2025 Nissan Murano

Amidst a big shakeup to their SUV lineup, Nissan unveiled the all-new 2025 Murano; and just a few months after the reveal, we were invited for some quality drive time in Franklin, Tennessee.

This fourth-gen Murano sees a big shakeup in style, with new LED lighting elements defining the front. It hasn’t grown much in length, keeping it well within the midsize segment, but sees an extra 2.6 inches in width and over an inch in ground clearance. Yet despite the additional height, the Murano arguably goes against the current tide of “off-road-ifying” everything, instead opting for sleek and contemporary.

That same memo was passed to the interior designers; while screens usually headline the act, the real star here are Nissan’s Zero-Gravity seats, located up front and now in the second row. These seats better distribute your weight to avoid creating pressure points, and after three-or-so hours behind the wheel, I can attest to their comfort.

That said, there is still plenty of digital real estate to play with. Standard tech includes the pair of 12.3-inch screens for infotainment and instrumentation, a wireless phone charger, and active noise cancellation. One cabin caveat, though, is the use of touch-capacitive controls on the lower dash. Very Ariya-like and not my favorite interface, but functional.

For those of you out there hoping for a powertrain update, well, you’re in luck: Nissan has dropped the 3.5-liter V6 and CVT combo for a 2.0-liter turbo-four and a nine-speed automatic. The 2.0-liter unit produces 241 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, that’s 19 HP less and 20 lb-ft more than the outgoing engine, and while there was some hesitation from time to time when accelerating from a stop, it otherwise felt good, and the true geared automatic felt great.

“Yeah, sure, the dropping of two cylinders is important to note, but that loss of about 20 horsepower and that gain of 20 lb-ft of torque, I don’t think your average consumer’s really going to notice that. What they’re more likely to acknowledge is the deployment of that power, thanks to this new nine-speed automatic— a true geared automatic in place of the previous CVT automatic.

CVTs tend to be noisier, buzzier, whinier, and just less engaging, and this nine-speed looks to remedy that. It’s the same one we’ve seen previously in, like, the Pathfinder. It’s pretty smooth, it’s pretty quiet, it gets the power out there just fine; and with the paddle shifters, getting on the highway or getting around people on the highway is pretty easy.”

Other notable changes include a new electric power steering system to replace the hydraulic-electric one. It could’ve been a tad firmer for my taste, but it is quite accurate and it’s easy to maneuver. New frequency sensitive damper tech is in place to reduce body roll. It’s not quite as dynamic as active suspension, but the changes here are apparent and much appreciated.

A simplified trim structure without excessive packaging starts just over $40,000 for an entry-level SV with front-wheel drive. All-wheel drive adds a grand. The SL and Platinum are both AWD-only, starting around $47,000 and $50,000 respectively.

The 2025 Nissan Murano hits dealer lots early next year, and we’ll have a full Road Test soon. But until then, drive safe and stay tuned to MotorWeek.