2021 Nissan Rogue ramps up the style and creature comforts

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] The Nissan Rogue sells like absolute hotcakes, peaking at 42,000 sales last August. We're in the middle of a freaking global pandemic right now and Nissan is still pushing out 15 to 25,000 of these things every single month. I mean the market is very obviously taken to the road like a parked duck to a piece of bread, which is why the all new 2021 Road keeps it pretty simple. It only focuses on a few key improvements that will make the car better for families, single drivers and just about everyone in between. Now if you think the exterior is cool, just wait until you get a look at the inside. It is once again revolution. Here not evolution there is it just feels more premium in general whether it's the fact that there's wood overlaying with the aluminum and the leather here, it just, it just instantly feels more premium which is amplified by the fact that I'm currently sitting in the Platinum trim which is the new and fanciest trim on offer. That equips your car with stuff like semi-aniline leather on the seats which pick up this really nice diamond quilting design that in all honesty you probably wouldn't expect on the Nissan Rogue. Now I know this is gonna sound weird what actually gets me going is the center console. Getting rid, of the old actual physical linkage shifter and replacing it with this tiny little electronic guy. They've been able to move this whole center console up and add a massive storage area, you could put up the person bag and take out a Nintendo Switch down there just about anything for you or your family can pretty much be tucked away in there. If you can't be tucked away there, it can be tucked away in the new butterfly opening center console armrest. Now that might sound like nothing to care about, but if someone in the background needs to grab something from there, having it hinge backwards isn't really going to solve anything. Now in addition, the center console also contains a new mode switch. If you equip your road with all wheel drive, you'll get an additional snow and off road mode for when you really kind of feel like hopping off the beaten. Path. Looks pretty obvious that the 2021 Nissan Rogue is all new, considering the body is all new. I used to think the last generation was a little kind of frumpy- dumpy, but I really can't say that about this one, I love the way it looks. And it all starts here, with redesigned version of Nissan's Vmotion grille. Now the grill itself isn't the important part. It's the active grille shutters behind it that are they can open and close it will to improve aerodynamics, fuel efficiency or air flow to the engine as needed. Now coming off of that you've got these awesome dual layer headlamps here with the DRL up top and the actual headlights below you see that in the Hyundai Kona and Jeep Cherokee and a few other compact crossovers these days. But the strength that's coming off this hood is like wild. I'm impressed with how sharp this creases here and it's reflected in the like two inches below it here in the actual Fender, which kind of is more of a bulkier off road look, which is further magnified by this nice plastic cladding here, which again you see on a lot of new cars crossovers these days to kind of give it that off road Later, even though Fun fact, this Nissan Rogue is actually not as tall as the old one. Now that black cladding kind of melts into the chrome bit on the side skirt here as it starts to work its way to the back. And the back continues to reinforce that whole kind of bulky off road machismo thing. Thanks to these. Awfully strong fenders in the nice chunky floating D pillar that Nissan's been putting on all its new vehicles. Now that kind of ends the radical reinvention of the road back here, it's a little more evolution than revolution. You've got taillights and they're pretty much the same shape as they were before and that leads into a tailgate that is Also, pretty similar to what it used to be, save for the parts that have been adjusted to make the roof flatter and stuff like that. Back here, you have a motion-activated tailgate that you can hit with your foot. But like I said, it's just kind of a car back here. Now the new Rogue positions itself as a family hub, which is the locus where everything kind of happens. And that's definitely reflected in the amount of equipment you're getting In the 2021 model, Now in addition to all the ergonomic kind of quality of life updates that I talked about in the interior design, there are also some new specific features in here like a three zone climate control that lets the background choose their own temperature adventure. Just underneath the HVAC controls. You have this new kind of tray here which is actually a 15 watt wireless charger. So don't even need to have your cords but if you do, there are both USB C and A ports right above them. And the best part is you don't even need to take your phone out in order to take advantage of the mirroring software these days. For the first time the 2021 road picks up wireless Apple CarPlay just keep it wherever you have it and let it do its thing. Android Auto is still available but sadly for those nerds, you still have to plug it into the darn USB ports. Now if you're keen on screens, no, you're in luck because the 2021 road can have up to three of them. We're in the Platinum trim right now which means you get a 9 inch infotainment screen a 12.3 inch gauge display and a 10.8 inch HUD first for the rogue now it's nice that these are all on the fancy trims but what about the lower trims. Don't worry you're not gonna get punished here you still get an 8 inch infotainment screen and a 7 inch. Display that lives in the physical gauge cluster that still keeps all the pertinent information from the center. Since families are all about safety, Nissan is more than happy to provide it and democratize it every single trim of the road. From the base s all the way up to the Platinum receives Nissan's safety shield 360. A comprehensive suite of active and passive driver aids that includes everything from automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, blind spot monitoring, pretty much the whole nine yards short of adaptive cruise control, and if you're a big fan of making sure your parking is Pitch Perfect there's also a surround view camera system on Offer. Now if you're wondering where adaptive cruise control is, you will have to wade into the wide world of Nissan's pro pilot assist. This is a bit more advanced than your safety shield systems that combines adaptive cruise control and active steering assist to hold the vehicle in its lane on the highway while also matching the pace with traffic all the way down to stop and go speeds Now over time pro pilot assist has been improved with, you know, new radar and new cameras that makes the driving smoother. And especially for this year they're touting a new improvement that makes it a little smoother when someone cuts into your lane, which we all know will eventually happen. Also new for 2021 is a nanny link feature on cars equipped with embedded navigation. This uses the actual map data, in conjunction with pro-pilot assist to predict when you might need to slow down, say for a curve or an exit. And it has the extra benefit of letting you sit in traffic for longer. It'll let the car sit stationary and stop and go traffic for up to 30 seconds as opposed to the regular pro-pilot assist system which only like to sit for three. And I haven't even talked about the engine yet. Thankfully there's not much to say here. The [UNKNOWN] still rocks a two and a half liter naturally aspirated four cylinder, but I'll put this bumped slightly to a nice and square 181 horsepower and 281 pound feet of torque. The CVT is surprise, surprise the only transmission on offer, but buyers will have a choice between front and all wheel drive. The latter conferring additional drive modes and the new vehicle dynamic control system that provides better single wheel control on the road. The 2021 Nissan Rogue makes a pretty compelling case for itself thanks to new styling new technology and if you're feeling particularly fancy, the posh new Platinum trim here [MUSIC] But the mass market crossover segment remains a popular one. We've got compact competitors from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and they've all been new or recently refreshed. Now we won't get a crack at this one for just a little while longer and actually- Actual families will have to wait a little while longer than that. The 2021 Nissan road goes on sale dealerships this fall. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]