26.1 MPG With a Load, Up a Hill - 2014 Nissan Rogue SL AWD Long-Term Road Test

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26.1 MPG With a Load, Up a Hill - 2014 Nissan Rogue SL AWD Long-Term Road Test

I loaded our Nissan Rogue full of gear, and drove it from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

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grijon

"...the vehicle calculated..."

May I ask, what was its actual MPG?

PF_Flyer

I know the calculated MPG on my Versa Note is accurate because I check it with the actual calculation. I would hope that the Rogue would be the same way, but I'd also like to check the vehicle calculation, just to be sure

allthingshonda

You said most of the boxes were light so I'm guessing 4 passengers would probably weigh more than you plus the boxes. But your post proves why more cars now have CVT's. They are better than conventional automatics for squeezing out the best fuel economy. Climbing long grades is also a job CVT's do better. They lock into the best ratio and can hold the engine rpm there with out gear hunting.

chol92594

Nissan definitely made a good choice by giving this car a CVT, since it makes the Rouge pretty efficient, just like a lot of Nissan's models. Since most people who buy the Rouge (or Sentra, Altima, etc.) are looking for fuel economy, this is fine. However, I've driven a coupe of Nissans with CVTs and the transmission seems to work much better with V6 engines. I've driven a Sentra (last gen), Altima V6 (last gen), and Maxima recently and the Altima and Maxima felt much more refined. The Sentra feels like it really has to struggle to get up to speed, which makes me think that a conventional automatic might have provided a little more drivability. With the Altima and Maxima, there's a lot more power to use, so the transmission can keep the RPMs fairly low.

I'd probably never buy a Nissan (or any make of car) with a CVT unless it had a 6 cylinder engine. The extra power really contributes to greater refinement while also squeezing a little more efficiency out of a fairly powerful engine. In all honesty, I was really impressed by the Maxima I drove; even with the CVT, it would be a viable alternative to smaller luxury-sport sedans, since it's just as luxurious and provides a lot more room for a fairly competitive price.

ebeaudoin

chol92594 said:

I'd probably never buy a Nissan (or any make of car) with a CVT unless it had a 6 cylinder engine. The extra power really contributes to greater refinement while also squeezing a little more efficiency out of a fairly powerful engine. In all honesty, I was really impressed by the Maxima I drove; even with the CVT, it would be a viable alternative to smaller luxury-sport sedans, since it's just as luxurious and provides a lot more room for a fairly competitive price.

I've driven a Maxima and a Murano and found the V6/CVT to be a good combo, but I still think Honda has the best CVT in the Accord.

chol92594

ebeaudoin said:

chol92594 said:

I'd probably never buy a Nissan (or any make of car) with a CVT unless it had a 6 cylinder engine. The extra power really contributes to greater refinement while also squeezing a little more efficiency out of a fairly powerful engine. In all honesty, I was really impressed by the Maxima I drove; even with the CVT, it would be a viable alternative to smaller luxury-sport sedans, since it's just as luxurious and provides a lot more room for a fairly competitive price.

I've driven a Maxima and a Murano and found the V6/CVT to be a good combo, but I still think Honda has the best CVT in the Accord.

I've heard that Honda's CVT is quite good. I've only driven it with a 4-cyl Accord, but I was fairly impressed. I'm sure it would be even better with a V6, but I'm pretty happy with Honda finally bringing a proper 6-speed auto to the V6 Accord.