Let’s say you walked into a Nissan dealership looking for a new crossover and found the Juke to be too small (or too weird) and the Rogue is just too big, you would find yourself out of options. For 2018 Nissan has remedied this with the Rogue Sport. Don’t confuse this as a mere trim level of the Rogue because the Sport is an entirely different vehicle much like when Chevy offered a K-Blazer and S-10 Blazer, Ford offered a Bronco and Bronco II, and Jeep offered a Grand Wagoneer and Wagoneer. None of those vehicles shared any significant componentry with their larger namesakes and neither do the Rogue and Rogue Sport. The Rogue Sport comes in three trim levels all powered by a modest 141 hp 4-cylinder coupled to a CVT with available all-wheel drive. While that combination doesn’t sound at all appealing to the enthusiast, we must remember that the Rogue is selling like hotcakes in a market hungry for crossovers. The Rogue Sport may fill the space in Nissan’s lineup in a way that customers desire. Look for the Rogue Sport to hit showrooms in Spring of 2017.
You say you long for the Nissan Sentra SE-R that was once praised as a modern interpretation of the BMW 2002? Well, Nissan has decided the way to scratch that small-car performance itch is to offer you the Sentra NISMO. Powered by a turbocharge four, gears are manually(!) swapped via a six speed transmission with a good old-fashioned clutch pedal in order to best wring out the 188 horses and 177 lb-ft of torque. Large bolsters on the front seats and a red stripe on the steering wheel pointing up round out the enthusiast oriented interior. Red rocker panel trim hints that this car is more than basic economy transportation. The package is rounded out with 18” wheels. No pricing is officially announced by we expect this will run a couple thousand dollars more than the $21,990 SR Turbo.
Nissan has pulled back the cover on the first major redesign to its full-size Titan pickup truck. Rather than reveal the entire Titan lineup, Nissan focused our attention on a model that is sure to set the truck apart. The Titan XD straddles what Nissan calls the ‘white space’ in the truck market. Nissan observed that there are no V8 diesel pickup trucks in the light duty market; if one wants a V8 diesel they must upgrade to a heavy duty truck such as a Ford Super Duty, Chevrolet Silverado HD, or GMC Sierra HD. Keep in mind both the Ram 1500 3.0-liter diesel and heavy duty 6.7-liter diesel models are b0th six cylinders. To fill that white space, the Titan XD offers a 5.0-liter V8 turbo diesel developed by Cummins. This segment busting diesel provides 310 horsepower and a staggering 555 lb-ft of torque that is transferred through a 6-speed Aisin automatic transmission. All of this innovation is hidden below all-new sheet metal that unfortunately looks alarmingly like a last generation Ford F-150. While Ford has its aluminum bodied F-150, Ram has a range extending V6 diesel and General Motors has the not quite full-size Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, it appears that Nissan may have found a large niche in the truck market with the Titan XD.
The Nissan Rogue didn’t earn any fans around our office when we drove it last year, and we actually encouraged prospective buyers to hold off for the inevitable redesign that we hoped would address many of the model’s shortcomings. Now that we’ve driven the all new 2014 Rogue, you’ll be glad to know that if you listened to our advice (and why wouldn’t you?!) you’re going to feel a lot better about sending that payment off every month! Watch our video review to find out why.
The full-size SUV market is shrinking, but Nissan is still trying to get a piece of it with their commodious Armada. We came to realize during our week with a fully-loaded Platinum version that they have their work cut out for them going up against major new players like the 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Expedition. The problem is that you don’t even have to be in the car review business to see the Armada’s shortcomings. The engine is down on power with only 317 hp on board this nearly three ton people mover, and unfortunately the outdated 5-speed automatic can only partner with it to return 12 mpg city and 18 mpg highway. That’s an expensive reality even by class standards standards. The disappointment continues inside with subpar ergonomics, materials that are out of place in a $54k vehicle and a small infotainment screen. Now it’s not all bad by any means. We loved the comfortable seats, the second row DVD screens and the 2-speed transfer case gives the Armada a fighting chance in the worst weather Old Man Winter can drop on you. But was it enough to earn our recommendation in the end? You’re five minutes from finding out.
If you read between the lines you’ll discover that Nissan is using its Sport Sedan Concept to give us a good look at what to expect from the next generation Nissan Maxima. The thing we like most about this concept is how nicely it sits on its wheelbase from the profile view. If that carries through to production the next Maxima could be a pretty sedan despite being front-wheel drive. We also aren’t expecting much in the way of new powertrain offerings considering the CVT and 3.5-liter apparently used in this concept. Still, we’ve always liked the lively driving character of the Maxima and won’t be disappointed to see it get a more dynamically styled body inspired by this concept.
The future of Nissan’s crossover lineup should be bright if the Resonance concept is allowed to inspire their styling. We like the profile a lot and when toned down for production the front and rear should make a great next-generation Murano. The interior is also a beautiful exercise with a light and airy design and technology overload. The concept is said to be powered by a hybrid all-wheel drive powertrain with a CVT doing the shifting duties like in many Nissans so it’s probably safe to assume we’ll see a hybrid Murano in the near future. As long as it looks as good as the Resonance we won’t care what powers it. Read more…
The cat’s out of the bag. We like the Nissan Quest. But before the comments flood in saying that we have sold our enthusiast soul to the transportation devil let’s first examine why we like this minivan. It’s good at what it does…period. Would we prefer a station wagon over this hauler of the soccer team? That goes without saying, but when it comes to upright rolling family boxes, the Nissan edges ahead.
We don’t get many surprises in the AT Garage these days. By the time a vehicle is teased and then detailed down to parts numbers in a thorough press release and then bestowed with a gala auto show debut we’ve pretty much formed an opinion. Which is how we came to assume the Nissan Juke was an ity-bity engined, cramped-cabin crossover abomination that puts the ugly in really, really ugly. Turns out only the last part is true, and even then the ugly is pretty much confined to one side. So what changed our tune? Read on. Read more…
We don’t get many surprises in the AT Garage these days. By the time a vehicle is teased and then detailed down to parts numbers in a thorough press release and then bestowed with a gala auto show debut we’ve pretty much formed an opinion. Which is how we came to assume the Nissan Juke was an ity-bity engined, cramped-cabin crossover abomination that puts the ugly in really, really ugly. Turns out only the last part is true, and even then the ugly is pretty much confined to one side. So what changed our tune? You’ll have to watch to find out. Read more…
