmare, and required lots of Goo-Gone, some scrubbing with a brush, my pressure washer, and lots of patience.

After many hours of squirting with Goo-Gone and spraying with my pressure washer, the wheels looked great:

I hit them with some self-etching primer:

And then I sprayed them all with some gold wheel-paint:

From there, I bought some new lug nuts, tire pressure sensors, and hub-centric rings to get the tri-bar wheels’ center bore the right size for the CrossCab:

Before installing the Vredestein tires onto those Tri-Bars and then onto our CrossCab, I decided we’d give our Nissan a small lift kit. Did we need that for a 1.3-inch larger diameter tire that’s wider by only about 0.4 inches? Probably not. But again, I want to give the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet as good of a chance off-road as possible, even though I fear the vehicle will end up being severely gearing-limited.

So I found a cheap 1.2-inch lift from Ukraine:

I brought this extremely basic lift‚ which just spaces the springs and dampers an extra 1.2-inches from the vehicle’s body — to our friends at Galpin Auto Sports, and they installed it:

Here you can see the subtly lifted vehicle on its factory wheels:

I then took our gold wheels, our awesome all-terrain tires, my new lug nuts and TPMS sensors, and those little center bore plastic adapters to a tiny tire shop near Galpin. If you’re wondering how four wheels and four tires fit into the CrossCab, the answer is: They sorta didn’t.

I was concerned the tires might not fit under the front strut spring-perches, but they did, and the CrossCab looks fantastic:

Does part of me think I could have gone up a tiny bit more in tire size? Yes. Does part of me also think we’re tempting fate putting additional strain on the Jatco CVT? Absolutely.

Anyway, we’ve driven the vehicle from LA to Monterey, and it glides. Honestly, the bigger tires on the Mustang SN95 wheels haven’t really affected the ride much at all; it’s good, and though the vehicle can’t really go much faster than about 70 up even a slight grade, acceleration doesn’t feel significantly worse than it did before. I’m sure if we actually ran measurements we’d find that, indeed, the ride is technically worse, the handling is worse, the fuel economy is worse, the NVH is worse, the durability has been decreased (I think the spacers might have torn one of our control arm bushings), and on and on.

A lift and big tires really does make a car worse in almost any way. And yet, just look at those photos above. Some humongous compromises are worth it.

Now to see what this thing can do off-road…