How does it handle getting up I70, especially at high altitudes near the divide? We may be moving to Colorado and whatever vehicle we purchase we're treating it as if we are moving.

I've driven I70 from Denver to Avon probably 100 times in 10 different vehicles. All of them felt extremely weak except the V6 Rav4 I had there last week.

Here are the cars I've rented:

3-4 Chrysler Sebring 4-bangers (awful, 75MPH max floored near Loveland)2 Jeep Commanders (4WD, 3.7L) - Not painfully loud like the Sebrings but runs out of steam pretty easilyToyota Highlander AWD (tolerable)Chrysler Pacifica AWD (the older ones before the 4.0L engine) - Maybe a tad better than the Commanders but the rest of the car sucked (interior rattles, etc.)Jeep Cherokee (4WD, 3.7L) - Similar to the CommanderRav4 V6 AWD - Rocketship. Effortlessly passing people near the divide, best gas mileage of the bunch.

The 3.7L Chrysler engine in the Jeeps is pretty weak; I'd think the Rogue would do better than those but not as good as the Highlander or Rav4 obviously.

What are your thoughts? Obviously any vehicle can make it up, but with the RAV I never had to top 4k RPM to make a pass or anything. Other cars were getting constant high RPM action. If just felt so effortless and there was no racket, etc. I imagine CVT helps to avoid theconstant downshifting, the Rogue has that to an advantage.

We have only been past Eisenhower tunnel once an our SL did well. Did not bogg down climbing the hills and is great in the snow.

Thanks. I wouldn't expect it to bog down. What sort of revs did the CVT have you averaging towards the top?

I live in Colorado Springs and have been up to Monarch Mountain a few times in my rogue and loved every second of it. We usually take my girlfriends Subaru Outback (2007 with the turbo) and my girlfriend thought that she would hate the ride due to lack of passing power. To both of our surprises the Rogue did quite well. Obviously not as well in the passing department as the Outback due to no turbo but when I wanted to pass I could do so fairly easy and the thing handles like crazy on the somewhat slick roads. I've also been up to Evergreen a time or two for business and it made it up the mountains with no problems. As far as revs go I don't think it ever gets to 4k unless you just hammer the gas down to pass someone. And using the paddle shifters to downshift while heading down the mountain is a nice way to save your breaks. Even with all of the mountain driving I still show 25.8 mpg.

Lakerfan1975 wrote:I live in Colorado Springs and have been up to Monarch Mountain a few times in my rogue and loved every second of it. We usually take my girlfriends Subaru Outback (2007 with the turbo) and my girlfriend thought that she would hate the ride due to lack of passing power. To both of our surprises the Rogue did quite well. Obviously not as well in the passing department as the Outback due to no turbo but when I wanted to pass I could do so fairly easy and the thing handles like crazy on the somewhat slick roads. I've also been up to Evergreen a time or two for business and it made it up the mountains with no problems. As far as revs go I don't think it ever gets to 4k unless you just hammer the gas down to pass someone. And using the paddle shifters to downshift while heading down the mountain is a nice way to save your breaks. Even with all of the mountain driving I still show 25.8 mpg.

Very good news. Yeah with the RAV, 3 passengers, and ski crap, we average 26mpg going up and down the hill every day. That's considerably better than I did in any of the other vehicles.