WHAT WE LIKE: This past summer, we liked loading the Murano with people and stuff and taking it on long-weekend excursions. Ride quality is good, and the interior is easily quiet enough for young children to nap. The rear seat has plenty of room for young and old alike, and there’s lots of cargo room in back. The front seats are particularly comfortable for hauls long and short, and it’s easy to find a good driving position, although some drivers would welcome more thigh support. Pleasing ergonomics, a sensible layout of the controls, and logical display screens minimize driving distraction. The chocolate-brown upholstery and tasteful silvery wood-grain trim lend an upscale ambiance to the cabin. Well-behaved adaptive cruise control, which will bring the vehicle to a complete stop, helps minimize the stress of summer-weekend traffic jams on Michigan’s I-75. A fuel range of 400-plus miles is also a boon.
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WHAT WE DON’T LIKE: The continuously variable automatic transmission has come in for a lot of criticism. One editor noted that the Murano“makes a beeline for the lowest possible engine speed. Every time you give it the boot, it moans and bellows its way up to 4000 rpm, sounding like a distressed cow in dire need of milking.” Another driver described the powertrain as “unpleasant,” but features editor Jeff Sabatini opined that the CVT is offensive only when you’re driving the Murano in a sporting manner, which buyers are unlikely to do often, if at all. Murano customers are perhaps more likely to be bothered by the high load floor in the cargo area as well as the somewhat shallow door pockets and the smallish cubbies for stowing road-trip paraphernalia.
WHAT WENT WRONG: Not a thing. The only times the Murano has seen a wrench so far is during its scheduled maintenance visits, which come every 5000 miles. The first service cost $59.59 and was comprised of an oil and filter change, a tire rotation, and an inspection. The second maintenance checkup was identical but cost 34 cents less, thanks to a drop in the price of the oil filter. Add that to the piggy bank.
WHERE WE WENT: Aside from a handful of commutes to northern Ohio, the Murano hasn’t left the state of Michigan. But it racked up thousands of miles going back and forth a total of nine times to various locations in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula—Up North as we like to call it—from our home base in Ann Arbor. The Murano visited family cottages, summer camps, resort towns, and even Lake Michigan’s Beaver Island, which is a 32-mile ferry ride from the mainland.
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