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<\/p>\n<\/div>Nissan has once again joined forces with \u201cStar Wars\u201d and I have to admit it\u2019s having an effect.<\/p>\n
From those catchy ads of a Nissan Rogue negotiating a daunting landscape of enemy First Order craft to the Los Angeles debut of\u00a0seven Nissan vehicles dressed up<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cStar Wars\u201d-themed vehicles (alas, they didn\u2019t make it to the Detroit Show), the legendary sci-fi franchise is rubbing off on the mainstream Japanese brand. Maybe it\u2019s Nissan\u2019s funky styling. Maybe it\u2019s that Nissan grilles look like Kylo Ren\u2019s helmet. Or maybe the latest \u201cLast Jedi\u201d sequel is just so dang enjoyable it makes everything it\u2019s associated with look good.<\/p>\n Whatever, the black Nissan Rogue Sport (with Stormtrooper-esque pepper-and-salt interior) that arrived at my garage door in December begged for adventure. I wanted to take it for a spin. I\u2019m not the only one.<\/p>\n After Nissan\u2019s debut partnership with \u201cRogue One: A Star Wars Story\u201d (showcasing Nissan\u2019s Rogue SUV, get it?) last year, brand sales soared 24 percent. The Rogue itself did 400,000 in sales, second only to the best-selling RAV-4 ute. With \u201cLast Jedi\u201d accelerating off the line with glowing reviews and 30 percent faster ticket sales than \u201cRogue One,\u201d the force is sure to be with Nissan again in 2018.<\/p>\n Despite those wild-looking concept vehicles \u2014 behold the Nissan Rogue X-wing! \u2014 the Nissan tie-up does not emphasize performance but safety. The ad campaign preaches not horsepower and high-g maneuverability, but omniscient \u201cIntelligent Mobility\u201d features like lane-keep assist and automatic braking.<\/p>\n Yoda: Brake before you see a road hazard, it will.<\/em><\/p>\n Power, it has not. Nissan\u2019s compact utes run on four-banger engines and plodding, continually variable-transmissions (CVT for short). I nailed the throttle on the 141-horsepower (11 less than a Subaru Crosstrek, for goodness sake) 2-liter four-cylinder, and it sounded like 141 gerbils grunting in a hamster wheel. Zero-60 doesn\u2019t come in Lightspeed \u2014 it comes in Molassespeed.<\/p>\n The Sport\u2019s strengths lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n Nissan has a well-earned reputation for making taut chassis \u2014 Maxima, 370ZX, Altima \u2014 and the subcompact Rogue Sport\u2019s wheelbase is nearly a foot shorter than Rogue with which it shares a platform. Throw on all-wheel drive and the Sport is well-suited for Detroit\u2019s annual deep freeze.<\/p>\n Winter is miserable for my rear-wheel drive sports cars, so I put them in hibernation. But when December dumped a half-foot of snow on the ground, my high-riding, four-pawed Nissan was scratching at the garage door to go out.<\/p>\n There are \u201cStar Wars\u201d nerds and there are car nerds. I\u2019m the latter. In summer I\u2019ll make the 60-minute trek to Hell, Michigan\u2019s writhing roads for sports-car testing. This winter I needed only take the Sport as far as the neighborhood school parking lot, abandoned for the holiday break and covered in snow.\u00a0Safety first:<\/a>\u00a0Make sure lots are empty of other cars and pedestrians (local fuzz frown on unsafe lot antics). The lots can be wonderful test grounds for 16-year-old drivers and all-wheel drive vehicles alike.<\/p>\n One of my favorite local haunts sports a small-diameter, curbed island I use for a sort of Gymkhana course \u2014 think\u00a0Ken Block doing doughnuts around a barrel<\/a>\u00a0buried in snow. Turn the traction-control off and let the all-wheel drive do the rest. Around and around we went. Keeping the rear end hung out under moderate throttle, I could easily control the Sport\u2019s short wheelbase with minimal steering input. It builds confidence in the car \u2014 not to mention\u00a0your own Jedi abilities<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 for the inevitable moments when you\u2019ll have to fight weather on, say, the way to Chicago when Lake Michigan lake effect makes I-94 an Olympic bobsled course.<\/p>\n Skywalker: Breathe. Just breathe. Now reach out and … feel yourself connected to all four wheels.<\/em><\/p>\n Enough with the car nerd stuff, you say. How\u2019s the Sport to live with? I\u2019m happy to report its short wheelbase does not compromise interior room, the Sport\u2019s other big asset. Think of the Rogue Sport as a chopped Rogue.<\/p>\n The brand\u2019s popular compact ute packs considerably more cargo space than subcompact Sport, yet the latter\u2019s passenger cabin is about the same size, making it much roomier than Nissan\u2019s quirky, discontinued Juke. The Juke is part of a near bygone era when subcompacts looked like characters from a \u201cStar Wars\u201d cantina screaming for attention. Think the Soul, or long-gone Nissan Cube, or frog-eyed Juke.<\/p>\n The Rogue Sport is recognition \u2014 along with competitors Honda HR-V and Chevy Trax and Jeep Renegade \u2014 that the subcompact SUV segment is the new mainstream and offers a big sales opportunity with first-time buyers. The Sport (like HR-V and Trax) can easily fit a Wookie behind the wheel \u2014 and his furry friends besides.<\/p>\n Nissan is flooding the ute segment with choices. Just as Jeep offers the subcompact Renegade, compact Cherokee and subcompact Compass tweener, Nissan shoe-horns the $22,380 base price Sport between the $25,000 Rogue and the forthcoming, $19,000 subcompact Kicks ute. To justify its place above Kicks, the Rogue Sport gets nifty standard features like satellite radio as well as the aforementioned cabin roominess that other subcompacts lack.<\/p>\n But in the ruthless, survival-of-the-fittest SUV battlescape, the Sport lags cheaper, similarly sized competitors like the HR-V and Trax \u2014 both of which offer standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity. In a car priced to appeal to millennials this is no minor oversight, especially as the Nissan\u2019s in-house voice recognition\/navigation systems are light years behind today\u2019s sci-fi smartphones.<\/p>\n The challengers keep coming like a wave of TIE fighters. There\u2019s the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek \u2014 its attractive, all-new design offering all-wheel drive for $1,000 less. That bargain price used to come with a bargain-basement interior but the Subaru is much improved, boasts smartphone-app connectivity and is as reliable as Tom Brady in the two-minute drill.<\/p>\n Tough crowd. So Nissan brings \u201cStar Wars\u201d to the fight.<\/p>\n Unlike \u201cThe Last Jedi,\u201d the new Rogue Sport doesn\u2019t quite live up to the hype. But with its sharp looks, roomy cabin and all-wheel drive it\u2019ll get you to the movie theater through a Michigan blizzard in style.<\/p>\n Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne. Catch \u201cCar Radio with Henry Payne\u201d from noon-1 p.m. Saturdays on 910 AM Superstation.<\/p>\n 2018 Nissan<\/strong><\/p>\n Rogue Sport<\/strong><\/p>\n Vehicle type:<\/strong>\u00a0Front-engine, front- and all-wheel drive, five-passenger SUV<\/p>\n Price:<\/strong>\u00a0$23,745 ($31,245 as tested)<\/p>\n Power plant:<\/strong>\u00a02.0-liter, inline 4-cylinder<\/p>\n Power:<\/strong>\u00a0141 horsepower, 147 pound-feet of torque<\/p>\n Transmission:<\/strong>\u00a0Continuously variable automatic<\/p>\n Performance:<\/strong>\u00a00-60 mph, 10.0 seconds (Car & Driver)<\/p>\n Weight:<\/strong>\u00a03,424 pounds (AWD as tested)<\/p>\n Fuel economy:<\/strong>\u00a0EPA 24 mpg city\/30 mpg highway\/27 mpg combined (AWD as tested)<\/p>\n Report card<\/strong><\/p>\n Highs:<\/strong>\u00a0Roomy; AWD loves snow days<\/p>\n Lows:<\/strong>\u00a0Molasses-slow; more connectivity, please<\/p>\n Overall:<\/strong>\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nissan has once again joined forces with \u201cStar Wars\u201d and I have to admit it\u2019s having an effect. From those catchy ads of a Nissan Rogue negotiating a daunting landscape of enemy First Order craft to the Los Angeles debut of\u00a0seven Nissan vehicles dressed up\u00a0as \u201cStar Wars\u201d-themed vehicles (alas, they didn\u2019t make it to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21782,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21781\/revisions\/21782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}