Is the 2015 Nissan Rogue a true winter warrior?
In its latest Canadian-market television ad, the new 2015 Nissan Rogue is driven in a big city where it bashes an army of menacing zombielike snowmen with the driver finally rescuing six passengers who were stranded in another vehicle.
It’s very effective in touting both the available allwheel drive and the new seven-passenger configuration of Nissan’s mid-size crossover, but is the Rogue really a winter warrior as the TV ad implies?
To find out if the Rogue can handle the cold and white stuff, we drove it in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains as well as on the Mecaglisse circuit, a purpose-built 280-hectare all-season motorsports facility in NotreDame-de-la-Merci, Que., featuring three winter driving tracks covered in snow and ice.
It is important to point out that the Rogues used on the Mecaglisse circuit were equipped with studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 winter tires, while those used on public roads were running on standard studless winter tires.
The all-wheel-drive system on the Rogue is not permanent but rather is available on demand. Simply put, the front wheels always drive the vehicle and when they begin to slip the all-wheeldrive system kicks in, sending torque to the rear wheels as well. It is, however, possible to press the lock button to engage all four wheels for maximum grip when taking off on a slippery surface, but this feature is limited to speeds below 40 kilometres per hour.
One of the features of the new Rogue is a system that uses vehicle sensors to monitor steering angle as well as throttle position and can apply brake pressure to individual wheels to effectively prevent the vehicle from under-steering in a curve. It proved to be quite effective on the icy track where it was easier to steer the vehicle with the system on than with the system turned off. It’s a clever use of technology that felt unobtrusive.
The one major downside of the new Rogue is that while the vehicle is all new, the engine is carried over from the previous generation. That means the 2.5-litre 170-horsepower four-cylinder has to pull the added weight (49 additional kilograms over the previous model) of the now larger and heavier Rogue. This kind of power-to-weight ratio has a negative impact on the fun-to-drive factor, as power is only adequate — at best — with two people on board. Also, Nissan favours continuously variable transmissions to meet its fuelefficiency targets, and while it’s true that a CVT is more efficient than an automatic gearbox, it is nowhere near as enjoyable to drive.
The most striking attribute of the new Rogue is the fact that you feel you are riding aboard a more premium vehicle when compared to key competitors such as the CR-V and the Rav4. Softtouch materials abound in the cabin, the front seats are very comfortable, and a panoramic moonroof is standard on mid-level trims and up.
To answer our initial question, yes the Rogue can confidently handle winter driving conditions with ease, even if its part-time all-wheel-drive system is not as sophisticated as the full-time all-wheeldrive setup found on the Subaru Forester.
It delivers very well in the areas of comfort, convenience and even luxury in the compact SUV class, but falls short in the area of driving dynamics. However, as most buyers in this segment tend to favour comfort over performance, the new Rogue should do very well for Nissan in Canada.