The Murano is a good example of a crossover vehicle: It's designed to haul cargo like a sport-utility, but ride and drive like a car. However, this crossover handles better than a Honda Pilot or Toyota Highlander, and it drives more like a sports sedan.

Murano integrates aerodynamics and high fashion, with a sleek front end, smooth lines from front to back, and a greenhouse that slopes rearward, ending in a large but graceful C-pillar. Inside, Nissan resisted the temptation to cram in three rows of seats like the Highlander and Pilot do. Instead, like a car, the Murano has just two rows of seats, accommodating four (or at most five) passengers in comfort.

The Murano delivers hearty performance, boasting the same 3.5-liter V6 engine used in the 350Z sports car, tuned here to produce 245 horsepower. It comes with a continuously variable transmission, a high-tech automatic that's smooth and responsive while offering superior gas mileage within its class. Murano's road-tuned suspension offers smooth and sporty handling. Murano shares basic underpinnings with the Nissan Altima and Maxima sedans. (Murano is not at all related to the Infiniti FX, a popular misconception.) All-wheel drive is available for the Murano, giving it good grip and stability in wintry weather and hard rain.

For 2006, the Murano's styling has been freshened with a new grille design, a chrome lower grille insert and other subtle changes. It also gets LED taillights that look distinctive and illuminate faster to better alert drivers behind you when you apply the brakes.