The 2024 Nissan Rogue isn’t a car for folks like you and me. We’re more into things that lights our souls on fire, makes us fizz or any other number of cliches, but stuff like that isn’t important to the vast majority of car buyers. Most buyers just want something that is reasonably priced, well thought out and has just enough creature comforts to make you feel like life is worth living. That’s exactly where the Nissan Rogue comes in, and it’s why the compact crossover was the ninth best-selling vehicle (and third-best in segment) in America last year.
It makes sense. I mean, the 2024 Rogue Platinum is good looking enough, has a whole lot of solid tech, a well appointed cabin and a very good — for today’s standards — price point at $45,190 (including destination). Still, the Rogue doesn’t really do anything for me, and I doubt it does anything for you. Because of that, we’re going to put on our NPC caps and take a look at just what makes the Nissan Rogue so goddamn appealing to so many people.
Full Disclosure: Nissan lent me a 2024 Rogue with a full tank of gas to do with as I pleased for a week.
We’ve got to start out where most driving-agnostic car buyers start: price, features and value for money. This is really where the Rogue, even in Platinum trim, excels. The top-of-the-line Rogue still costs thousands of dollars less than the average new car, and I bet it’s got a nicer interior and better tech than a lot of those cars. For that $45,000-ish price you get every modern luxury convenience you could really want, like wireless phone connectivity, leather-ish seats, a multitude of screens and a comprehensive suite of driver aids. If you were to try and get everything this Rogue has on something like a BMW X3, you’d be pushing 60 grand. That sort of stuff is very important to your average buyer.
What makes the Rogue really appealing, though, is not that it has all of these things — it’s that they all work rather well. The top-spec Rogue Platinum has two main screens and a head-up display. Both the 12.3-inch Google-based infotainment screen and 12-inch digital gauge cluster are easy to use, customizable and crisp. That’s really all an everyday car buyer wants. Apple CarPlay hooks up easily, you can get as little or as much information as you want in the gauge cluster, and the head-up display is comprehensive while still not terribly distracting. On top of all of that, you get a nice mix of buttons for core radio functions and the climate control system. Everything is exactly where you’d expect it to be in this car, from the volume knob and drive mode selector to the controls for the gauge cluster and digi-stick gear selector. It’s easy to get into the Rogue and immediately become acquainted with how it works. You really cannot ask for much more.
Aside from an intuitive interior, folks who consider cars like the Nissan Rogue really care about safety, and that’s somewhere else it excels. Not only does it have a five-star safety rating from NHTSA, but its suite of driver assist and safety systems are extremely good, especially for a car in this price range. You get a 360-degree camera setup, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot monitors, automated emergency braking and more. It also comes with adaptive cruise control and a lane-keeping system that Nissan dubbed ProPilot Assist; both work very well and help you cruise down the road with as few thoughts in your mind as possible. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Nissan had it in them to pack this much solid tech into a cheap-ish car like the Rogue.
Since Nissan is a business, and businesses need to make money to stay open, the Rogue is not without its cost-cutting measures. There are some sort of questionable materials inside, hard plastics and what have you. I mean, that’s not exactly shocking. Designers have to save money somewhere. The quilted leather and stitching inside the Rogue wasn’t exactly fabulous-feeling, either. There was a certain smoothness to the leather that gives the feeling of vinyl in cars from the mid-90s. That being said, it did look very nice. The tester I had was fitted with a black interior with white contrast stitching. It looks very premium, and leagues above anything Toyota is offering on the RAV4 or Honda with its CR-V.
The overall design of the Rogue, both inside and out, is rather handsome, too. It’s not groundbreaking or anything, but it’s a very clean design. It’s inoffensive, and that’s really all people want out of an appliance like the Rogue. Of course, the Platinum trim gets some more premium-looking design elements like a floating-ish roof, 19-inch wheels (which I really dig the design of) and more chrome trim. This is a car for Americans, after all. Even though it’s been on sale for a few years it still looks fresh, especially compared to some of its ancient competition like the Toyota RAV4 and Ford Escape.
Jalopnik is, of course, an enthusiast publication, so it would be wrong to completely ignore how the Rogue Platinum drives. Let’s just say it’s… uninspired. No one has ever really had fun behind the wheel of a crossover like this unless there are some extra-curriculars happening. It’s deeply boring, but that’s sort of the point. Power is supplied by a nifty little turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder motor, and it goes down the road with zero fuss. For the most part the motor falls to the background, but when you push it, the little engine makes a very cute little grumble noise. You can even hear the turbo whistle every now and then! It sends a healthy 201 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels (if you get the optional part-time AWD) courtesy of a CVT. It’ll fake shift every once in a while if you’re caning it — which you shouldn’t — but otherwise it’s deadly serious about the task at hand. No matter which of the five drive modes you put the Rogue Platinum in, it’s not going to be a fun driving experience. I didn’t get a chance to drive it off road at all, but I’m sure it’ll be fine for whatever dirt trail a Rogue owner accidentally takes it down.
Is this all a bit boring to you? Good, that makes sense. That’s exactly what the Rogue is supposed to be. It’s a pod to transfer you and whatever you bring along to your destination with as little stress and trouble as possible. In that regard, the Rogue Platinum excels. It’s very much not a vehicle for enthusiasts like you and me. It’s an appliance, and that’s OK, because it’s a damn good appliance. If automakers only catered to enthusiasts, there wouldn’t be any automakers left because they’d have all gone bankrupt. Vehicles like the Rogue, which make automakers untold billions of dollars, allow them to build the sporty cars we like. Because of that, we shouldn’t beguile the Rogue and its ilk. It’s incredibly important.
