Our Ciprian Florea recently said the Nissan Rogue Sport unveiled at North American International Auto Show was a sign of “what’s wrong with the industry.” I disagree – mostly.
I think the Nissan Rogue Sport – Qashqai to Nissan outside the U.S. – is a great idea with the wrong engine.
Size matters
Florea took issue with the Rogue Sport’s size being too close to that of the Rogue. I say buyers will like that it’s more than a foot shorter than Rogue. And Nissan engineers deserve kudos because they did this without much compromise on the wheelbase, which is only 2.3 inches shorter than the Rogue. This should make for an interior that is surprisingly roomy compared to the exterior footprint.
More importantly, it will slot the Rogue Sport into a sweet spot in Nissan’s lineup. While the Nissan Juke is widely credited with igniting the subcompact crossover segment in America, many find it too small.
Last time my wife was car-shopping, she first test drove the current-generation Rogue. She liked the interior space, but found the vehicle somewhat intimidating to maneuver in tight parking lots. Several years of daily driving a snub-nosed Nissan cube will do that to you, I guess. Mostly, she was intimidated when backing the Rogue, though Nissan’s AroundView monitor was helpful, she said.
Right after she drove the Rogue, she drove a Nissan Juke at my insistence. The Juke is a fun little thing, and it’s not much larger than the cube to which she was accustomed. I thought it might be a winner. She had less trouble parking it and could back it more easily, but the interior was simply too cramped for our family.
She ultimately settled on a second cube, buying one of the last 2014s available in the knowledge that Nissan would not be importing the model to America in 2015. But now that she’s seen the Rogue Sport, she says she would have liked to had a chance to drive it.
The other thing about the Rogue Sport’s size that will be attractive to buyers, including my wife: Smaller tends to mean lighter, which tends to mean better fuel economy. Nissan hasn’t released EPA fuel economy estimates yet, but I would expect it to do better in the real world than the Rogue, which itself gets pretty good fuel economy. The last Rogue I reviewed a couple of years ago averaged miles per gallon in the mid-20s in mixed city/highway driving. The EPA rates the current Rogue at 33 mpg highway, 26 mpg city, 29 combined.
I think the Rogue Sport will be, for a lot of buyers, the Goldilocks of the Nissan SUV lineup: Not too big, not too small, not too thirsty – just right.
Keep reading for the rest of the story
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2jCIfFy
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