2015 Nissan Rogue In Vogue
Review By Larry Nutson

2015 Nissan Rogue
In Vogue
By Larry Nutson
Senior Editor and Bureau Chief
Chicago Bureau
The Auto Channel

It’s spring and baseball season is upon us. Opening day was either good or bad for you depending on your favorite home team. The Nissan Rogue has had a good spring opener with sales continuing to climb.

The all-new second-generation Nissan Rogue, introduced for the 2014 model year, had a rookie year like no other. Setting all-time monthly sales records in 2014, Rogue launched strong and has continued to gain momentum heading into 2015.

For 2015, Rogue got a few tweaks. An Eco mode is added to the Xtronic transmission, heated cloth seats are added to SV Premium Package, and a new Arctic Blue Metallic color joins Rogue's exterior color palette.

Not to confuse you, Nissan also offers a Rogue Select for 2015. This is the previous generation model, offered only in one trim level with a choice of front-wheel or all-wheel-drive and priced at $20,150 for value conscious buyers.

The 2015 Nissan Rogue is a compact crossover that offers seating for five or seven passengers. Rogue is offered in three trim levels: S, SV and SL. Two-row seating is standard, while a third-row seat is available on S and SV models. Prices start at $22,790 for the Rogue S FWD.

For an additional $1350 all-wheel-drive can be had on any of the three trims. The top-of-the-line Rogue SL AWD is priced at $29,630 and the destination and handling charge is $860 on all models.

My Rogue tester-for-a-week was the Rogue SV AWD model priced at $25,840. Options included Splash Guards for $100, Floor mats with a cargo mat for $210 and an SV Premium Package for $1,500. The bottom line came out at $28,660.

The SV Premium Package includes NissanConnect
with Navigation and Mobile Apps, 7.0-inch
color touch screen display, Nissan Voice
Recognition for navigation and
audio, NavTraffic, NavWeather and SiriusXM
Travel Link, Around View Monitor, power liftgate, heated outside mirrors,
heated cloth seats, Blind Spot Warning,
Lane Departure Warning and Moving
Object Detection.

Yes, lots of infotainment and technology keeping us more connected than ever. As well, the around view monitor together with the standard rear view monitor make for very safe and easy maneuvering and backing-up. I now noticeably miss having a rear view monitor if any of the test cars I drive doesn’t have one. As the song goes, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

Every 2015 Nissan Rogue is equipped with a 170-horsepower 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine and an advanced Xtronic CVT transmission with Sport and Eco Mode switches. EPA test fuel economy ratings are 28 mpg combined, or 3.6 gallons per 100 miles, with 26 city mpg and 33 highway mpg. That’s for the front drive models. AWD models have one mpg lower ratings in both the city and highway EPA tests.

From a drive train point of view, I though acceleration from stop and highway merging was adequate, but not wonderful. Keep in mind the terrain of Chicagoland is fairly flat and most of the driving was me alone or occasionally with my wife. If you often drive heavily loaded or in hilly terrain, the engine might be a bit lacking. I’m not a lover of CVTs in general but the Rogue’s CVT performed just fine. I thought engine noise at idle was more than it should be and of course with a CVT you get the engine drone from operating at a constant speed which is especially noticeable when accelerating into a highway merge.

On the inside the fit, finish and quality of materials is quite good considering the price. Ingress and egress is quite easy and I had plenty of legroom for my 5ft 11inch frame. There is good seat comfort and support and outward sight lines are unobstructed. The Rogue’s front seats are called “Zero-Gravity” by Nissan having been inspired by NASA. I need to like a car’s outward appearance but the bottom line is that you spend all your time on the inside.

Not too many compact crossovers offer optional seating for seven, which is nice to have if you are in the student athlete car-pooling mode. Storage capacity is really good. With both rear rows folded down, the Rogue has 70 cubic feet of cargo space.

I had the occasion to move a long piece of furniture, a shelving unit. With the second row folded, and the front passenger seatback leaned back all the way down, I was easily able to get the job done. The Rogue has lots of interior room and spaciousness for its 182.3 inches of outside length. Proving that you don’t really need a full-size SUV for many household and family needs.

There’s lots more detailed information and specs on the 2015 Nissan Rogue models only a mouse click away at www.nissan.com. If you want to compare the Rogue to other compact crossover SUVs you can do that right here on TheAutoChannel.com.

In the U.S., the Rogue is Nissan's second-best selling nameplate, behind the Altima midsize sedan. Sales soared 28 percent to 64,486 vehicles in the first three months of 2015. The Rogue is scoring some runs for Nissan.

Nissan Motor Corp. recently started to offer a hybrid version of the Rogue crossover in the Japan market. Perhaps we’ll see a Nissan Rogue hybrid in the U.S. someday soon.

© 2015 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy