This was a pretty fun review to film as we had access to a closed private four lane road that was fairly new and about 2 miles long. Unfortunately timing was short and we didn’t get all of the shots we were hoping for. As a result this film has been sitting for a year now and is just now being released during Ketchup Week 2008.

Recently I won a free oil change from the local Nissan dealership in a free raffle at a nursing home. Normally I change my own oil, but it gave me a reason to hang out at the dealership for an hour and take a look at the new Nissan Rogue compact SUV.

The Rogue has not been as well received by the critics as Nissan probably would have hoped, but the sales numbers are showing the the public loves it, and this is not surprising on both sides. The Rogue basically looks like a small Murano, which to me is a good thing. I would say that for its class it is the best looking small SUV/crossover out there. In comparison to the Toyota Rav4, Honda CRV, and Suzuki Grand Vitara the Rogue is a work of art. I am not crazy about the styling of any of these vehicles mostly due to their wide rear ends.

The Good:
For a $25k crossover, I felt that the Rogue was very full featured. While the interior was made of typical Nissan cheap plastic, there are so many nice gadgets that come standard that I was taken back. The first thing that I did when I got in was sync my phone to the bluetooth and give my wife a call, then I started playing with all of the buttons and switches that controlled the various gadgets. The version that I drove was the AWD SL which came with a 6 disk cd changer that played both MP3 and WMA, it also comes with XM radio, and an auxiliary port. The steering wheel had like 12 buttons on it for controlling various aspects of the entertainment system, and I thought the styling was really nice which is typical of Nissans current lineup. The back seat seemed a little small and I think that it would have been nice if you could adjust the positioning somewhat. There was ample cargo room, but the cargo space seemed to be lacking some of the functional utility of a small SUV. While seats do drop down, it would be better if they dropped down completely flat and not at an angle.

The Bad:
The Rouge has a lot of nice features and it looks great but there are a few problems that come along with it. The first thing I noticed when sitting in it was how little visibility there was inside of the cabin. You have to rely on your mirrors for EVERYTHING. You cannot see out of either side, or the back. The blind spot is SO huge that it would be dangerous to have your family around it. I think the Infiniti EX35 would be a better buy because it has the camera system built into it. Having a family, it seems like a liability to have a moderately large vehicle with no rear visibility.

The other large drawback on the Rogue is the incredible lack of power. Sure it has a CVT, and paddle shifters to set it into one of 6 preset ratios, but 170 hp in a 3500lb suv just doesn’t feel like that much. I really had to punch it when I found that there was a large tanker pulling into my lane, and in spite of the fact that I was nearing the red-line, I just didn’t have that much confidence in my acceleration. If the Rogue came in an optional V6 like the Rav4 then I think it would be a much easier sell.

I only drove the Rogue for about 6 minutes and I feel rather torn between the positives and the negatives of the vehicle. I like the fuel consumption, and the features. I like that it is all-wheel-drive, but I hate that the car feels weak. I like the exterior styling, but I wish that I could see out of it better. While it is a new car I would probably have to wait until the next version to see if they can improve the few but massive flaws.

Allen: I figured I would write a post about the suspension set-up in my 240sx. Suspension modification is one of those things that if done incorrectly can make your car handle worse. I spent several month researching on what I wanted to do. I chose the Whiteline suspension kit which can be purchased at www.pdm-racing.com (these guys are awesome! I’ve ordered other things from them than just my kit.).

The reason I chose this kit was because it had been tried and tested on the 240sx (S13). It comes with lowering springs, adjustable sway-bars, and full polyurethane bushings. It is very labor intensive to replace all of the bushing on a 240sx or any car for that matter. It took me 11 hours with a lift, press and torch because some of the bushings could not be pressed out and had to be removed using a torch. I also put KYB AGX adjustable struts on the car with the springs.

After installing all the components, and aligning the car to the specifications that Whiteline gave, it handled awesome. The ride quality is stiff though and not terribly comfortable for daily driving, still I like it. I adjusted the front struts (4-way adjustable) to the #3 setting which is stiffer than stock and the rears (8 way adjustable) to #5 which is also stiffer than stock.

The sway bars were both set to the stiffest setting. The alignment specs after lowering were 0 degrees of Toe front and rear, -2.0 degrees of camber in the rear, and -1.5 degrees of camber in the front. The rear was -1.o degrees of camber past the Whiteline spec but the fronts were right on. Apparently, Nissan had some camber problems in the rear of the early 240sx which I latter found out. I bought adjustable upper control arms to correct the problem and put the spec at -1.0 degrees of camber.

How did it handle? It has a pretty decent oversteer and is fairly predictable. The only problem was this is my daily driver and in the rain it likes to get overly sideways. I adjusted the rear sway-bar down to a softer setting and that seemed to help with the oversteer and made it more street-able.

With all of the parts added up it came close to $1300. Understand that was 3 years ago and I did all of the installation. Expect to pay almost twice that if you have someone else do the install.

Was it worth it? Yes, yes it was. I love driving my 240sx but it does get a little stiff for the daily commute. Just don’t ask my wife if it was worth it, she’ll likely tell you No. If you have to ask someone else, you can ask Austin.