December’s Popular Science magazine bestows accolades on the all-new for 2015 Nissan Murano with its “Best of What’s New” award, an honor given to products that represent a “significant step forward.” How far forward? The magazine gave it the honor based on it’s overall design and suite of available technology.

But what, more importantly, can you expect when you go for a test drive? We spent some time with Nissan’s new shining star to find out.

The Murano is completely redesigned for 2015 and features an all new exterior with a steeply raked windshield and strong lines that begin at Nissan’s V-Motion grill and travel along the body creating a muscular, sporty appearance. It’s aggressive modeling is in line with the all-new Lexus NX200t we drove earlier this year.

The exterior design not only looks good, but is extremely aerodynamic, especially for a mid-size crossover. This is demonstrated in the Murano’s low drag coefficient (used to measure the drag on an object through liquid such as air or water–lower is better) of 0.31Cd. A 2015 370Z measures 0.30Cd. Nissan boasts it does this while providing mire interior legroom than a Lexus RX350.

Powering the Murano is Nissan’s 3.5 liter V-6 which is connected to their Xtronic continuously variable transmission and produces 260 horsepower and 240 lb-ft of torque. Nissan expects a 20% increase in fuel efficiency over the outgoing Murano thanks to the advanced transmission, weight reduction (down about 145 pounds), its aerodynamic design, and an active grille shutter.

Inside the Murano is class leading volume: 147.7 cubic feet of total volume and 39.6 cubic feet of cargo volume with all the seats up. It’s impressive. From the outside you’d never suspect there’s that much storage room. With the seats lowered, it looks downright cavernous.

Technology in the interior contributes to what Nissan calls “an incredible balance of style, comfort, innovation, and more” with a standard 7 inch infotainment screen and available 8 inch touchscreen, NASA inspired zero-gravity seats and available Nissan ConnectSM with Navigation and Mobile Apps.

Multiple cameras and radar sensors enable a suite of safety technology to include: Moving Object Detection, Blind Spot Warning, Predictive Forward Collision Warning, and Forward Emergency Braking. A 360 degree camera display gives a birds-eye view of the vehicle to aid in parking. Trust us, once you use the birds-eye parking aid, you’ll never want to be without it.

The 2015 Murano will be the first In the line to be assembled in Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi assembly plant. With this production line, the Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant will become the global source for Murano production, potentially assembling them for export to more than 100 markets.

The new Murano will go on sale December, 2014. Look for it to compete with the Ford Edge and Toyota Venza.

Pricing for the 2015 Murano (which no longer includes the CrossCabriolet model) starts at $29,560 for the base S trim level and goes up to $40,600 for a top-of-the-line Premium AWD model.

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images courtesy of Nissan