Nissan's Rogue gets everything "just right"

A menu of Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews can be seen on the Business page of The Sacramento Bee’s website – www.sacbee.com/news/business/article4005306.html

Sacramento, California – They ought to call the Nissan Rogue the Goldilocks vehicle.

Why’s that?  Because everything is “just right.”

Well, that’s what my passengers said in my week with the 2017 Nissan Rogue SL AWD sport-utility vehicle.

They praised the practical size of the Rogue.  And in the next breath, they talked about the generous cargo space when the rear seats were properly folded.

The 2.5-liter, four-cylinder, 170-horsepower engine was no screamer, but it moved the Rogue about with authority in virtually all conditions.

It has sporty styling that is instantly recognizable as SUV-worthy, with nicely cut angles here and there that offer up the promise of sporty maneuvers.

In sum, it’s an utterly functional sport-ute that starts in the $25,000 ballpark and moves up from there -- $35,475 on my super-loaded tester.

Fuel mileage, by the way, is quite good at 25 miles per gallon in the city and 32 mpg on the highway.

When the Rogue made its debut in the 2008 model year, it was touted as a sweet match for young folks.  It even made appearances in TV shows, hammering home that theme.

Thing is, older motorists liked it as well, which is why the Rogue has been a pleasantly robust best-seller for the Nissan in the United States.

The mass appeal is easy to understand. The Rogue is generously equipped, and the option packages are equally attractive.

My tester’s comfort/convenience features lineup included a nine-speaker Bose sound system, an around-vehicle monitor, a moving object-detection system, leather seating surfaces (ditto the steering wheel and shift knob), a remote engine-start system, a motion-activated liftgate and a clever cargo system that included moveable components.  Oh, LED daytime running lights, heated exterior mirrors and those so-very-useful roof rails were part of the standard package.

My ride was dressed up options that included a power panoramic moonroof, 19-inch alloy wheels, intelligent cruise control and a pair of lane departure-warning systems.  Quite the road trip package, this one.

And it was a nimble dodger in crazy downtown traffic, where no lane change is ever accompanied by a turn signal.

The “just right” characteristics of the tested Rogue were so pleasant that, if I was footloose and fancy free and inclined to take a weeklong road trip on an hour’s notice, I’d likely put the Rogue at the top of my list as my vehicle of choice.