How the All-New Nissan Murano Became the Safest Murano Yet

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has announced that the all-new Nissan Murano has been given the Top Safety Pick+ award (alongside the 2025 Pathfinder), the highest honor in the automotive safety industry. Let’s take a look at how Nissan made one of the safest SUVs ever with the new Murano.  

A Word from Nissan 

“During our entire development process, we always think about the customer,” said Derrick Diver, Nissan Senior Safety Performance Engineer. “We set targets to achieve the highest possible ratings for Murano.” 

A New, Advanced Safety Lab 

At the Safety Advancement Lab (SAL) in Detroit, Michigan, Nissan engineers prepare each new vehicle for about 400 variations of crash tests that simulate real-world situations. The only way to know exactly how any car will perform is to test it. It’s easy to test a 0-60 mph time, or fuel efficiency, but crash testing is much more involved and expensive.  

IIHS Testing 

The IIHS crash tests every new vehicle and offers ratings of either Good, Acceptable, Marginal, or Poor. To receive a Top Safety Pick+ designation, a vehicle must achieve an Acceptable or higher in the updated 40mph moderate overlap front crash test. The Murano, as well as the Pathfinder, got the highest rating of Good.  

Nissan Engineers Worked Hard on Safety 

Before the Murano was tested by the IIHS, the engineers at SAL in Detroit were already performing the same updated crash tests. If something needed to be tweaked, the team was able to do that on-the-fly. With the help of high-speed cameras and advanced monitoring equipment, engineers were able to see and understand how the seatbelts were working in real time. They could also watch the crash test dummies to understand how much the vehicle (versus occupants) was absorbing an impact. 

More Crash Simulations to Understand Safety 

Another difficult crash is the side impact test, where the vehicle is slammed into a barrier to simulate how the Murano would react when sliding into something like a utility pole. After the crash, engineers look at the dummies’ painted heads to see where they impacted the side curtain airbags and to get an understanding of how well and quickly the airbags deployed. Part of engineering safety into a vehicle is knowing how to protect occupants’ heads so they don’t hit windows. Thanks to this testing, the Murano scored a 5-star overall rating in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).  

Nissan Is One of the Best and Safest Car Companies 

Nissan is one of the leaders in automotive safety thanks to technology like Nissan Safety Shield 360 that offers Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, High Beam Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Rear Automatic Braking, and more, to ensure the safety of the driver and all occupants in the new Murano.  

Come See for Yourself 

To learn more about how safe Nissan vehicles are and to test drive some of the best new and used cars around, come down to Dick Smith Nissan of Lexington to experience no-compromise cars and SUVs for yourself.  

Why Choose Dick Smith Nissan of Lexington  

At Dick Smith Nissan of Lexington, we believe our customers deserve the best prices and services. With over 100 new and used vehicles to choose from, our outstanding sales team and finance department will work hard to make sure you drive away happy. Our fantastic service department will take care of your new-to-you vehicle as if it were their own.