- Great mileage
- Sporty Handling
- Decent Value
Cons:
- Lackluster acceleration
- Suspension a little crude below 20 MPH
- Seating not as comfortable as the competition
Sport utility vehicles, especially the front wheel drive kind, are essentially station wagons for those who don’t want to be seen in a station wagon. Whether it’s the perceived ruggedness or the more sporty looks, small SUVs have been a hot market for young urbanites ever since the RAV-4 and CRV entered the scene many years back. With gas prices remaining high and car shoppers looking to downsize with the recession, this segment of SUV’s has continued to blossom over the past few years.
We recently received the slightly redesigned Nissan Rogue SV front wheel drive, which comes with new bumpers that give the sport utility a less egg-shaped profile and gets rid of the Pokemon face, a criticism of the earlier Rogue. Does the redesigned Rogue SV make the grade in the $25,000 and under field of cute-utes? Read on…..
Design
Next to sedans, this is probably the most crowded field of vehicles, with every major manufacturer at the table. The recipe is simple: take a small car from your line up, design an SUV body around it, make some minor suspension and drive train modifications, and cover your engineering costs by charging $3-$8k more per vehicle. Can you say great profitability?
The Rogue took its design origins from the larger Murano, while using the chassis of the compact Sentra. Like we mentioned before, the Rogue has shed its Pokemon face with a new front end, but the overall design remains the same. The Rogue features a high roofline, which makes for great headroom, but also has sides that come in to provide a sleeker look. Unfortunately, this slightly affects shoulder room for our back seat passenger, and the quarter window behind the rear side window is all but useless when looking to change lanes due to a thick pillar design. In Nissan’s defense, the thick pillars are there for side airbags. Given the choice between safety and viewing out the window, we say use the side mirror.
Drive
Let’s get this out of the way: the Rogue doesn’t drive like a Sentra, and it might actually drive better. There’s something about this SUV that creates a different feel, and we think it’s due to something as basic as seat position. Because of the higher roofline and stance of the Rogue, you sit in a commanding position above most passenger car traffic, while still retaining the benefits of a decent handling car chassis.
Run the Rogue within legal limits and it will return a combined city-highway mileage of 26 MPG. This comes from a combination of being somewhat lightweight (in comparison to the competition) and the use of the two speed (read simple) Xtronic CVT transmission, which delivers power efficiently under normal conditions. The Continuously Variable Transmission has been a Nissan hallmark since the inception of the Murano. The only downside is when you have to get on the accelerator, as it’s slow to react and gets a little noisy when pushed hard.
When we took the Rogue through some twisty mountain roads it was surprisingly composed, delivering very neutral handling with traction control on or off. Nissan must have tweaked the suspension over their earlier versions as it remained relatively flat in the corners when brought to the limit. To be successful in this field, Nissan is going to have to leapfrog the competition and one of the areas could be handling.
Comfort and Convenience
Our test vehicle had all of the standard conveniences you would look for in this category, including Bluetooth, XM Satellite Radio, audio input jack, dual front and rear cup holders, back up camera, and sunglass compartment. We would rate the Rogue seating as average in this category. The cloth upholstery seems durable and is comfortable in the summer weather we were experiencing. The only shortcoming was the seats themselves. For the driver, the power lumbar support was hard to set in just the right spot, and all other seating lacked adjustability.
This is a first generation small utility vehicle for Nissan, so we won’t comment on the dash material and design; the competition has at least one predecessor, so we think the next gen Rogue will have vast improvements here. Again, don’t just meet the competition, beat the competition, by increasing cargo capacity, adding insulation and providing improved seating.
Recommend to Buy and Conclusion
So how does the Rogue do in this very crowded field of small SUV’s? We took a quick sample of one small sport utility from each country and compared them on a base front wheel drive level.
| Compact Sport Utility Comparison | |||||
| Nissan Rogue | VW Tiguan | Hyundai Tuscon | Honda CRV | Chevrolet Equinox | |
| Horse Power | 170 | 200 | 176 | 180 | 182 |
| Base Torque lb-ft | 175 | 207 | 168 | 161 | 172 |
| Cargo Space (Cu Ft) | 28.9 | 23.8 | 25.7 | 35.7 | 31.4 |
| Average Mileage | 26 | 22 | 26 | 24 | 24 |
| Curb Weight | 3276 | 3433 | 3203 | 3413 | 3779 |
| Base Price ($) | $23,220 | $23,720 | $21,995 | 24,195 | $26,220 |
We know there are a number of other excellent competitors from the likes of Kia, Mazda, Ford, Toyota, etc, but we can quickly see that the Rogue falls mid-pack in our random sample. This is actually a pretty good position in this crowded field and Nissan has done well by essentially shrinking the design of their much loved Murano.
What could propel the Rogue towards the head of the class? Keep the price and weight the same while increasing cargo space (station wagon purpose), improve insulation (feel/sound more luxurious), and providing better power though the use of forced induction or other lightweight tricks. Nissan has done this with subsequent Maxima and Z versions, and we expect their next evolution of the sub-$25k cute-ute to be more competitive. Of all the Japanese car makers, Nissan and Infiniti have earned a “most improved” status, aggressively refining design and performance in every category.
| Build | Interior | Performance | Handling | Styling | Value | Overall | |
| Rating | 3.75 | 3.00 | 3.75 | 4.25 | 3.50 | 4.00 | 3.7 |
