Yahoo Autos 2024 Nissan Rogue Review: Quietly, comfy and competent
Pros: Strong and efficient engine; comfortable ride; stylish and ease-to-use interior; good driver assistance tech
Cons: Blah handling; no hybrid engine options; middle-of-the-road transmission; smaller cargo area than others
The small SUV segment is stuffed with strong competitors, and it can be easy for some models to get overlooked for best-selling staples like the Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4. One of those options is the 2024 Nissan Rogue. And that's not fair, as a recent full redesign and updates such as a perky turbo engine have made it an SUV that's worth your consideration.
Comfort and practicality are the Rogue’s strengths. It has a roomy interior with handsome trimmings. The infotainment system and other controls are easy to use, while its various driver assistance systems score highly. The turbocharged three-cylinder has lots of torque and good response that makes the Rogue easy to zip around town. It's a strong all-around package.
That's not to say it's perfect. Its main weakness is a lack of variety. While the standard turbo engine is a great entry-point, there’s no option for a performance upgrade or a hybrid as is offered by most competitors. Some even offer plug-in hybrids. This lack of powertrain variety is paired with a lack of trim level variety as well – there are no sporty or off-road-themed versions that many buyers appreciate. So while the core Rogue is fully competitive, you may find others better satisfy your particular tastes.
Interior & Technology | Passenger & Cargo Space | Performance & Fuel Economy
What it's like to drive | Pricing & Trim Levels | Crash Ratings & Safety Features
What's new for 2024?
Nissan gave the Rogue a styling refresh consisting of new bumpers, grille and some lighting tweaks. Platinum trim Rogues also get gloss black cladding. The inside is updated for SL trims and higher, which all get a new 12.3-inch infotainment screen and Google Built-In. This allows the system to run Google apps such as Google Maps natively without connecting a phone. And every Rogue adopts USB-C ports for device charging.
What are the Rogue interior and in-car technology like?
The Rogue has a stylish, well-constructed interior. It has a handsome dash that looks fairly fancy on higher trims with upholstered panels. You can even find impressively good faux wood trim and high-quality leather on top-spec Rogues. Lower trims aren't a major step down, and they thankfully have plenty of intuitive physical buttons and knobs for climate control and radio use. We've also found the front seats to be exceedingly comfortable.
The screens aren't bad either. The S and SV trims get an 8-inch touch screen for infotainment, whereas the SL and above get a 12.3-inch unit. All of them have large icons and are very responsive, making them a breeze to use. No matter what, every Rogue gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and those features are wireless on SL and up. As for instruments, the lower trims get analog gauges with a 7-inch center screen, and higher models have a fully digital 12.3-inch cluster with some stylish, but easy-to-read graphics.
How big is the Rogue?
The Rogue measures up well versus other compact crossovers. It has one of the more passenger-friendly back seats in the segment, one that measures up with the RAV4, CR-V, Tucson and Sportage. We found there is plenty of room for a rear-facing infant car seat and it’s one of the few vehicles that provides a LATCH anchor in the middle position, but the anchor points were not big enough to accommodate our Gracco car seat's clips. As always, we'd recommend bringing along your own car seat on a test drive.
Maximum cargo capacity (second row dropped) is up to 74.1 cubic feet, which is among the bigger numbers in the segment. Space behind the raised second-row comes out to 31.6 cubic feet, which we found to be a very useful amount in our cargo testing. Still, compared to the rest of the segment, it couldn’t fit quite as much as the Sportage, Tucson, Forester, RAV4 and CR-V.
That said, we tested a Rogue without the innovative and useful “Divide-N-Hide” cargo floor (the beige Rogue below has it, the orange one does not). Besides increasing cargo volume to 36.5 cubic feet, it consists of two movable floorboards — keep them in for a flat floor; remove them for additional depth, or arrange them into a stacked formation to divide the cargo area into separate parts. A milk gallon holder aft of the wheels is built into the cargo area floor, so now your gallon of milk, water or whatever won’t annihilate the rest of your groceries on the way back from the store.
What are the Rogue's fuel economy and performance specs?
Your options for engine and transmission on the Nissan Rogue are simple: There's only one. Every Rogue gets a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine and a continuously variable transmission. The engine is a variable-compression engine similar to what's on offer in the Infiniti QX50 and QX55, just with one less cylinder. Output is above average for a base engine in this segment at 201 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque. As for drive wheels, you do get a choice of either front- or all-wheel-drive.
Fuel economy for the 2024 Rogue has not yet been announced. But it's unlikely to have changed much from the 2023 model. Front-wheel-drive Rogue S and SV trims return 30 mpg city, 37 mpg highway and 33 mpg combined. The SL and Platinum lower to 29/36/32. Opting for all-wheel-drive lowers the S and SV to 28/35/31, and the SL and Platinum to 28/34/31.
