Look, if people bought an SUV for acceleration, then they bought the wrong type of vehicle.
BUT having said that, if they are not satisfied with the acceleration of their Murano, they need to drive it (slowly of course) to a Ford Dealer.
Take a test drive in the #1 selling SUV in the world. It comes with a V6. BUT you can buy the V8 if you really want to "fly".
They might like the fact that the V8 Ford Explorer will do 0-60 about a second SLOWER than the Murano while spewing gas out the exhaust pipe.
That's the V8.
OTOH you might NOT like that!

And you don't even want to try a V6 Explorer. 0-60 in ....well, over 10 seconds.
And they get about the same MPG on the highway as the Murano does...............in town! And actually maybe not that good! I hear that 15-16 MPG is all they do at 60-70 MPH!
What about against other Xovers/medium sized SUVs?
Competitive AT THE VERY LEAST on acceleration against both the Highlander and the Pilot.
Beats the V6 Toureg.
Beats the RX 330.
Absolutely KILLS the RX300, the Hyundai, and the Kia.
I think the Murano has good acceleration.
And unless it has slowed from the test drive, then it's doing good compared to about anything else out there.
I am always amazed at questions concerning things that should have been discovered during a test drive. What the heck do people "test" on a test drive anyway?
I have a friend that bought a 2003 Highlander.
The rear seat is MUCH too hard for anybody.
I mean it is like a "Buckboard"!
His wife rode back there during the test drive.
Why didn't she say something?
Because that was not going to be "her seat"! LOL!
When I got done with my test ride(s) I knew
The CVT was "weird" but cool.
The "extras" (mem seats, adjustable pedals, BIG rear seat, folding rear seats) were very neat.
The Vehicle was much faster than one would think. I especially liked DS.
The SE handles better than the SL (Except on concrete roads with expansion strips).
The navigation package costs too much.
After owning it for two years (And excepting the reliability issues) there have no surprises except......
Like other people who do test drives "wrong" I also qualified for "Dufus" status! I no longer think the Nav is too expensive and wish every day that I had gotten one.
Obviously the competition gets harder every year. But this 3 year old design easily keeps up with the current crop of SUVs.
Homer