It's an automotive challenge of sorts that no one - including us - saw coming. Three Nissan dealers set out on a road trip across the American West, each in their own used Nissan, CVTs and all. The goal? To prove just how tough an ordinary Nissan can be and the durability of the brand's oft-maligned CVT.
To find out what happens, you'll have to tune in to YouTube for Tour Detour: The Good, The Bad & The CVT, a seven-episode YouTube series that just launched today. The dealer-funded adventure blends automotive challenge, road-trip comedy, and the kind of landscapes that make even the toughest machines sweat.
The three Nissan dealership owners taking part of this unique adventure-fest are Tim Pohanka (Pohanka Automotive Group, Virginia), Jason Cole (Cole Automotive Group, West Virginia), and Chris Lenckosz (Empire Lakewood Nissan, Colorado). They each bought a used Nissan for under $10,000 — each well past 100,000 miles and fitted with the much-talked about CVT transmission. Without any off-road experience, they then set out across 1,500 miles of salt flats, sand dunes, canyons, and alpine passes to answer one question: could these underestimated cars survive?
"This wasn't a showroom stunt," said Pohanka. "We bought the cars ourselves and pushed them through the toughest roads in the West. We wanted them to earn our trust — and our customers' — the hard way."
Each vehicle is a character in its own right:
- The Duke — a scrappy 2016 Nissan Juke, underestimated but full of fight.
- Luciano the Murano — Jason's 2014 Murano, the "sensible bet" chosen for comfort.
- Emma — Chris's 2017 Murano, the sleek and supposedly "safe" choice.
With their owners in the driver's seats, these cars will face challenges from drag-racing at Bonneville to cliff-side switchbacks in Colorado.
"The cars weren't perfect, and neither were we," said Lenckosz. "But that's what made it fun — three well-loved Nissans and the kind of camaraderie you only find on the road."
Tour Detour premieres October 15, 2025, on YouTube and new 10-minute episodes will be released each week through November 26. Across the series, viewers will see Bonneville "record runs" in full race gear, Little Sahara sand dunes that swallowed the cars in dust, river crossings, canyon storms, and alpine climbs. There were breakdown scares, flying roof racks, and even a final detour that sent the team to Denver instead of Santa Fe.
If you follow auto news and watch a lot of car reviews, you're likely familiar with the negative press Nissan's CVT has received over the years over its reliability. Tour Detour is described as an effort to reframe the conversation by testing high-mileage, everyday Nissans in extraordinary conditions. If they survive, it's proof of unexpected durability. If they don't, the breakdowns and recoveries will certainly make for quite an adventure.
"People doubted these cars would last even a day," said Cole. "The fun was proving everyone wrong…or at least proving we were stubborn enough to keep pushing."
Watch the official trailer here. You can also catch daily behind-the-scenes clips posted on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts.
