2017 Nissan Rogue AWD

Aligning with Nissan’s declaration of 2016 as the “Year of the Truck” and confirming market trends toward crossovers and away from sedans, the Nissan Rogue officially hopped past the Altima as the company’s best-selling vehicle through November. Perhaps more significant is that the Rogue is vying with the Honda CR-V and the Ford Escape for top sales honors in its segment. The Rogue’s success rests in its intriguing styling in a sea of bland-looking crossovers and a size advantage over most competitors. For 2017, Nissan added a hybrid version and gave the Rogue—all-new in 2014—refreshed styling and interior appointments.

The two-row version we tested landed at $35,645, toward the high end of the Rogue spectrum, due to its premium features. The front-wheel-drive Rogue S starts at $24,760, and adding all-wheel drive tacks on $1350. Stepping up past the midrange SV to our test car’s SL trim level adds $6140. Our example also had three option packages—Premium, Platinum, and Platinum Reserve—dressing it with a full array of safety technology (Intelligent Cruise Control, Lane Departure Prevention, Forward Emergency Braking, pedestrian detection), 19-inch aluminum wheels, and a leather-lined interior, inflating the bottom line another $3040. It’s possible to spend more on a Rogue, but not much more—Nissan said the hybrid would be on sale “by the end of the year,” but the company has yet to announce pricing. We expect it to square up against the Toyota RAV4 hybrid, in the $29,000 to $34,000 range.

The 2017 nonhybrid Rogue update was mostly superficial but brings a more upscale vibe. Its face was restructured to bolster the V-Motion design theme, the head- and taillamps were reworked, and more chrome accents were added. The rear liftgate now has motion-activated opening, and 19-inch wheels appear on the options list. In the cabin, a flat-bottomed and optionally heated steering wheel was adopted, the shift knob was redesigned with a leather boot, the center stack was redesigned, and a few of the dashboard and door accents have new finishes. Nissan also took advantage of a made-to-be opportunity by launching the new model in conjunction with the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film with a Rogue: Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition package ($1990). Featured in a commercial alongside AT-ACTs and TIE fighters, the limited-edition package atop the SV trim level adds black trim, Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance logos, and Star Wars–branded doorsills. Oh, and buyers also get a Death Trooper helmet.

The Force Is Not Strong with This One

Sales success and high-profile co-branding aside, we’re not big fans of the Rogue’s mundane driving experience. The 10Best Trucks–winning Honda CR-V, all-new this year, leads segment sales, with the Mazda CX-5 and the Ford Escape also among our favorites. The Rogue is narrowly outselling the also-refreshed-for-2017 Ford, but it isn’t the behind-the-wheel experience that fuels its sales surge—it shares much of its hardware with the Sentra and, like that car, inspires little enthusiasm. Its nonconformist exterior belies a mundane dynamic personality. Call it the rebel appliance.

The standard 2.5-liter four-cylinder remains the same as before and was the engine in this test car. It generates 170 horsepower and 175 lb-ft of torque, less power than the base engines in the AWD Escape (179 hp), the Kia Sportage (181 hp), the Mazda CX-5 (184 hp), and the CR-V (184 hp). Whereas most competitors offer even more powerful engine options, the Rogue has only the one powerplant, paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).

Driving the Rogue in traffic can resemble those movie scenes where the lead character moves in slow motion while the surroundings turn to blurry streaks. The Rogue AWD turned in a zero-to-60-mph time of 9.1 seconds—0.2 slower than in our test of the 2014 model, though it ran the quarter-mile in an identical 17.0 seconds. The new CR-V’s turbocharged 1.5-liter/CVT combination carries it to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds, and most others in the class can beat 8.0 seconds; even the slow ones outrun the Rogue. In our 50-to-70-mph top-gear acceleration test, simulating a passing maneuver or freeway merge, the Rogue took an interminably long 6.1 seconds to do what most competitors manage in less than 5.0. Our test driver cited a sluggish response from the CVT as a contributing factor.

Rogue buyers who care little about the performance deficit may be attracted by the fuel economy labels. It’s EPA-rated at 25 mpg city and 32 mpg on the highway, better than the AWD Escape’s 21/31, the Sportage’s 21/25 and the CR-V’s 25/31 mpg ratings. In our testing, though, the Rogue returned only 21 mpg, well behind its 27-mpg EPA combined rating. Our drivers often felt compelled to floor the accelerator in the Rogue in order to keep up with traffic, negating its efficiency at steady speeds.

Cushy Coach

The Rogue’s ride is placid and makes for relaxed, comfortable cruising. For 2017, Nissan added more sound absorbing materials in the floor and body pillars and thickened the rear door glass to cut down on noise intrusion, and it shows. Its spongy suspension, though, leaves the Rogue lost in no-man’s land. It bobbles going around normal turns, never seems to feel planted even in a straight line, and the electric power steering offers minimal feedback. Under hard braking, the car does a noticeable nose dive and our tests showed that stopping from 70 mph took 178 feet, five more than both the Escape and the Sportage.

One competitive advantage for the Rogue is that it offers a third-row option (in SV trim levels), a rare choice in this segment. Just make sure the people climbing back there aren’t fully grown yet. Part of Rogue’s cabin volume advantage comes from its longer 184.5-inch overall length, versus the CR-V’s 180.6 inches. With the seats up, cargo space is average, but once they’re folded down, there’s 70 cubic feet. Choosing the five-seat model brings the benefit of Nissan’s “divide-n-hide” cargo system that provides multiple configurations, such as a raised or lowered rear floor, a shelf, or hidden compartments.

The SL as equipped with the Platinum Reserve interior package offers a warm and welcoming vibe. The detailing on the seat cushion and lower backrest looks upscale, even at the risk of looking like one of those poofy down jackets. The dark camel leather extends to the door armrests, the center console, the gearshift housing, and above the glove compartment yielding a two-tone scheme. The extra stitching designs on the passenger dash and the console cover round out a wonderfully appointed environment, and the seats are every bit as comfortable as they look.

Other Rogue SL features make the driver’s life easier. Heated seats (no ventilation), a 7.0-inch infotainment screen, a digital info display between the tachometer and the speedo, and a heated steering wheel are among the comforts. Available intelligent cruise control, 360-view cameras, and remote start also up the crossover’s game. But unlike its sibling, the Murano, the Rogue is not accommodating to the connected lifestyle. It has only one USB port, and the rear has doesn’t have any controls or ports of any kind. The Escape and the CX-5 both have two USBs up front, and the Sportage and CR-V both have at least one in the rear (the CR-V has two up front, two in back).

Inferior Infotainment

The NissanConnect infotainment is in need of some refinement, or maybe more modern hardware. The screens look low-res, and pressing the touchscreen multiple times too quickly frequently triggers a buffer wheel pop-up. When you’re on the move, a system pausing to gather its wits is unacceptable.

Separate physical buttons surround the screen for access to phone, audio, navigation, or information functions but the system lacks a central home button, the menus are not well organized, and, at night, the small print makes the buttons harder to identify. There’s also no option for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto just yet. (Nissan just introduced the smartphone integration technology on the new Maxima, and the Murano, but Nissan wouldn’t reveal when it might be coming to the Rogue.) The entire system also blacked out on us once. We had the navigation system and satellite radio running but had entered no new commands. It simply restarted itself mid-drive.

That the Rogue is Nissan’s new sales darling and one of the most popular vehicles in its class doesn’t surprise. What it lacks in propensity for road-romping, it makes up for in the more widely appreciated virtues of comfort, size, and convenience. This test car’s robotic-driving features—more popular in the marketplace than they are with us—surely improve the Rogue’s competitive stance and play into its new Star Wars marketing scheme, but for anyone interested in driving pleasure, this is not the crossover you’re looking for.

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback

PRICE AS TESTED: $35,645 (base price: $26,110)

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port fuel injection

Displacement: 152 cu in, 2488 cc
Power: 170 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 175 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm

TRANSMISSION: continuously variable automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 106.5 in
Length: 184.5 in
Width: 72.4 in Height: 66.6 in
Passenger volume: 106 cu ft
Cargo volume: 32 cu ft
Curb weight: 3694 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 9.1 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 27.0 sec
Zero to 110 mph: 39.1 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 9.4 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 4.5 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 6.1 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 17.0 sec @ 80 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 118 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 178 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.81 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA combined/city/highway driving: 27/25/32 mpg
C/D observed: 21 mpg
*stability-control-inhibited