Black Pearl
10-12-2008, 12:05 AM
I had to go on a business trip near Toronto. I asked the rentacar place to give me a medium sized car. They brought me a Murano, so I got to test drive one for 3 days. I forgot to check the year but I imagine that it was an 08. It had 15K on it and it had some body dings that indicated that it may have been beat up a bit. I believe it was the bottom model. It didn't have a moon roof or fog lights and it had cloth non-power seats.
It is a bigger vehicle than a V so there is more leg room which I liked. The seats? Ugggh. They felt like an old overstuffed chair. It seemed like you were sitting on a round thing (well yes my keester is round and I was sitting on it, but I mean it felt like my keester was on something round). My back is trashed and I need negative lumbar support. I couldn't get the seat back to crank in enough. By the time I got to Erie, my back was raising hell. On the trip back, my legs started raising hell (from the trashed back). I am no fan of the seat, but great leg room.
The car rides nicer than a V and is quiter in road noise but not in wind noise. The handling, I am not so sure about. The steering didn't seem as quick as the V but the power steering is too powerful. Nice when you are trying to park but too sensitive at freeway speeds.
The horse power is great. The car definitely has a set of ahh well suffice it to say that it moves rather well when you punch it down. None of this wimpy CR-V nonsense when you got a truck bearing down on you on one of Pennsylvania's 20 foot long accelleration ramps. Yes, great power...at a price. On I-90 I would have seen 29 + mpg on the V. 23 on the Murano.
The transmission is odd. It is some sort of varible ratio belt driven affair that doesn't shift. (The mercedes person would like it). The tachometer almost appears to be stuck on 1200. It was OK. Some would be impressed, but I am more concerned with maintenance of weird systems, I'll take the clunky old shifts. It is very smooth though--until you go down a hill. If you don't like grade logic control (on down hills) you are going to hate the Murano. The instant you start going down a hill the tach flies up and you feel it holding back. I don't like it. But accellerating the transmission just takes off with no shifts. I did notice one disconcerting issue. When shifting from reverse to drive, there is a long gap before the transmission catches. If you are on a hill the car drifts and then it klunks. It may have been a problem with the rental, like I say, I think it was beat.
The dashboard and instrument panel was a bit Buck Rodgers for my tastes. It is lit up in flaming orange color that I found irritating. I suppose that is to improve your night vision. Well the F-4s I worked on back in the early 70's had deep red instrument lights that did help your night vision--useful for a fighter pilot, but the Murano looked like the instrument panel was on fire. The same color was applied to all the switches and buttons. I have trouble seeing those symbols under the best of conditions but with this glowering orange, I could not see the symbols.
There is no key. It has a oval shaped fob that you slide into a slot in the dash then press a start/stop switch. The slot kept shooting the fob out onto the floor. One morning I was tired and couldn't get the damn car to start. Instead of pressing the button for starting the engine, I was pressing the on off button for the climate control. Well the key is kind of cool, but I can well live without it.
Another criticism, was the windshield washer. There are six nozzles. It sprays all over the place and gets way too much fluid on the windshield. The wipers pushes it off and it just blows back up on the windshield.
A nice feature is internal storage. Big glove compartment. Huge storage in the console and nooks here and there. I don't believe that the trunk is as big as the V. It is higher off the ground and I don't think it has a much room. I didn't mess around with the back seats to see if they fold down.
It has the odd back windows, but I didn't find that seeing out the rear was as difficult as I imagined.
The car had some rattles, then again I think it was beat preety good.
All in all a nice car, but I hated the seats, the dash, and the gas mileage. I was glad to get back to the Black Pearl.
It is a bigger vehicle than a V so there is more leg room which I liked. The seats? Ugggh. They felt like an old overstuffed chair. It seemed like you were sitting on a round thing (well yes my keester is round and I was sitting on it, but I mean it felt like my keester was on something round). My back is trashed and I need negative lumbar support. I couldn't get the seat back to crank in enough. By the time I got to Erie, my back was raising hell. On the trip back, my legs started raising hell (from the trashed back). I am no fan of the seat, but great leg room.
The car rides nicer than a V and is quiter in road noise but not in wind noise. The handling, I am not so sure about. The steering didn't seem as quick as the V but the power steering is too powerful. Nice when you are trying to park but too sensitive at freeway speeds.
The horse power is great. The car definitely has a set of ahh well suffice it to say that it moves rather well when you punch it down. None of this wimpy CR-V nonsense when you got a truck bearing down on you on one of Pennsylvania's 20 foot long accelleration ramps. Yes, great power...at a price. On I-90 I would have seen 29 + mpg on the V. 23 on the Murano.
The transmission is odd. It is some sort of varible ratio belt driven affair that doesn't shift. (The mercedes person would like it). The tachometer almost appears to be stuck on 1200. It was OK. Some would be impressed, but I am more concerned with maintenance of weird systems, I'll take the clunky old shifts. It is very smooth though--until you go down a hill. If you don't like grade logic control (on down hills) you are going to hate the Murano. The instant you start going down a hill the tach flies up and you feel it holding back. I don't like it. But accellerating the transmission just takes off with no shifts. I did notice one disconcerting issue. When shifting from reverse to drive, there is a long gap before the transmission catches. If you are on a hill the car drifts and then it klunks. It may have been a problem with the rental, like I say, I think it was beat.
The dashboard and instrument panel was a bit Buck Rodgers for my tastes. It is lit up in flaming orange color that I found irritating. I suppose that is to improve your night vision. Well the F-4s I worked on back in the early 70's had deep red instrument lights that did help your night vision--useful for a fighter pilot, but the Murano looked like the instrument panel was on fire. The same color was applied to all the switches and buttons. I have trouble seeing those symbols under the best of conditions but with this glowering orange, I could not see the symbols.
There is no key. It has a oval shaped fob that you slide into a slot in the dash then press a start/stop switch. The slot kept shooting the fob out onto the floor. One morning I was tired and couldn't get the damn car to start. Instead of pressing the button for starting the engine, I was pressing the on off button for the climate control. Well the key is kind of cool, but I can well live without it.
Another criticism, was the windshield washer. There are six nozzles. It sprays all over the place and gets way too much fluid on the windshield. The wipers pushes it off and it just blows back up on the windshield.
A nice feature is internal storage. Big glove compartment. Huge storage in the console and nooks here and there. I don't believe that the trunk is as big as the V. It is higher off the ground and I don't think it has a much room. I didn't mess around with the back seats to see if they fold down.
It has the odd back windows, but I didn't find that seeing out the rear was as difficult as I imagined.
The car had some rattles, then again I think it was beat preety good.
All in all a nice car, but I hated the seats, the dash, and the gas mileage. I was glad to get back to the Black Pearl.