Gadgetory

car designers too often use the word athletic for their creations but I think that word definitely applies for the 2015 Nissan Murano first we have what Nissan calls the V motion grill it's pretty bold in this car we also have the boomerang headlights and taillights that's a standard Nissan feature now down the sides we have a belt line that really kicks up hard at the rear and at the same time the roof slopes down to meet it they have blacked-out pillars all around and what Nissan calls a floating roof design and in this platinum trim model with 20-inch wheels the waist gets really narrow giving it that athletic look the base Murano goes for twenty nine thousand five hundred sixty dollars but now we have the platinum trim model with all-wheel-drive that goes for forty thousand six hundred dollars that comes standard with LED headlights navigation and these 20-inch wheels we've also added the technology package with adaptive cruise control and a panoramic sunroof for two thousand two hundred sixty dollars that brings our total CNET style with destination the forty three thousand four hundred seventy five dollars in the cabin of this platinum trim Nissan Murano we have a really nice interior design I feel like this comes up to the level of Lexus RX we have this trim on the console and around the sides here it's kind of metallic but it's also wood looking I wonder if they harvest it from aluminum Christmas trees but I like to look for the head unit we have a totally new nissanconnect 8-inch touchscreen here totally new software this is pretty interesting stuff they have a new interface we have this menu strip along the bottom I really like this because this gives you quick access to all the different features these new maps are crisp and clean I really like the look you get traffic coverage really broad traffic coverage actually not just on freeways and highways but on surface streets as well they've also added a a pinch zoom feature too so if I pinch in like that it zooms out if I pinch out it zooms in so for navigation we have pretty much the standard ways to find destinations but we have a new feature here it's part of the Nissan connect apps feature so if I bring it over here I've actually got my iPhone connected here running the Nissan connect app so that gives me Google online search so I hit that and this has been allotted from days of searching for destinations online I can do a manual search I can use voice search I can send a car from my phone at categories to here so that's that's really convenient and for other apps with nissanconnect we also have Facebook Twitter I Heart Radio and Pandora makes us a very connected car for other audio sources we have bluetooth streaming we've got a USB port here for iOS devices in USB drives we also have a USB port in the back so your rear seat passengers can plug in then you can choose music from their devices here we have HD radio and satellite radio as well now I put this into reverse and we get a surround view camera here that's really convenient for parking this big boy seeing what's all around the car behind the wheel here I have a really easy driving experience I think that's kind of the point with the murano is they don't want to make it something you have to think too much about driving and one thing I really noticed in this cabin which I really appreciate is that there's no sport button there's no eco button you just get in and drive and that's kind of the point now under the hood we have a 3.5 liter v6 engine if you know Nissan's at all that's a pretty common engine for them it's part of their VQ series of engines they've been using it for ever 15 years now almost it's kind of showing its age it doesn't have a lot of efficiency features that other automakers are using in their engines like direct injection or things like that we get 260 horsepower 240 pound feet of torque out of this engine not huge numbers but they're definitely adequate the EPA rating on this engine is 21 miles per gallon city 28 miles per gallon highway the heart of the drivetrain Nissan's really big tech achievement is is this continuously variable transmission or CVT now if you don't like C GTS you haven't driven a Nissan because this one works really well I've got these virtual shift points so I can pretend to shift it's pretty smooth there's a really well program I like how it does it but now let's give it some real acceleration and see what happens it lets the wheels spin a little bit and it just powers through it lets the engine speed run really high you see the tack needle run up to four thousand five thousand then you see that tack needle blip as the transmission changes ratios to accommodate the speed that you really want and really tap that engine power a couple other features I should mention really quickly in this platinum trim model is we've got blind spot monitoring system with whites on the a-pillars to show me if there's a car in my blind spot we also have adaptive cruise control the nice thing about the Murano is this platinum trim gives us a lot of nice features extra amenities but every Murano is going to have the same driving experience which I really like it definitely accomplishes what this car should be doing very comfortable ride very easy ride and that's the key you