10 Things You Need to Know About the 2019 Nissan Rogue

Built in Tennessee, the 2019 Nissan Rogue is very popular with families looking for a stylish and fuel-efficient compact five-passenger SUV with a spacious interior. The Rogue slots just below the larger Murano in Nissan’s extensive SUV lineup, but buyers shouldn’t confuse the Rogue with the smaller and less powerful Nissan Rogue Sport, which is a completely different vehicle.

One of the more fun-to-drive SUVs in its class, the 2019 Nissan Rogue is Nissan’s best-selling model. Now in its second generation, it competes with a long list of popular rivals including the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, and Mazda CX-5. Here are 10 things you need to know about the 2019 Nissan Rogue.

Front-wheel drive Rogues are rated at 26 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway, while all-wheel drive cuts those figures by 1 mpg. These are strong numbers for its class, and the Rogue runs on less expensive regular grade gasoline to keep operating costs down.

Unfortunately, our real-world fuel economy didn’t match those ratings. With only two aboard with some light luggage, we averaged just 27 mpg during a 600-mile road trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back in our all-wheel drive test vehicle, and the Rogue’s fuel range was disappointing at around 300 miles.

After a year off, the Rogue Hybrid is back for 2019, powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, a compact lithium-ion battery and a small 30-kW electric motor. The system's gas engine is rated at 141 hp, while its electric motor is rated at 40 hp. Nissan says the hybrid system puts out a total of 176 hp.

This time around, however, Nissan is only offering the Rogue Hybrid in the West, Northwest, Mountain, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country. It’s rated at 33 mpg city and 35 mpg highway with front-wheel drive and 31 mpg city and 34 mpg highway with all-wheel drive and competes with the newly redesigned 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. According to Toyota, the RAV4 Hybrid is packing 219 hp and manages 41 mpg city and 37 mpg highway.

Prices for the 2019 Nissan Rogue start at $25,915, including a $995 destination charge, for the base S model. Front-wheel drive is standard on all models, but all-wheel drive is offered across the range for an additional $1,350. However, step up to the SV trim level or the top-of-the-line SL, and the Rogue’s price climbs rapidly.

Our all-wheel drive 2019 Nissan Rogue SL test vehicle cost $36,085. Among its options were the desirable Premium Package, which cost an additional $1,820 and added a panoramic sunroof and LED headlights, and the Platinum Reserve Interior for $250. The Rogue SV Hybrid starts around $29,000 while the Hybrid SL is about $34,000 before options. Pile on all the available extras, including the $360 Hatch Tent for campers, and you can get a Rogue to top $40,000.

The non-hybrid Rogue is powered by a smooth 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine backed by a continuously variable automatic transmission, or CVT, which Nissan says improves its fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, the engine’s 170 horsepower is light for this class, and the CVT keeps the SUV from accelerating quickly off the line. The Rogue needs more than 9.0 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph, which is considerably slower than the more powerful Mazda CX-5 and Honda CR-V. The Rogue would be quicker with a conventional transmission.

In normal driving, the Roque is quick enough and its transmission isn’t an issue. Plus, the transmission does have a Sport mode, which increases its response. You can also choose your own gears with its manual mode, although Nissan forgot to install paddle shifters.

For 2019, Nissan’s ProPilot Assist is now standard on the top-of-the-line Rogue SL. The system practically drives the Rogue for you, as it's able to steer, brake, and accelerate the vehicle in many driving situations including stop-and-go traffic. It’s kind of like a cruise control system on steroids, but it will sound an alarm if you take your hands off the steering wheel.

To activate the system, you just press the blue ProPilot Assist button on the right side of the Rogue’s steering wheel, then set your desired speed and preferred distance from the car ahead. We used it for long stretches during our road trip to Vegas and were impressed with its ability to cruise the Rogue along effortlessly and slow when a vehicle entered its path. It accelerates the SUV cleanly and brings it to a complete stop without any drama. It also steers smoothly without any jerking; however, some sharp turns require more steering input than it can handle automatically.

Last year, Nissan sold more Rogues than ever before, making it one of America’s most popular compact SUVs. And the Rogue’s upscale interior is a large part of its success. The Nissan looks rich inside, especially when equipped with the Platinum Reserve Interior package, which adds tan leather seats with quilted leather inserts for only $250.

The overall design is clean and modern, with impressive touches that include French-stitching on the seats, dash, and doors, and chrome trim on the knobs, gauges, and the engine start button. Like a European sports sedan, our test vehicle also had a heated leather-wrapped flat-bottom steering wheel and rear air conditioning vents. The Rogue’s rear seat space is abundant, easily fitting three full-size adults, and the seatback reclines for additional comfort.

Nissan’s “Zero Gravity” seat design lives up to the hype. The power-adjustable leather front seats of our test vehicle were comfortable and supportive, even after five hours behind the wheel. The Rogue’s seats are soft, but they don’t feel spongy or lose their shape when you’re driving through two states.

There’s also plenty of lower leg support, so your feet don’t fall asleep, and the bolsters are just large enough to hold you in place. You won’t find yourself squirming around trying to get comfortable. Add the Quick Comfort heat feature and they immediately begin warming the body parts most sensitive to heat, such as the thighs and hips. Pretty cool — er, hot.

Nissan’s engineers also deserve praise for the Rogue’s quiet interior. Around town, it gives the SUV a refined feel, but more importantly, the Rogue’s lack of wind and road noise on the highway keeps you from getting prematurely fatigued on long drives, which can lead to inattentive driving.

Even at speeds above 75 mph, the interior of the 2019 Nissan Rogue is peaceful and calm. You don’t have to crank up the tunes to hear Common over the drone of its engine, the roar of the wind, or the howl of its tires.

During our week with the 2019 Nissan Rogue, Los Angeles was hit with a few rainstorms, which gave us a chance to test the SUV’s intelligent all-wheel drive system. Nissan says the system can respond and adapt to changing conditions 30 times faster than the blink of an eye, shifting the engine’s power between the Rogue’s front and rear tires.

On the highway, the system sends 100 percent of the engine’s power to the front tires, which improves fuel economy, but it can push up to 50 percent of that power to the rear tires in slick conditions and during hard corning. After a few days driving in the slop, we were impressed with the Rogue’s stability on L.A.’s wet boulevards and freeways. There was always plenty of traction.

For 2019, every Rogue comes standard with Nissan’s Safety Shield technologies, which include a lane-departure warning, intelligent lane intervention, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and a radar-based blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert. The upper SV and SL models also get rear automatic braking, which warns the driver of stationary objects when backing up and, if necessary, applies the brakes to help avoid a bumper bender.

We’re also huge fans of Nissan’s Around View Monitor, which uses four cameras to give you a 360-degree bird's-eye view of your Rogue on the SUV’s 7-inch dashboard screen. It even has selectable close-ups of the front, rear, and curbside views. These systems, along with the Rogue’s compact size, light steering, and tight turning circle, make the 2019 Nissan Rogue less stressful to drive and very easy to park.