Time for the Rogue’s First Service
by Andy Bornhop on September 22, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 5,017 miles
Latest MPG: 24.0 mpg
Lifetime MPG: 24.9 mpg
Maintenance/Service Costs: $90.39
Days out of Service: 1
At 5,017 miles, we took KBB’s long-term Nissan Rogue in for its first recommended service.
This included a multipoint inspection, an oil and filter change, a tire-pressure check, a tire rotation, and a check of the brake lining.
Total cost? $90.39. The bulk of that was a $60.97 labor fee.
Five quarts of Nissan 0W-20 synthetic motor oil was a reasonable $16.10 ($3.22 per quart). The Genuine Nissan oil filter added $8.53, and the drain plug washer was $1.14. Other charges included a hazardous waste disposal fee of $1.65. Our brakes still had 80% of the original lining remaining.
We took our Boulder Gray 2021 Rogue into Nissan of Tustin for a 2:00 p.m. appointment. In addition to the regular service, we asked the dealer to look into the Reverse Automatic Braking, which would automatically (and unwantedly) apply the brakes every time we backed out of our driveway and reached the street. The only way we found to prevent this from happening was to shut the system off each time — a hassle in anybody’s book.
At any rate, we also had Nissan look into the Rogue’s right-front passenger window, which would occasionally squeak when it was lowered. We also had them look into a subtle click that came from the front suspension on the initial brake application of each drive.
About a half-hour after dropping the Rogue off, the dealer called and asked if they could keep the vehicle overnight and provide us with a loaner. Turns out there were a couple of recall services that also needed to be done to our Rogue. This included an inspection of the rear seat’s LATCH attachment points, plus a computer retune of the ABS.
Fine by us, we said. But no loaner was needed, thanks.
When we picked up our trusty Rogue the next day at noon, the dealer explained that all went well with the oil change and multipoint inspection, but the squeaking front window would need a new piece of molding that was on national backorder. It’d be about three weeks before the part comes in, he said.
Also notable, nothing could be done about the unwanted intervention of the reverse automatic braking. It’s a sensitive system, explained the dealer, who even Xeroxed a page from the Rogue’s owner’s manual to show me a remarkably long list of system limitations.
As for the occasional click coming from the Rogue chassis under braking, Nissan said it shouldn’t be a concern. It’s likely an ABS self-test feature that is totally normal and does not indicate a malfunction.
While this may come across as a plethora of problems, it’ really isn’t. These are minor concerns/issues that haven’t taken away from our pleasant overall experience with the 2021 Nissan Rogue, which remains a comfortable, dependable, and efficient compact SUV that goes about its daily duties with an enviable ease and grace.
Summer Fun in the Rogue
by Andy Bornhop on August 19, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 4,542 miles
Latest MPG: 26.4 mpg
Lifetime MPG: 26.9 mpg
Maintenance/Service Costs: $0.00
Days out of Service: 0
Day in day out, our 2021 Nissan Rogue has shone as a trouble-free runabout that impresses us with its sophistication and style, not to mention its good fuel economy, reliability, and general ease of operation.
It’s also roomy for its size. On a recent trip to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, California, three of us fit with ease in this Tennessee-built Rogue.
No big deal, you might say. But what I haven’t told you is this: I am 6-foot-4 and our son Andrew, at 6-foot-7, is large enough to play small forward in the NBA. While Andrew and I fit comfortably in the heated front seats of the Rogue, Patty, at 5-foot-4, luxuriated in back. Most often she sat behind me because I like my seat a little more upright than Andrew, who reclines it a bit more than most to gain some extra headroom.
The message here: The three of us (including two of us who are larger than your typical bear) fit remarkably well in the all-wheel-drive Rogue, a compact SUV that’s quiet and comfortable on the highway, aided by an automatic climate-control system that makes light work of outside summer temps in the high 90s.
Thus far, no major complaints. The 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine continues to be a good blend of power and economy, and the continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) remains unobtrusive in casual everyday driving. We’re also still glad that Nissan hasn’t equipped the hot-selling Rogue with a fuel-saving automatic stop/start system, an added complication that can delay your take-offs when the stoplight turns green.
What’s more, the Rogue SL’s Pro Pilot Assist system continues to work well. It smoothly keeps the gap consistent to the vehicle in front, while the steering assist makes long trips like ours to the charming railroad museum in Campo — which is down by the Mexican border — that much easier.
Any issues? Nothing major. My left heel has begun to make a wear spot on the driver floormat, but I guess that’s just proof it’s doing its job protecting the carpet. Also, after backing out of a parking space and using the brakes, the Rogue sometimes emits a slight click from the lower front chassis the next time you hit the brakes.
We’ll have this looked at during our Rogue’s first service, which occurs at 5,000 miles and includes an oil change and a multipoint inspection.
Rogue Trippin’ (King Gillette Ranch)
by Andy Bornhop on June 28, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 3,208 miles
Latest MPG: 25.0 mpg
Lifetime MPG: 26.9 mpg
Maintenance/Service Costs: $0.00
Days out of Service: 0
I’m happy to report that our COVID drives — those weekend trips we’ve been making just to get out of the house — are beginning to wind down as the pandemic wanes. On the other hand, the drives themselves actually have been quite pleasant, thanks in no small way to the excellent comfort and easy utility of our long-term Nissan Rogue.
Most recently, we visited the King Gillette Ranch, a 588-acre parcel of land in the Santa Monica Mountains that is home to a Spanish Colonial Revival Style mansion built in the 1920s for razor magnate King Gillette. (Yeah, the portable razor guy.)
As we drove through the San Fernando Valley to get there, the Rogue’s exterior thermometer hit triple digits — 106 degrees, to be precise. But inside this roomy and compact 5-seat SUV it remained a steady 68 degrees. It felt like we were in a cool movie theater, if you can remember those. Patty and Rosie couldn’t believe it was that hot outside.
Thankfully, the weather at the Gillette Ranch — toward the coast in the mountains above Malibu — cooperated for our picnic. The tuna sandwiches tasted great in the shade of some magnificent oaks.
A few thoughts about the Rogue (gleaned from our trip): This Nissan continues to impress us as a tight and well-built crossover SUV that is sized just right. Four adults fit comfortably inside the Rogue, but it’s compact enough for easy maneuvering about town while still having a usefully large cargo area. Our coolers and folding chairs fit with ease in back.
What’s more, our 2021 Nissan Rogue has remained impressively quiet inside, which makes long trips feel much shorter than they actually are. Also, while the Rogue’s active cruise control works just fine, we typically tend to prefer doing most of the driving ourselves.
Our Nissan also continues to draw compliments. A park ranger came stopped by to say he dug the Boulder Gray color. Rosie and Greg, commenting from the back seat, praised the handy pull-up sunshades while appreciating the cupholders in the Rogue’s fold-down center armrest.
Also laudable are the highway manners of the Tennessee-built Rogue, whose 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine goes about its work in a smooth and graceful fashion. To us, this direct-injected powerplant is a good blend of economy and power, and thankfully Nissan sees no need to equip it with any fuel-saving automatic start/stop function.
Although many people continue to criticize continuously variable automatic transmissions (CVTs) for having an unnatural feel, the one in the Rogue works well, aided by paddle shifters and a Sport driving mode.
Indeed, we’re delighted the pandemic appears to be ending. But we’re also excited to start planning our next trip in our long-term Rogue, which will go in for its first service at 5,000 miles.
Any suggestions for our next Rogue Trip?
Front and Rear Emergency Brakes?
by Andy Bornhop on June 1, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 2,694 miles
Latest MPG: 25.9 mpg
Lifetime MPG: 27.3 mpg
Maintenance/Service Costs: $0.00
Days out of Service: 0
I’m scrolling through the available tools in the Nissan Rogue’s information center the other day and something catches my eye: It’s a sub-menu called “Emergency Brake,” and it has individual on/off toggle switches for the front and rear.
Have you ever heard of front and rear emergency brakes?
Nor had I. Turns out the 2021 Nissan Rogue does not have front and rear emergency brakes. What it does have is this: automatic emergency braking that functions in the forward and reverse directions.
While this is a great technology that can save some bent sheet metal (and possibly even lives), we have a suggestion for Nissan: Change the wording on the sub-menu of the next Rogue to Emergency Braking. That way, I won’t think the Rogue has front and rear emergency brakes!
On a related note, we’ve found the tuning of the Rogue’s rear backup sensors to be a bit too sensitive. When we back out of our driveway, which is not that slanted, the Rogue sounds a warning beep just as the vehicle meets the level street, even when there’s no cross-traffic. It must see the road as a vehicle or structure about to get hit.
Complicating matters, the rear automatic braking also kicks in, bringing the Rogue to an immediate stop. While I can creep out the driveway to prevent this from happening, it’s a super slow process.
For the time being, I’m glad to know that I can shut the rear braking off, even though it does reset back to the on position every time the Rogue is shut off.
When we bring the Rogue in for its first service, we’ll have it looked at. We suspect it will be a simple matter of adjusting the cameras and/or sensors.
Meantime, our Tennessee-built Rogue continues to log lots of trouble-free miles, routinely drawing compliments along the way for its attractive Boulder Gray paint.
And around town, we’re appreciating something the Rogue does not have: an automatic stop/start system. While you might gain a bit of fuel economy around town, we don’t like the added wear and tear on the starter. Nor do we like having to wait a fraction of a second for the engine to start when the light turns green and you’ve released the brakes.
Rogue Trip! (Tucson, Arizona)
by Andy Bornhop on May 11, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 2,220 miles
Latest MPG: 27.6 mpg
Lifetime MPG: 27.8 mpg
Maintenance/Service Costs: $0.00
Days out of Service: 0
Planning a weekend getaway to Tucson from Southern California? Simply hop on Interstate 10 and drive east. Some 465 miles later, you’ll be there.
But if you want to break the monotony of that black slab and get a better view of the Sonora Desert, try this: Once you’re in Arizona, head south on Highway 85 near Buckeye and go through Gila Bend and Ajo before crossing the Tohono O’Odham Reservation into Tucson.
This is precisely what we did in KBB’s new long-term 2021 Nissan Rogue. Although this less-traveled route added 64 miles to our trip, it gave us a chance to appreciate some pristine desert (with towering saguaro cacti!) and spend some quality time in Nissan’s freshly redesigned compact SUV. About half of the other vehicles we saw (and there weren’t many) were U.S. Border Patrol.
Some miscellaneous findings: Our 2021 Nissan Rogue is a totally pleasant long-distance hauler. It’s quiet inside. Its seats are long-haul comfortable. The doors shut with a high-quality feel, and the 2.5-liter engine is a smooth player that runs at only 2,000 rpm when the Rogue is cruising down the highway at 70 mph.
What’s more, the Rogue’s Bose premium audio system is outstanding, and there’s plenty of room in the far back for a cooler, a couple of portable chairs, a pair of suitcases, whatever.
The Rogue also is good on fuel. From Gila Bend to Apache Junction (don’t you just love those names?), this 5-seat Nissan crossover SUV returned 31.4 mpg. That’s very close to its official EPA highway rating of 32 mpg. And you can go 400 miles on a tank of fuel. The low-fuel light came on only once, at a point when we had about 70 miles of range left in the Rogue’s 14.5-gallon tank.
In Auto mode, the Rogue’s continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) is unobtrusive, working in a refined fashion and drawing no attention to itself. When you turn the rotary dial to Sport, though, this all-wheel-drive (AWD) Nissan SUV gets noticeably snappier and more responsive.
As we logged the miles, we found we enjoyed the XM satellite radio and podcasts such as the riveting “Your Own Backyard,” the latter via Apple CarPlay.
We also experimented with ProPilot Assist, Nissan’s semi-autonomous driving program. It’s good at maintaining the distance to the vehicle in front, and it skillfully won’t slam on the brakes if somebody dives into the lane directly in front of you. ProPilot Assist also guides the Rogue with smooth steering adjustments down the highway, provided the driver’s hands remain on the leather-wrapped wheel.
After our weekend visit to the land of the javelina and the palo verde — in which we visited the charming DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun and the fantastic Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum — we headed back to California, but not before an overnight stop in Phoenix for a visit with Aunt Darlene and the Sullivans.
When we finally got home Sunday night, we should have been totally exhausted after having traveled more than 1,200 miles in four days. But we felt remarkably fresh, underscoring our belief that the Nissan Rogue makes a great travel partner.
Where we headed next?
Introduction
By Andy Bornhop on May 4, 2021
Price: $36,705 | Price yours
Current Odometer: 433 miles
Latest MPG: TBA
Maintenance/Service Costs: $0.00
Days out of 0 Service:
Good news: KBB has welcomed a 2021 Nissan Rogue to our long-term test fleet. As avid KBB readers will know, the Rogue has been totally reimagined for 2021. It’s now based on a thoroughly updated chassis, and it sports a handsome all-new body with a spacious and thoroughly modern interior.
Our particular Rogue, an SL model with all-wheel drive (AWD) and 19-inch alloy wheels, looks great in Boulder Gray paint, which is complemented nicely by a charcoal interior with leather-trimmed seating surfaces.
Nissan’s familiar 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine is a smooth powerplant that sends 181 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels via a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) with paddle shifters. It also has a Drive Mode dial that offers Auto, Off-Road, Snow, Eco, and Sport drive modes. EPA highway fuel economy for an AWD Nissan Rogue is a respectable 32 mpg.
As an SL, our Tennessee-built Rogue comes loaded with comfort and convenience items. Highlights include tri-zone automatic climate control, a power liftgate, and ProPilot Assist, Nissan’s semi-autonomous driving feature that improves upon adaptive cruise control with automatic steering inputs to guide the Rogue down the highway — provided the driver’s hands remain on the leather-wrapped tilt/telescope steering wheel.
Other welcome hardware on our compact new Nissan 5-seat SUV includes power front seats with heat, a panoramic sunroof, roof rails, and a large color touchscreen offering Sirius XM Radio and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. Also appreciated is a WiFi hotspot, a pair of rear USB ports, and standard safety features such as automatic emergency braking, a full assortment of airbags, a 360-degree around-view monitor, lane-keep assist, a blind-spot monitor, and rear-cross traffic assist with automatic braking.
The base price of our 2021 Nissan Rogue SL AWD is $33,500. The most notable option is the $1,320 SL Premium Package, which includes a 9-inch color touchscreen display, a navigation system, Bose premium audio, and an upgraded ProPilot Assist system that communicates with the navigation. This, for example, means the Rogue will slow down a bit when the nav system knows a sharp turn is coming up soon. Our new long-term Nissan Rogue also has audible front and rear sonar beepers, making it much easier to park the vehicle in tight quarters.
The only other options are splash guards ($180), a chrome rear bumper protector ($170), and a floormat package that includes a 2-piece cargo area protector, a seatback protector, and a first-aid kit ($385). With all these options tallied, plus a destination fee of $1,150, our Rogue has a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $36,705.
Now that COVID-19 travel is getting easier and safer, we’re planning a Rogue trip to Tucson, Arizona. Look for our report.
