The Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet was nothing if not uh, unique, and even though it only had a brief life in the early 2010s, its majesty and mysteries are immortal. Except for one, which has now been solved: What’s was the deal with that weird little secondary rear window?
I have never been inside in a Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw one. But if I ever did I always assumed that the horizontally split rear window had something to do with letting light into the cabin or assisting with rear visibility.
Those may be factors, but today the always-observant friend of Jalopnik (and sometimes contributor) Bozi Tatarevic shared an epiphany on Twitter:
He spotted this convertible crossover sitting in a salvage auction lot post-crash, and as you can see in the pictures at the auction house’s listing, it’s pretty clear that the deployed rollover protection bars were designed to pop straight through that clear piece of convertible top.
The thinner plastic must just be easier for the roll bars to punch through than the thick canvas that the rest of the roof is made of.
This poor mangled Murano looks like a piece of luggage now, but at least the passenger-occupying portion of the cab appears to be intact. Here’s hoping the car’s safety systems effectively sacrificed themselves for the occupants. And thank you, Mr. Tatarevic, for solving one of the great automotive mysteries of our generation.