2012 Nissan Murano SL: Review notes

Crossovers continue to be a white-hot segment of the new-car market for a variety of reasons, and this 2012 Nissan Murano SL could easily be Exhibit A as to the reason why. These vehicles are the station wagons of the new millennium, only they look a bit better. Or at least they blend in a bit better, looking like smaller knockoffs of all of the sport-utes patrolling the nation's highways.
Nissan calls the Murano a "premium crafted crossover," and while some marketing agency was probably paid tens of thousands of dollars for that line, after an hour or so behind the wheel, I understood why and started looking to see if this was an Infiniti rather than a Nissan.
The ute comes pretty well appointed, with comfortable leather seats, dual-zone temperature control, keyless entry and one of the highest-resolution backup cameras I've experienced. This tester was additionally equipped with a navigation system playing through a seven-inch, high-resolution monitor. The navigation system quickly became one of my favorites, with easy, intuitive controls that made my navigation around the Valley of the Sun so much easier. Nearly everyone today has turn-by-turn navigation capabilities on their cell phone, but I liked kicking it old-school, using a vehicle's onboard nav system, especially one with real-time traffic, as in the Murano.
If there's a downside, it would be the powertrain. The 3.5-liter V6 is stout and is one of my favorite engines that Nissan uses throughout its lineup. There's decent torque down low, and the 24-mpg highway mileage is fine in a vehicle this size. The problem here is that the fine engine is mated with a CVT, and while Nissan calls it "Intelligent Xtronic," there's no getting away from the annoying buzziness that happens when you hit the throttle at launch. The revs run up and you begin to gain speed. Maybe, if you've never experienced a good automatic or even a manual transmission, then this CVT would be just fine. But I've not met a CVT yet that I like, and frankly, if I were shopping for a vehicle, a CVT would be a deal-breaker.
And that's too bad because the Murano is more than a player in this segment. It's comfortable, quiet (once it got up to speed) on the pool-table-like smooth roads around Phoenix, and the ability to fold flat the rear seats made for more than enough room to swallow up luggage needed for a week in the sun.