The 2025 Nissan Murano Is Nicer, Not Newer
The aging midsize Murano gets another big refresh focused on comfort and convenience.
Nissan’s overhaul of its lineup is in full swing and has finally reached its aging midsizer. As has been the case with some of its recently refreshed kin, though, the 2025 Nissan Murano gets a nice makeover rather than a total replacement.
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A New Look
It’ll certainly look a lot fresher in showrooms thanks to a facelift which brings it in line with Nissan’s new design language. The “hidden” daytime running lights in the grille will catch people’s eyes, lighting up to form the latest take on Nissan’s “V-motion” nose. Those and the cube-like LED headlights are a big departure from the point, swoopy graphics of the outgoing model.
Things are tidied-up around back, too. A new tailgate and bumper tuck the rear wiper and exhaust tips away out of sight, while the license plate is pushed down to the bumper to really emphasize the new full-width LED taillights everybody is doing these days. The tailgate is powered on all models, while the top trim gets a kick sensor which may (or may not) read your foot.
Around the side, the “floating roof” design flourish is finally gone, replaced with a black roof separated from the body by a long, arcing piece of silver trim. The mirrors have moved down to the doors, the handles are now body color, and the trim at the bottom of the doors has been toned down.
Viewed at any angle, the new stance will be hard to ignore. Nissan has flared out the fenders to cover wheels as big as 21 inches and in doing so has increased the width of the Murano by a hefty 2.6 inches.
Nicer Digs
The interior is also a glow-up recipient, with an eye towards making the SUV more of a “road-going sanctuary,” to use Nissan’s words. Really selling the idea is a new trim material called “Murano Glass,” which color-shifts with the light and is named after the glassworks on the Venetian island of Murano. Also helping are new optional heated, ventilated, and massaging front seats.
Elsewhere on the dashboard, touch-sensitive climate controls inspired by the Nissan Ariya reduce the button count and twin 12.3-inch screens dominate the design. They can be equipped with built-in Google apps including Maps, as well as wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. Tunes, regardless of source, can be piped through an optional 10-speaker Bose stereo system, while all trims get active noise cancelling for a quieter interior. No matter what, there’s still a volume knob in the center of the dash.
When navigating tight spots, the center infotainment screen adds new camera displays to the existing optional 360-degree camera, including eight preset 3D views and a feature that lets you see “through” the hood by stitching multiple camera feeds together. The screens are surrounded by stitched textiles for a softer look and feel and the instrument cluster is framed by a new, flat-bottomed, two-spoke steering wheel.
Three new interior design themes brighten things up with the help of 64-color customizable LED ambient lighting and an optional panoramic moonroof. Top trims also get genuine leather seats. Those front row seats also get a wider range of adjustability to find the perfect position and now both the driver and passenger get standard knee airbags. In between them, a new center console offers more storage thanks to a pushbutton shifter, which also makes room for a standard wireless phone charger.
For once in a non-luxury car, the rear-seat passengers get a little love, too. Thinner front seat backs make for more rear leg room and Nissan’s “Zero Gravity” seat foam has finally made its way rearward for a more comfortable sit. The doors now open wider for easier entry, exit, and loading and also offer pull-up window shades for comfort. A new support under the seat improves crash safety for people in the back.
Modern Power
Far and away the biggest mechanical change happens right at the heart of things with the old 3.5-liter V-6 gone and soon forgotten, replaced with Nissan’s “VC-Turbo” variable-compression turbocharged inline-four. Horsepower is down from 260 hp to 241 hp, but torque climbs from 240 lb-ft to 260 lb-ft. Along with it comes standard idle engine stop/start and electric power steering. More importantly, the deeply disliked continuously variable transmission is gone, replaced with a nine-speed automatic.
Despite the new powertrain, fuel economy is a wash. City mileage increases from 20 mpg to 23 mpg, but highway mileage drops from 28 mpg to 24 mpg. As a result, combined fuel economy stays the same at 23 mpg. The ratings are the same for both front- and all-wheel drive models, and all-wheel drive is standard on top trims.
Part of the delay in getting the refreshed Murano on-sale was indecisiveness about what to put under the hood in the first place, chief planning officer Ponz Antikythera told reporters at the reveal. Early on, the company intended to make it an EV, but lack of interest from customers in the segment made Nissan reconsider. Instead, the EV project was cleaved off the Murano and became the Ariya EV. Developing that car as a separate model took money and engineering resources away from the Murano, delaying its refresh until this year.
Elsewhere underneath, Nissan engineers have upgraded the shock absorbers to new frequency selective units which should improve ride quality. Otherwise the Murano remains the same as ever underneath. Same decade-old platform with the same suspension design, same underlying structure with a few enhancements.
On the plus side, it now supports both ProPilot Assist and ProPilot Assist 1.1. Each system bundles adaptive cruise control with lane centering, but 1.1 allows the system to read the route in the navigation system and automatically slow for curves. They’re part of Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 suite of active and passive driver aids.
When And How Much?
The updated Murano will go on-sale in “early 2025,” Nissan says. Pricing will be announced closer to that time, so for now, we can only take an educated guess. The current model starts at just over $40,000 with destination, and we think the various enhancements for the new model will probably push it up to around $42,000.
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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