Every time I drive a new Nissan product, I continue to be more impressed. The new midsize Murano sport-utility vehicle (SUV) is a prime example of just far Nissan has come in the last few years.

Instead of just building copycats of more conservative rivals like Toyota and Honda, Nissan has introduced a whole series of innovative and stylish vehicles that demand attention. It started with the restyled Altima, and continued with a new version of its legendary “Z” car. The hot new Maxima and now an inventive new SUV, the Murano, followed those up.

The Murano offers a blend of performance and innovation missing from most SUVs. With a name inspired by sculpted Italian glass, the chic new Murano is all about style. It features rounded contours including a steeply raked windshield, sloping hoodline and upswept rear roof pillars.

But this isn’t just another pretty face. Designed specifically for the North American market, Nissan believes it can sell 50,000 Muranos a year where the boxy SUV now reigns.

The Murano comes in the base SL and higher-line SE versions, and both are offered with front or all-wheel drive. Our copper-colored test vehicle was an all-wheel drive SE. Although I personally didn’t much care for the color, I happened to pass by our local dealer who had both a black and metallic midnight blue Murano on display that were just visually stunning.

As with many of the new car-based SUVs, the Murano is considered a “crossover” vehicle — a designation shared by many newer SUVs. Built on the hot Altima sedan platform, the SE has a firmer suspension, sporty looking 6-spoke alloy wheels and High Intensity Discharge headlights with a manual headlight levelizer.

As with most crossovers, the Murano is basically designed for on-road driving, with no low range capacity on the all-wheel-drive system. However, it can easily conquer some milder off-road situations as well as snow and wet weather driving conditions.

Under the Murano’s hood sits Nissan’s exhilarating 245-horse, 3.5-liter passenger car V6. This smooth, sophisticated powerplant is one of the best available today and handles quick merging, passing and just plain acceleration with ease. The engine loafs quietly at just under 2000 rpm at 75 mph.

Married to the V6 is a very smooth continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). The CVT design, which many manufacturers are moving towards, delivers a nearly infinite number of gear ratios — which eliminate up and downshift delays common to conventional automatics. They also provide better fuel economy than a standard automatic. The Murano gets an estimated 20 city and 25 highway — not outstanding, but SUVs aren’t known for gas mileage. That’s not bad for a big, heavy, powerful vehicle like this — and the 21.7-gallon fuel tank does give it some serious highway range.

The Murano is a just blast to drive. Steering is a bit stiff, but quick, and I found the handling to be unusually good for a 3,800+ pound SUV. That’s thanks to the Murano’s all-independent suspension, which features stabilizer bars and wide tires on 18-inch wheels. The more rubber that meets the road, the better the roadability. Nissan went the extra mile with the 18 inchers, rather than 17’s — which in themselves would have topped the 16-inchers found on the Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot.

At 187.6-inches-long the Murano is longer, wider, and taller than either the Pilot, Highlander or RX 300. That fact alone makes the $749 Dynamic Control Package, which features traction control, anti-skid systems, and a tire-pressure monitor worth the money.

Standard safety features include anti-lock brakes with electronic brake force distribution, front side airbags, and front and rear curtain side airbags.

The Murano offers lots of comfort and convenience amenities, including the usual power accessories found in higher-priced SUVs. That includes such items as a tilt wheel where, like the Z, the gauges move with it as a unit, cruise control, dual-zone automatic climate controls, AM/FM/CD sound system and a rear defogger. However, adding desirable options like a sunroof, leather seats and power adjustable pedals will run the price up quickly because they’re part of some fairly costly option packages. It’s doesn’t take much to sticker a Murano past $37,000.

For example, the SE Package has some nice offerings but adds a hefty $3,499. You can get a power sunroof for the SL for $999 — but you have to order the $1,499 Premium Package as well. And the $1,999 navigation system calls for three other option packages plus the sunroof. Worse than that, the system is somewhat over-engineered and user unfriendly if you’re not a techie. Plus the map is kind of cheesy looking.

The big outside door handles and wide doors coupled with a low floor makes it easy to get in and out. Three’s lots of room for four tall adults in the quiet interior, and the sculpted front and rear seats are very supportive.

The amber-colored instrumentation is easy to read at a glance, but the fairly large, easily used climate and sound system controls are located seemingly more for ascetics than practicality. However, there are sound system controls on the steering wheel as well.

Like the 350Z, the interior materials are just average — with lots of attractive aluminum trim used. There’s plenty of storage room, including snap-out storage pockets in the front doors like those usually found in luxury SUVs. Rear-seat air conditioning outlets are also standard.

The cargo area is large, and the entire rear seat — not just the seatbacks — fold forward to offer substantially more cargo room.

Whines: It’s way too easy to run the price up because of the packages required to get one or two popular options. There’s no third-row seat — an increasingly popular item for this size SUV. The tailgate has no upper glass opening and the tailgate raises so high many shorter people will have trouble closing it. It needs a hand strap or something. Rear visibility has a bad blind spot that’s especially evident when parallel parking — but large outside rearview mirrors mitigate it when changing lanes. The cupholders don’t adjust to the size of some common beverage containers.

Bottom Line: The Murano offers beautiful styling, solid performance, and great handling along with plenty of room and comfort. Nissan innovation and design have created another monster hit to build on the automaker’s solid success of the past few years. It’s worth your time to check this out.