The Murano was one of the first “crossover” style SUVs when it went on sale in the U.S. back in 2002. As a “crossover,” it featured the elevated ride height and taller body style of an SUV but was based on the platform of a car—in this case, one that was shared with Nissan’s Altima.
But even though the Murano was an originator of the crossover SUV category, Nissan allowed it to stagnate recently. The third-generation model had been on sale without major updates for a decade and was sorely in need of refreshment.
Finally, the vehicle’s 2025 redesign has brought a fresh-looking Murano with a comfy, well-appointed interior and an all-new powertrain. But appearances can be deceiving. After putting the fourth-generation Murano through more than 50 empirical tests at our track in Connecticut and living with it for more than six months, we experienced its stiff ride, rough-shifting transmission, uneven power delivery, subpar fuel economy, and frustrating controls.
Not only is the latest Murano outclassed by many of its midsized two-row SUV competitors, but it’s also inferior to its predecessor in many ways. As such, we can’t see a compelling reason to buy it, and it doesn’t earn a CR recommendation.
“It falls short on refinement and isn’t sporty to drive,” said a tester. “The second-rate automatic transmission, gritty-sounding engine, and stiff ride undermine it as a near-luxury $50,000 vehicle.”
“I couldn’t deal with the delay in power delivery on a daily basis,” said another tester. “That right there ruins this car for me. I could look past the faults with the controls and the ride.”
Another tester was a bit more positive on the Murano: “It’s competent in some ways, and I could probably live with it, but there are better vehicles that cost less. It seems like Nissan is trying to give a near-luxury experience, but resorted to gimmicks to achieve that, while leaving behind some key fundamentals such as ride quality.”
We bought a 2025 Nissan Murano SL AWD for $49,320—anonymously from an area dealer, as we do with every vehicle we test—for the purpose of this road test review. The Murano is assembled in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Driving experience
Nissan replaced the previous Murano’s combination of a 260-hp V6 engine and a continuously variable transmission (CVT) in favor of a 241-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine mated with a nine-speed automatic transmission—ostensibly to improve both fuel economy and performance. On the road, however, the new powertrain was a disappointment. Although the Murano’s acceleration matches competitors on paper, with a measured 0-to-60-mph time of 7.6 seconds (a tenth of a second quicker than with the old powertrain), it feels bogged down in real-world driving. Lurching delays off the line from full stops and rolling ones get in the way of merging with traffic. The engine stop/start feature, which is designed to save fuel and reduce emissions by turning off the engine at stop lights, only serves to accentuate the lethargic feel.
Once the Murano gets going, the driver can tap into a nice reserve of power for passing maneuvers, but the nine-speed automatic delivers some rough upshifts in lower gears, and downshifts don’t come as quickly as we’d like. These issues further give the impression that the Murano is underpowered. As one tester quipped, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Nissan would have been better off keeping the CVT in this thing.”
But at least the smaller turbocharged engine resulted in significantly improved fuel economy, right? Wrong. We measured 21 mpg overall, which is the same as the previous generation with the larger and more powerful V6.
Our testers weren’t all that impressed by the Murano’s handling, either. In a word, it’s “unremarkable.” The taut suspension keeps the body from leaning over very far through corners, and the steering has a nice weight to it that most testers liked, but it’s short on feedback and lacks a good connection to the driver. At least it proved secure and forgiving in our emergency handling tests. Braking performance was also excellent, with short stopping distances on both our dry and wet surfaces.
We’d be more okay with the mundane handling if the suspension were more comfortable. Instead, the driver and passengers will notice how stiffly the Murano rides down the road. Most bumps are transmitted into the cabin, and the body gets unsettled. Every hard kick is followed by an abrupt pitch that makes the car feel jumpy.
At least the cabin is fairly quiet. Wind and road noise are well suppressed, though we were mixed on our feelings about the engine—a few of us liked hearing its agreeable growl come through when accelerating with some verve, while others thought it wasn’t particularly refined and emitted a rough drone.
Cabin comfort
The Murano’s original advantage—its slightly elevated ride height—remains. Taller than most sedans but lower than some bigger SUVs, the Murano has a “just right” height that many testers praised for how easy it is to get into and out of. Kudos to Nissan’s interior design team, too, because the new Murano’s cabin is a pleasant place to spend some time. There are padded surfaces, a variety of contrasting materials, and thoughtful details like accent lighting. Our biggest gripe is the shiny “piano black” material around the gear selector buttons. It’s a magnet for fingerprints and scratches, especially if you wear rings or toss your house keys into the cup holder.
The driving position was another area that drew mixed results. We appreciated the ample headroom, well-placed and sized left footrest, and that there’s only a minimal amount of intrusion from the padded center console. However, several testers complained that the steering wheel doesn’t offer enough adjustment—most wanted it to go lower, while a few wanted it to telescope out more, and together this made it difficult to get comfortable.
The driver’s seat drew almost unanimous praise, though, remaining supportive and comfortable even on longer journeys. There are plenty of adjustments to suit a variety of body types, and the side bolsters provide good lateral support to help hold you in place through corners. The rear seat looks more comfortable than it actually is. Although there’s plenty of knee room, the seat is situated low to the floor and is short on underleg support. And unlike some SUVs, the seatback can’t be reclined to a more comfortable rearward rake.
In our cargo test, we were able to fit four large suitcases and one overnight duffel bag behind the rear seat in its raised position. With the rear seat folded down, we measured 36 cubic feet of maximum cargo volume. That’s less than some midsized SUV competitors, and about the same as the smaller Nissan Rogue.
Controls and usability
Most features are controlled by a large, customizable infotainment touchscreen, along with some capacitive-touch climate “buttons” embedded within a matte wooden panel on the dashboard. Those climate controls are laggy, and don’t always pick up inputs, and the haptic feedback that they give—to confirm your selection—is delayed. Many climate features are only accessible via the climate menu on the infotainment touchscreen, which itself is cluttered with excessive graphics, small buttons, and overlapping menus. It also takes too many steps to adjust the seat heaters.
We like the large physical volume knob underneath the infotainment touchscreen, and the media, navigation, and phone menus are well organized and easy to use. However, the driver’s instrument screen suffers from a confusing menu structure. The biggest offender, in our opinion, is the electronic gear selector, which uses piano-black buttons on the center console. They all look the same and have too little tactile differentiation for the driver to be able to use them confidently without looking down and over at them.
Active safety and driver assistance
All Murano trims come standard with automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking that operates at highway speeds, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic warning, reverse automatic emergency braking, lane centering assistance, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, and automatic high beams.
Our Murano was equipped with ProPILOT Assist 1.1, which allows the driver to simultaneously use adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane centering assistance (LCA). While the ACC system did a decent job keeping a safe distance between cars in traffic, the LCA caused the Murano to frequently “ping-pong” back and forth between the lane lines, and it swung wide through corners.
A rear occupant alert system comes standard on the Murano. It’s designed to remind the driver—based on rear-door logic—to check the rear seat when the Murano is turned off to help prevent children and pets from suffering heatstroke or hypothermia if unintentionally left behind in the vehicle. Unfortunately, the rear occupant alert system doesn’t come factory-enabled (unlike in most vehicles), and some parents may not even realize the Murano has this feature available to them. There’s also a rear belt minder, which alerts the driver if a rear passenger unbuckles their seat belt during the trip.