Nissan Murano Ti 2012 Review

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory & delivery charges): $58,390
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): N/A
Crash rating: N/A
Fuel: 95 RON PULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 10.9
CO2 emissions (g/km): 259
Also consider: Ford Territory Titanium (from $63,240); Mazda CX-9 Luxury (from $58,825); Mitsubishi Pajero GLX (from $55,990); Toyota Kluger Grande (from $60,990)

This is a typical mid-life freshening up exercise, here designed to lengthen the currency of Nissan’s second-generation Murano, around since 2009.

Tweaks to the front-end styling and the taillight clusters, revised 18-inch alloys and rear privacy glass for all, with the top-spec Ti also getting 3D satellite navigation and an audio upgrade to include USB/iPod connectivity and a nine-gig hard drive.

At 1730mm, the Murano stands almost as tall as Toyota’s Kluger and taller than Lexus’s RX, although you wouldn’t guess it to see it driving past. Nissan has done a decent job of disguising its bulk under some of the sleeker sheet metal in its segment.

The Murano retains the existing 191kW/336Nm 3.5-litre V6 mated to Nissan’s Xtronic CVT. It’s sufficient to shunt its 1.8 tonnes (plus people and things) from 0-100km/h in around eight seconds, although in auto mode, the transmission and its size conspire to disguise that.

For those unacquainted with them, CVTs can take a little getting used to in the way they use revs (Japanese CVTs, anyway – Audi’s is a revelation in this respect), letting the engine surge ahead to a threshold it calculates as optimal for fuel consumption, then catching up in their own good time. The resulting groaning isn’t that attractive, but there’s no arguing about their smoothness.

Nissan’s given this one a pseudo-manual with six virtual gears – set points along the CVT’s infinitely variable gear scale, to emulate conventional stepped cogs. It works okay, but with no paddles it remains largely out of sight and out of mind.

Where CVTs come into their own is on fuel consumption, and we found it works reasonably well there, given it’s working with a fairly old-tech (ie no direct injection) engine. Nissan’s fuel economy claim of 10.9L/100km (combined) is well within reach of normal drivers. On freeway runs between Sydney and the Southern Highlands, we came within a couple of points of the claimed highway figure of 8.6L/100km, while around the city we saw 14s to 16s against a claimed 14.9 urban. Overall, we averaged 11.6L/100km. All, as usual, putting little conscious effort into keeping the figures down. Note, however, that you do need premium unleaded to achieve these numbers.

In keeping with its roots in a Californian design studio, Murano’s interior is big and airy, broad across the dash, with one of its segment’s roomier rear seats. Cargo space, at 402 litres, suffers at the hands of that raked rear end, although it expands to 838 litres. In the high-grade Ti, all it takes to open it up is the push of a button in the rear to get the powered split-fold rear seats down. The Ti also gets a powered tailgate.

What the car doesn’t get is a third row of seats, putting it at a disadvantage against competitors like Kluger and Mazda’s CX-9.

But Murano’s aspirations have always been more sports-lux than soccer mum. The Ti trowels it on there with a kit list including 11-speaker Bose audio, 3D sat-nav and reversing camera, xenon low-beams, front seat heating, a big glass sunroof and power everything, including those rear seat folding mechanisms and tailgate. That’s taking for granted, of course, the leather upholstery, dual-zone air, electrochromatic mirror, trip computer, headlamp and wiper sensors and a full-size alloy spare.

The seats are big and comfortable, although typically Japanese in their shortness beneath the thigh. Ergonomics are good – it’s not hard to get comfy at the wheel, and once you are, it takes little time to make your way round the controls. As usual for vehicles with central control screens, it can take a day or two to find your way through the menu, but we found nothing glaringly odd or out of place, save for the reach required across that broad expanse of dash to get to the central control button. Sun visors that extend to cover the full length of the side windows are a nice touch.

On the road, in keeping with its looks, Murano sits at the sportier end of its segment. There’s not much there in the way of steering feel, short of a bit of kickback when it’s pushed hard through corners on rough tar. The ride is on the jumping-castle side, but it’s surprisingly composed for a vehicle of its proportions, staying flat and using its 235/65 R18 rubber well. The manual mode can be used to good effect on exit, although the chassis electronics aren’t shy in reining in the under- and oversteer.

We didn’t take our car off the road to test its AWD system. When things get a bit soapy you can lock it into full 4WD, to a maximum 40km/h. Under normal conditions, it’s heavily skewed towards the front end – one look at its ground clearance (185mm) and those wheels is enough to know its priorities lie on tar.

Irritations and oddities are minor. The dash looks a bit plasticky, especially round the centre stack, but the plastics are Nissan’s normal decent quality.  Nic-nac storage is adequate, with a big glove-box and centre box making up for thin, mingy little door pockets.

In the manner of so many Japanese models, even upmarket ones, the Murano doesn’t have cruise braking, leaving it to coast beyond the set speed downhill. And while it has Bluetooth for the phone, it’s odd that a vehicle sitting on the cusp of the LCT threshold doesn’t extend it to the audio system. You do, however, get iPod connectivity and, for reasons beyond us, RCA inputs inside the big centre box. Maybe it’s a Bose thing.

Nissan has made no announcements about the next generation Murano, but a five- or six-year life cycle isn’t unrealistic, meaning this one will likely remain with us until 2014 or 2015. This is a useful update that will keep it ticking along as an honest, wholesome package for the money.

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