The Nissan Rogue faces stiff competition from the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, two SUV sales leaders of similar size and price point. The three are rivals in the toughest and most popular segment of vehicles to compete in.
Automakers know this and keep raising the bar. The CR-V was redesigned for the 2023 model year and is widely regarded as the segment's leader. Nissan's Rogue, the Ford Escape and Mazda CX-5 are all competing for the same buyers, though they are longer in the tooth.
Nissan refreshed Rogue for the 2024 model year. Changes include new front and rear fascias, a fresh take on Nissan's V-motion grille, new inner taillights and added satin badges. The Rogue SV offers a new 18-inch alloy wheel design and Platinum models come with gloss-black fenders, lower exterior and front fascia trim pieces, and a new 19-inch wheel design.
Visually, the Nissan Rogue looks to be the biggest of the three, however, it has slightly less interior volume than the Honda CR-V. The RAV4 is slightly down from that, though all have space for five adult passengers or four with a bunch of luggage.
Under the hood, the 2024 Rogue Platinum tester featured a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine that is paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The combination makes 201 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque, in this vehicle. Its turbo lag is too great and it just doesn't seem like enough oomph, especially when the SUV is packed with people and stuff.
At around 3,500 pounds the Rogue is average weight for an SUV of its size, but the CVT just chugs along and doesn't seem to give power when needed. It does rev high when getting onto the expressway but its more noise than motive force.
The converse of that is its admirable fuel mileage, rated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at 28 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 37 mpg on the highway in two-wheel drive form.
The Rogue does excel at comfort whether on- or off-road. The vehicle has enough ground clearance to crawl around in the mud and the automatic all-wheel drive system sends power to the wheels with grip. With that comfort comes more body roll at high speeds, but like the CR-V and RAV4, the Rogue is meant for stocking up at Costco, not carving up traffic.
Its cabin gets new color options and textures for 2024, on the door panels, seats, center console and passenger-side dashboard. This Platinum tester had two-tone leather seats with diamond stitching and plenty of adjustment for both the front and back of the bottom portion. The visors are large and slide towards the rear to block the sun, a godsend when traveling north in the afternoon.
The front passenger area feels huge with storage for mugs and phones along with wireless charging, which is standard on SL and above trims. It has a textured black plastic in place of shiny piano black near the gear selector. It looks excellent and seems to resist fingerprints.
The cabin is centered on a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, which here flanks a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, both are newly standard on SL grade and above. The Nissan Rogue comes with Google built-in on SL and Platinum grades with Google apps, including Google Assistant, Google Maps and others on Google Play.
In theory this is great. All of your subscriptions are already installed without using a phone, but the Android system took more than a minute to initialize most mornings, meaning a driver would be at the end of the street before music starts. It seemed to work faster once it had been running during the day. The easiest way to use maps and listen to music is still through a smartphone and apps like wireless Apple CarPlay.
That feature worked well with native Nissan buttons outside the CarPlay screen to allow switching back and forth. The touchscreen is above convenient physical knobs and buttons for climate control. Below that is the gear selector with two large cupholders and the textured black panel.
Nissan Safety Shield is standard with automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning, high beam assist and rear automatic braking. SV models come with ProPilot Assist, which combines Intelligent Cruise Control with Steering Assist. It uses a forward-facing camera, forward-facing radar and other sensors to help keep Rogue centered within its lane. In traffic it will stop the vehicle and hold it in place until traffic moves again.
SL and Platinum trims also include Navi-Link with ProPilot. The system uses navigation data to preemptively adjust speed ahead of curves and interchanges.
The 2024 Rogue starts at $28,420, which lines up closely to its top competitors in the RAV4 ($28,675) and CR-V ($29,500). The Ford Escape is also an option here at $29,495. Of course, all of those prices are for the two-wheel drive models. The Rogue Platinum with all-wheel drive tested here stickers for $40,100 before a few options. All but the Rogue offer a hybrid version, which is important to some buyers.
In that excellent compact group of compact SUVs, the Honda is the most well-rounded, while the Rogue can become the most comfortable and luxurious in this Platinum model, though it's not very exciting to drive. The RAV4 looks toughest with its mini 4Runner-like styling.
Surprisingly, the historically bland compact segment now has some of its most competent vehicles and few bad drives.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jake Lingeman is the Managing Editor for the Autos team at Newsweek. He has previously worked for Autoweek, The Detroit ... Read more
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