More Luxury, Less Money! 2025 Toyota Crown Signia vs. 2025 Nissan Murano

There are many buyers in the U.S that want the opulence of a luxury crossover but don’t care about the cachet of a luxury badge, nor do they want the extra expense associated with it. That’s why options like the Nissan Murano have been around for a very long time, but for 2025 it has finally been fully redesigned. Toyota also has long fought in this space, first with Venza and now with a new model called Crown Signia. But with both models now on sale, it begs the question: who wins in a 2025 Toyota Crown Signia vs. 2025 Nissan Murano battle?

Pricing and Equipment

As always, we will start this comparison by discussing the pricing.

Let’s start with the new Murano. The top trim is known as the Platinum, which is what we have today, and the as-tested price is just under $52,000 after destination. 

Murano (Platinum AWD): $49,600 | Options: +$925 | Destination: $1,390 | Total: $51,915

Moving to the Toyota, we have the highest-end Limited trim for equivalency’s sake. It starts out a little less expensive than the Murano but needs an option package to be fully loaded. After that is accounted for, and the destination charge, the total price is less than $300 different from the Murano. 

Crown Signia (Limited AWD): $47,990 | Options: +$2,290 | Destination: $1,395 | Total: $51,675

Exterior Design

Starting with the exteriors, these two models have two overall things in common: they both look luxurious and have much sleeker designs than the average crossovers out there. But, of course, the actual details vary greatly, especially the grilles where the Crown has a subdued body-color one and the Murano goes for a gaping mall spanning from corner to corner. 

Lights are part of that grille, with a stacked element that makes up the DRL’s and turn signals. The main projector-LED headlights are mounted at the top, which is the opposite of the Crown which has its projector-LED headlights mounted in the middle, with DRL and turn signal at the top. That aesthetic difference aside, neither of them have fog lamps. 

Moving to the side, you can see the luxury-over-capability emphasis, as neither have all that much ground clearance but have very large and fashionable 21-inch alloy wheels. We will talk about ride quality later, as well as interior space from the Signia’s 1.2-inch length advantage. 

Length: 192.9-inches (Murano) | 194.1-inches (Crown Signia)

In the back, the sleek designs are almost wagon-esque, and the Nissan offers a two-tone roof option for those who like that over the Crown.

Both have completely-LED rear lighting and hidden exhaust tips, but only the Murano also hides the wiper blade to protect it from being weathered.

As far as towing capacity, neither is really designed for that but the Crown can handle a good deal more weight.

Towing (max): Crown Signia: 2,700 lbs | Murano: 1,500 lbs

Additional Features

Now let’s move on to some of the individual features. Checking out the mirrors, they come nicely equipped with heating, blind spot monitoring, and power-folding.

In addition, both also include every other active safety system you can think of, standard on all trims. You also have limited highway driving assistants on both models. 

Alsp, Nissan has added complimentary maintenance for 2025, which means its entire warranty now matches Toyota tit-for-tat. 

Both: Warranties: Basic Warranty: 3yr/36k mi | Powertrain: 5yr/60k mi | Complimentary Maintenance: 2yr/25k mi

Anyway, that concludes the outside, so now let’s see how luxurious and spacious the interiors are.

Interior Design

So first walking up to them, both have smart entry systems and nice key fobs. We do have some more differences, though. First, only the Toyota offers a full digital key experience, meaning you can leave you keys behind if you need to. But, that system, along with remote start is tied to a subscription after the trial period ends. The Murano gives you remote start from the fob that is free for life.

Text: Toyota also supports remote start from the key fob when the subscription is active.

Furthermore, note that the Nissan does not have a sensor behind the door handle, so you need to press the button to unlock, unless you are using the walkaway auto lock and unlock which is something Toyota doesn’t offer.

Shew, now that we are past that unusually complex entry comparison, let’s look at these modern and upscale interiors. Starting with the seats, while lots of luxury brands move away from real leather, both two have the real deal. As a matter of fact, the Murano is using semi-analine leather which is one of the nicest grades available on the market. 

As far as the seat features, both have heating, ventilation and memory. The Murano has 10-ways of power adjustment vs. 8 in the Crown, plus it has a feature that really stands out in this segment: massaging.

Now that we’re inside, we can evaluate overall material quality. Both are very nice places to spend time and feature abundant use of soft materials. However, the Murano Platinum jumps ahead of the Crown here because it has two-tone leatherette even across the upper door trims and dash, as well as materials like the very-realistic feeling faux wood trim and faux glass trim vs. the bronze accenting on the Crown Signia.

After startup, you’ll see 12.3-inch digital gauge clusters for both models, which are customizable. Note that only the Nissan has a head-up display.

Coming back to the steering wheels, both are leather-wrapped and heated, with the Murano going the extra mile and having power adjustment. Both models have rain-sensing wipers.

Storage and Technology

While the center consoles are roughly the same size, it’s the rest that stands out on the Murano. You’ll notice that it has more bin space and a cavernous center passthrough, which the Crown does not have, even though both SUV’s utilize electronic shifters.

Speaking of, both models have 360-degree cameras, although the Nissan has more views including a 3D view.

Moving on, we have dual-zone automatic climate systems with very different controls. The Murano uses touch-capacitive buttons with haptic feedback that are inside of the wood trim. While that might make for a sleeker look, practically speaking it requires a lot more concentration to adjust than the simple physical controls in the Toyota.

Now that brings us to the volume knobs, so let’s give the audio systems a sample. 

Murano: 10-speaker Bose Premium Audio

Crown Signia: 11-speaker JBL Premium Audio

Overall, these systems perform pretty similarly and add in a good amount of punch compared to their standard options.

And that takes us up to these two infotainment systems. First, the screen sizes are identical at 12.3-inch each. Key features are also the same, namely that both have wireless AA and ACP, as well as good graphics. The big difference here is that Nissan’s new infotainment software has Google built-in, which means you have native access to Google Maps, Google Assistant, and other Google apps. The Signia does not have this option.

Wrapping up the front of the cabins, only the Toyota has a rear camera mirror system, and although they both have panoramic sunroofs, the Crown’s cannot open since it is fixed in place.

Rear Seats and Cargo

So up front, the Murano had some key advantages, but now it’s time to see how they stack up in the back seats and cargo areas.

Beginning with the space, you will find extremely similar leg and headroom measurements. The Crown holds very small advantages that are less than the 5% difference required to score a point. 

• Crown Signia: Legroom: 37.1-inches | Headroom: 38.1-inches
• Murano: Legroom: 36.3-inches | Headroom: 37.9-inches

Let’s also talk about the amenities you will find in the back. Both have vents, USB ports, and heated back seats that do not recline. Murano throws in some sunshades but otherwise, both are very nice places to spent time. 

Moving past that, let’s open the hands-free power tailgates. Once inside the cargo holds, again we have very similar amounts of space, with the back seats folded, that is. While the Crown Signia slopes the back more aggressively, it also has that extra length I was talking about earlier, which is why you see quite a bit less space behind the seats but almost the same space when they are folded.

Crown Signia: Behind 2nd Row: 24.8 | Max: 66.1 cu.ft

Murano: Behind 2^nd Row: 32.9-cu.ft | Max: 63.5-cu.ft

Both include buttons or handles to fold the seats from the cargo area, but only the Murano includes a spare tire.

Now that all that is settled, it’s time to take this fight to the streets!

Powertrains

What’s under the hoods of these two is just as different as all the other aspects we have explored so far. The Crown Signia is one of Toyota’s model lines that has moved to hybrid exclusivity, so it has a 2.5L 4-cylinder engine plus electric componentry making about 240 total horsepower. The Murano also is making a move toward greater efficiency but without a hybrid system. It uses a variable compression technology applied to a 2.0L Turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, to make exactly one more horsepower over the Crown. In practice, 0-60 acceleration times are both right around 7 seconds.

• Crown Signia: 2.5L 4-cyl + Hybrid System: 240 HP 
• Murano: 2.0L VC-Turbo I-4: 241 HP | 260 lb.ft 

Both models have standard AWD, and as far as transmissions, we have an eCVT in the Toyota and a new 9-speed automatic in the Nissan. Typically, most people prefer the more traditional feel of a conventional automatic transmission, and while neither of them is super refined sounding when accelerating, the Nissan avoids the drone.

Test Drive and Fuel Economy

But one of the main reasons you’re looking to buy either of these SUVs is for sublime ride quality. Who does it best, especially with those 21-inch alloy wheels? Well its really close but we have to give the edge to the Crown, which really reminds us of the Lexus RX when it comes to ride.

It’s better than most versions of the RX and the Murano when it comes to handling too. While Nissan made some very nice gains with this new generation, the Crown feels more planted when cornering and surprisingly agile.

But noise entering the cabin is also important which is why we collected our signature sound level readings on both SUV’s. They come in with quiet readings, especially considering that both were tested on rougher roads in other states. We included the scores for your reference although we cannot score them officially until we get them back home to Kentucky for further testing. 

Crown Signia: 54.6 dB @ 55 MPH | California

Murano: 56.2 dB @ 55 MPH | Tennessee

Fuel economy is an area where there is no comparison between them. Toyota’s hybrid system delivers an impressive 38 MPG combined, compared to the Murano which actually gets the same 23 MPG combined as the previous generation with a V-6. That would save you a lot of cheddar over the long run.

• Crown Signia AWD: 39/37/38 MPG
• Murano AWD: 21/27/23 MPG

Resale and Reliability Assessment

In our reviews and comparisons, we also consider reliability and resale information to give you a better picture of the overall value beyond just the original MSRP. 

Beginning with reliability, we developed the Combined Reliability Index, which considers several studies from trustworthy sources, and combines them in a way that gives a more realistic picture. Nissan ranks 2 slots BELOW the industry average for all brands in reliability, while Toyota is our #1 brand overall for reliability coming in a whopping 16 slots above average.

We also put Mason’s economics degree to work to develop a detailed Predicted Resale Value tool. After 5 years and 60,000 miles, there is a big discrepancy here as well. Toyota still tops the charts, coming in at 64.50% after 5 years, while Nissan sits at 50.56%.

I want to emphasize that if money, reliability or resale value matter less to you personally, feel free to disregard these points. And if you’d like to check out all our data about reliability and resale values, as well as learn about our methodology, make sure to head to www.carconfections.com/resale and www.carconfections.com/reliability. Buying a car is a big decision, and this is a great place to compare all the makes you might be cross-shopping.

2025 Toyota Crown Signia vs. 2025 Nissan Murano Winner!

Wow so that was a hard-fought battle! But which one you choose really is going to come down a lot to personal preference. Now let’s discuss who should be “your” personal winner based on those preferences.

Murano: 

• More luxurious cabin
• More interior storage

Crown Signia: 

• Better fuel economy
• Best resale/reliability

Now we want to know your opinions, so make sure to head to the comment section and let us know which one you would pick!

Thanks for joining us for another Car Confections Comparison! We’ll catch you next time as we sample the latest automotive delicacies!