Motors North

Nissan Murano 3.5 CVT

WITH one of the world’s most successful car manufacturers predicting an operating profit loss of more than £1 billion, I wonder what the future holds for cars like Nissan’s updated Murano SUV.

It was Toyota that rocked the car world a few weeks ago with its unexpected loss forecast, but companies like Nissan are like everyone else in the car-making game – vulnerable to overproduction and building cars few people want.

The Murano is a case in point. Precious few of the updated model will be sold in Scotland – even though it is a genuinely improved car with great refinement and equipment and an interesting paint finish.

When it went on sale in the late autumn the second-generation Murano cost more than £33,750 with metallic paint. Today that price has fallen to £33,557. But it’s still too high.

In its favour it offers much higher quality and better standard features than its four-year-old stylised 4x4 predecessor. But you would need to negotiate a big discount for this 20mpg smoothie to make any sense in the current financial climate.

The car’s 4x4 drive-line and petrol-supping 3.5 litre V6 that guzzles fuel at no better than 25mpg and can manage just 261g/km of CO2, is clearly the "wrong" combination for these environmentally and fiscally-challenged times.

Nissan recognises its limited appeal, but says it still has its place in the line up.
Sadly I can’t see it – apart from one interesting low-key feature and its superb CVT (constant velocity transmission) automatic gearbox that is standard on all Muranos.

The Murano also comes as standard with a clever Nissan “Scratch Shield” paint. It’s a first that will eventually cascade into the rest of the Nissan range – and is bad news for paint shops.

At the car’s launch in October I was given a six-inch wire brush and invited to "attack" the paintwork that’s finished with a 35 micron thick layer of "soft" clearcoat over the main paint.

I left the panel badly marked with a series of deep scuff marks you’d get from prolonged car wash wear or a glancing parking blow. Unsightly and normally expensive to repair.

But after pouring a kettle of hot water over the panel I was astonished to see it return to almost as good as new – almost, because there was still a faint residue of scratch left visible on the surface. However, returning to the panel an hour later, the evidence of my attack had literally disappeared.

It’s an interesting feature that will be at its best in keeping paintwork looking good if you regularly use automatic car washes.

It’s not the first "scratch resistant" paint the motor industry has produced – Mercedes currently has a "hard skin" protective system. But this is a first "soft" approach that repairs quickly with heat. It’s clever and works best on finer scratches thanks to a special, highly elastic resin that has been combined with a conventional clearcoat to increase the paint's flexibility.

My "hot water" treatment was extreme but in normal use when the paint is scratched and left to its own devices, over a period of days the resin will return to its original form and effectively “heal” itself and restore the paint to its original condition.

My test car had been through a few unsympathetic hands and many car washes by the time I first drove it. But the paint was in excellent trim – a testament to “Scratch Shield”.

It's a pity Nissan has "buried" it on such a low-volume model, but look out for it turning up on more mainstream models. It’s genuinely good.

What a shame the rest of the 4.83 metre long SUV left me so unmoved.

It’s not a bad car. As large 4x4 SUVs go it is well-appointed and has some clever features – but boy, is it ugly! Nissan has given it a better-looking grille – but its massive toothy grin still looks like a four-wheeled Bernie Winters bearing down in your rear-view mirror.

When it comes to clever, the Murano shines. It has that genuinely excellent CVT transmission; a rear view parking camera and a second camera buried in the front nearside door mirror that looks forward and down at walking pace. It lets you see how far away you are from an alloy-crunching kerb.

But like all technologically advanced cars the machine is only as "clever" as the "nut" behind the wheel.

Take me for instance. I was expounding Murano’s impressively packaged system to three friends as I drove through Forres late one evening and, clever or not, the Murano could not stop me sailing off a roundabout and driving up a one way road the wrong way!

Embarrassed? I was black affronted!

I’ve driven past that same road thousands of times over the past decade and never done anything like that before. Thankfully there was no other traffic around – but it went to show just how easy it is for a driver, no matter how experienced, to move into dangerous territory, despite how technically advanced his or her car may be!

I can’t explain the lapse. But maybe the Murano’s general silence, smooth ride and sumptuous standard leather-trimmed seats had something soporific about it and lulled me into Embarrassment Lane. I won’t forget the incident in a hurry – my three passengers won’t let me!

On the road, the Murano rolls too much to be a good handling car and around town the suspension feels fidgety. But it swallows the miles with ease. The five seats are very supportive, offer great visibility and the roomy boot will take 402 litres of luggage. Drop the rear seats and you can boost that to 838 litres.

As a mile eater it’s an able family SUV. It’s easy to drive and dash design and build quality is far better than before. Standard equipment is generous too and leaves the competition gasping, but for all that it struck me as an "also ran".

It’s the wrong car for today – and not helped by that big, smoothy 3.5 litre V6 petrol heart. If there is any brightness on the Murano’s horizon it’s the promise of a tutrbodiesel engine in 2009 – but in my heart of hearts I think even that will be too little, too late.

Rating: 5.5/10

FINAL THOUGHT: The 2.5 per cent reduction in VAT will do little to improve the sales fortunes of Nissan’s much-improved Murano. The future of large V6 petrol cars in the current financial climate is poor – but if you are that rare beast who is actually looking for a refined, smooth and comfortable 3.5 litre 4x4 then discounts on the second-generation Murano ought to be generous. Even with its styling facelift the latest model is no beauty – its futuristic design has not aged well. It will be a rare sight on British roads even though under the skin this is a big smoothie of a car – quiet and luxuriously equipped with an excellent six-speed CVT automatic transmission as standard.

Nissan Murano 3.5 CVT

Price: £32,557
Capacity: 3498cc
Power: 252bhp
0-62mph: 8.1 seconds
Maximum speed: 130mph
Economy: Combined 25.9mpg; Urban 19mpg
CO2 emissions: 261g/km
ESP: Standard
Insurance: Group 16

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Nissan Murano 3.5 CVT