Production of Murano CrossCabriolet Crippled by Japan Earthquake

It seems that the wear-boy of the Nissan range has taken the brunt of the Japan’s quake and tsunami aftermath, as the carmaker is struggling to get the 2011 model into the hands of US customers. Nissan was only able to deliver 40-50 units to U.S. consumers thus far this spring due to supply chain problems. The strange crossover/cabriolet mix will join a list of other vehicles affected by the disaster, which includes the 2012 Honda Civic and Toyota Prius.

According to the Inside Line, the delay could mean that Nissan will only be able to provide enough supply this fall - too late to take advantage of the summer buying season. This means that the Japanese carmaker’s gamble won’t get it’s fair chance of success.

The company doesn’t give a separate figure for CrossCabriolet sales from the regular Murano, so we can’t see how it did in May. "However, I can tell you we started to deliver our first few units in May and there were roughly 40-50 placed in customer hands," wrote David P. Reuter, Nissan Americas vice president of corporate communications.

"What's more important is for me to note that this vehicle's production was significantly impacted by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The vehicle was literally in its first few days of production start-up when disaster hit, so our inventory — in transit and on the ground in the U.S. — was virtually non-existent,” the Nissan VP also said. "Given this, it would be incorrect to assume that there is any sort of sales problem with the Murano CrossCabriolet. It's a supply challenge and one which we'll have to work through in the coming months until we get a good number of units into dealer hands."

We’ll remind you that the Nissan CrossCabriolet is available on the US market starting from $47,190.