LIKES
- Sharp style
- Comfy front seats
- Plush ride
- Lots of active safety gear
DISLIKES
- Interior showing its age
- Drivetrain’s just average
- Mediocre warranty
BUYING TIP
The 2022 Nissan Murano may be showing its age, but the windswept shape still looks great, as do strong safety scores.
What kind of vehicle is the 2022 Nissan Murano? What does it compare to?
The Murano crossover SUV seats five, wrapped in a stylish silhouette and a shroud of safety technology. It’s a competitor for vehicles like the Honda Passport, Ford Edge, and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Is the 2022 Nissan Murano a good car/SUV?
It’s still a top choice for looks and value, but the powertrain’s just OK, as is the warranty. We give it a TCC Rating of 6.5 out of 10.
What's new for the 2022 Nissan Murano?
The Murano SV gains synthetic leather upholstery and heated front seats, and an optional Midnight black trim package with 20-inch wheels.
That holds true under the hood, too, where the Murano’s 260-hp V-6 teams with a CVT to reel out useful, but not exciting, power. The Murano puts its best performance foot forward with a well-damped ride; steering feel and fuel economy slip to the lower half of the to-do list.
Ahead of them comes seat comfort. The Murano offers front passengers excellent support and space, though the back-seat passengers get noticeably less head room with the optional sunroof. Cargo room swells to 67.0 cubic feet with the back seats folded down; it’s better at duffing cargo than it is at towing, with its meager 1,500-lb limit.
The Murano aces crash tests, and all models have automatic emergency braking. A surround-view camera system and adaptive cruise control come only on the more expensive versions, though.
How much does the 2022 Nissan Murano cost?
The base $34,085 Murano S has 18-inch wheels, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and cloth seats. All-wheel drive costs $1,700 more. We’d pick the $37,625 Murano SV, which has power front seats and parking sensors. You’ll have to spend at least $41,000 to get leather and better Bose audio.
Where is the 2022 Nissan Murano made?
In Canton, Mississippi.
Styling
The Murano cabin could use the body’s sense of style.
Is the Nissan Murano a good-looking car?
We give it a 6, with a point above average for the exterior, where floating-roof visual trickery has served it well over the years. The engaging look streams rearward from the intersection of a V-shaped grille, arrow-shaped headlights, and black insets. It plays across the fenders and door panels with lots of complex surfaces, and tapers to a neat conclusion at the rear and at those blacked-out roof pillars. Others have aped the look, but the Nissan’s sense of balance and proportion make its original version the reigning champ.
There’s less joy inside, where the thoughtfully arranged dash puts big controls up high for easy access. It’s a let down in style, though, with a more blandly sweeping look that’s livened up on some versions with quilted upholstery and darker woodgrain trim. It’s fine, but it’s not as fresh as the cockpits on some South Korean SUVs.
Performance
The Murano soothes commuters with a calm ride.
The Murano prefers a quiet, quick trip to a raucous canyon bender. It’s a 6 for performance, with an extra point for its well controlled ride.
Is the Nissan Murano 4WD?
It’s front-wheel drive, until it’s not: Nissan will fit any Murano with all-wheel drive for $1,700, but it discourages off-roading in subtle ways—there’s no off-road drive mode, and no all-terrain tires show up on the order sheet. It’s all about all-weather traction.
It’s moderately quick, thanks to a 260-hp 3.5-liter V-6 linked under the hood to a belt-and-pulley CVT. At a curb weight of 3,833 to 4,137 lb, the Murano doesn’t leap off the line, but it doesn’t come up short in highway passes. Nissan stuffs plenty of sound deadening between it and the cabin, too, ensuring quiet passage. It has the low-speed power to pick its way deftly through in-town traffic, but the rubbery responses from its CVT don’t encourage it.
With a simple independent suspension at each corner—no fancy adaptive damping or air springs here—the Murano has a well-sorted ride, and with 18- or 20-inch wheels, it keeps a firm grip on the ground, without losing its ability to mute out tire slap. It handles larger bumps well, and smooths over wrinkled pavement. Steering lacks feel, but if we were on the road for this many years without much change, we’d lack feel, too.
Nissan specs the Murano with an unadventurous 1,500-lb tow limit.
Comfort & Quality
The Murano could use more head room.
Nissan trims some head room from the Murano to grant it a sleeker roofline, and that cuts into rear-seat comfort, even if just a little. We give the crossover a 7 here, with extra points for front-seat comfort and cargo room.
Those front-seat passengers get treated to some of the best, most supportive seats in their class. Covered in cloth on base models, or synthetic leather with power adjustment and heating in the mid-range models, the Murano wears real leather and has cooled front seats in Platinum trim. The surrounding space in front offers enough knee and head room, and small-item storage can handle a few drinks and smartphones.
The back seat serves up about 39 inches of leg room, but with the panoramic sunroof the Murano loses a couple of inches of head room. It’s also not as wide as some mid-size crossovers, so two big people fit well, but three will grumble.
Nissan polishes the Murano with metallic trim in base versions, and woodgrain in higher-spec models, but the impression of quality draws a neat dividing line between the mass-market brand and the quilted-cabin analogue at Infiniti.
Safety
The Murano’s ahead of the safety curve.
How safe is the Nissan Murano?
We give it an 8, thanks to great crash-test scores and lots of standard active safety equipment.
The NHTSA gives the crossover five stars overall, while the IIHS has upgraded its performance to Top Safety Pick+ status, thanks to improved headlights. Unlike some of its rivals, all Muranos have “Good” headlight performance, the IIHS reports.
Nissan doesn’t yet offer its ProPilot driver-assist system on the Murano.
Features
The Murano has all you need at the SV level.
Nissan sells the Murano in four different trim levels, with front- or all-wheel drive. It scores an 8 here; it earns a point above average for its infotainment and one for standard equipment, as well as one for good value.
The base $34,085 Murano S has 18-inch wheels, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and cloth seats. All-wheel drive costs $1,700 more.
Which Nissan Murano should I buy?
How much is a fully loaded Nissan Murano?
The Murano SL costs more than $41,000; the Platinum tosses in navigation, softer leather, 11 Bose speakers, and a surround-view camera system, but at $45,635 with front-wheel drive, it costs as much as some fresher SUVs.
The Murano has an average 3-year/36,000-mile warranty.
Fuel Economy
The Murano posts middling fuel economy.
Is the Nissan Murano good on gas?
It’s on par with some of its mid-size crossover rivals. With EPA ratings of 20 mpg city, 28 highway, 23 combined on regular unleaded fuel, it’s a 4 here. The Murano lacks the hybrid and plug-in drivetrains becoming common now on vehicles from the Toyota Venza (39 mpg combined) to the Hyundai Santa Fe (up to 31 miles of electric driving range).
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