cars news 10: 2015 Nissan Murano SL AWD Long-Term Update 1

October was sort of a blur. Out of the 31 days that month, I spent 21 of them on the road and not in the Murano. The first part of the month was spent bouncing around inside of a new but worn rental Jeep Wrangler on a road trip through Utah, and the other half was spent cruising around Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California in an anything-but-quiet Mercedes-Benz-based Sprinter RV. Oh, how I miss the quiet!

There is nothing like a month of loud, uncomfortable vehicles to make me really appreciate the Nissan Murano’s, quiet, comfortable interior. Still my favorite part of the car, the refined, luxurious interior was a welcome change from the all-day drone of road noise. Even after a couple of months behind the wheel, every time I jump in to go somewhere, I am comfortably surprised by how nice the seats are.

We finally took the Murano to the track for our standard barrage of instrumented testing, and it did about as well as I thought it would. We previously tested an equally orange Platinum AWD Murano, which, aided by sportier 20-inch wheels, outperformed our long-termer and its 18-inchers, but overall, it did OK.

With a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds, our long-termer is four-tenths slower than the previously tested Platinum, which reached 60 mph in only 7.4 seconds. Even with the drop in performance, our SL AWD is still quicker than the similarly equipped 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Ultimate AWD that we had in a comparison test a while back, which need a full 9.3 seconds to hit 60 mph, and it was lighter and had more power.

With a Motor Trend figure-eight time of 28.2 seconds at 0.60 g, our Murano won’t be winning any autocross events, but the numbers are just part of the story. Rolling on larger sidewall tires and smaller wheels, our SL AWD long-termer doesn’t handle quite as sharply as the platinum spec car we tested back in July, but what we gave up in handling, we added in comfort, which is fine with me. If you are going to carve corners in a canyon, no version of the Murano is the right tool for the job. It also means a smoother ride for shooting photos out of, which is helpful.

One performance figure that stood out during our testing was the Murano’s braking, which only took 119 feet to slow down from 60 mph. For some perspective, it even out-brakes its much lighter and lower long-term cousin, the Maxima SR we have in our fleet, which needed 125 feet to slow its roll (though a previous Maxima SR we’ve tested stopped in just 115 feet). Oh, did I mention it out-brakes the $111,000 Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR? The Rover is a little heavier, sure, but that’s pretty impressive, right?

With all of the Motor Trend Of the Year programs done and no immediate plans for traveling, I am looking forward to putting some miles on the Murano. I am sure my co-workers have treated it just fine, but I am ready to slip back into its quiet comfort.

More on our long-term Nissan Murano SL here:

Arrival

2015 Nissan Murano SL AWD
BASE PRICE	$39,435
PRICE AS TESTED	$41,905
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV
ENGINE	3.5L/260-hp/240-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6
TRANSMISSION	Cont. variable auto
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	4,023 lb (59/41%)
WHEELBASE	111.2 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	192.8 x 75.4 x 66.6 in
0-60 MPH	7.8 sec
QUARTER MILE	16.0 sec @ 90.5 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	119 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.78 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	28.2 sec @ 0.60 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	21/28/24 mpg
ENERGY CONS., CITY/HWY	160/120 kW-hrs/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.82 lb/mile