The New 2025 Nissan Murano Gives the People What They Want

It’s been a while since the Nissan Murano received a makeover, but it looks worth the wait. At a recent event at Nissan’s North American headquarters, Oscar-winning actor and Nissan brand ambassador Brie Larson helped introduce the all-new 2025 Nissan Murano. Its styling takes a huge step forward, losing much of its chrome in favour of a subdued grille, whip-thin headlights, and a full-width taillight across a decluttered rear end with hidden exhaust tips and wiper. The “floating” roof treatment is gone, which eliminates several exterior plastic pieces and sets the Murano up for its available two-tone finish.

It’s the same external size overall, other than a couple of inches wider. Its dimensions change inside, where front-seat legroom increases a bit. Rear-seat legroom shrinks a little — although with more knee space back there, Nissan says, thanks to thinner front seats — and cargo space expands.

The interior also takes a major step forward with a complete redesign. A single piece of glass holds the 12.3-inch centre touchscreen and like-sized digital instrument cluster under a soft-touch panel. On the two upper trims, the lower dash finish is dubbed Murano Glass, a play on the famed Venetian glass maker, which subtly changes colours depending on the light.

The gear selector is now pushbutton, while the climate controls are capacitive touch icons in a woodgrain-finished panel lifted directly from the all-electric Nissan Ariya — and that is the key to why an all-new Murano has been such a long time coming.

According to Nissan’s executives who spilled the beans at the event, it’s because after selling some 1.1 million copies of the gasoline Murano from the first 2003 version, it was decided the next iteration would be an EV. The issue was that once Nissan started talking to its customers, the automaker realized they weren’t all that interested in plugging in. The “new Murano” under development ultimately became the Ariya, and the Murano soldiered on a while longer until it was remade into this new version.

So there’s still a gasoline engine under the hood, but in place of the previous 3.5-litre V6, there’s a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder that makes 241 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque; and the previous CVT is retired and replaced with a nine-speed automatic transmission. We haven’t driven it yet, but we expect its performance should at least be on par if not better, especially with the new conventional transmission.

There aren’t any plans for a hybrid option right now either, and that’s due to customer feedback as well. Many of the Murano’s customers are empty-nesters who don’t put a lot of miles on their vehicles. That means it takes longer to pay back a hybrid powertrain’s premium against its fuel savings, and so people are most likely to opt for a gas-only version.

Still, the new Murano looks like it could be electric, inside and out, and this update gives a major bump to a model that’s always been popular. Its features include ventilated and massaging front seats, wider-opening rear doors, highway driving assist, and an “invisible hood” camera view, borrowed from Infiniti, that shows what’s directly ahead and under the front wheels at low speeds, such as when entering a car wash or in parking lots.

The new Murano will come in three trims of SV, SL, and Platinum, with pricing announced closer to the on-sale date in early 2025. It’s been a long time for an all-new version, but it looks like Nissan did its homework to turn out a crossover that’s both good-looking and up-to-date, and apparently exactly what its customers are looking for.

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