I drove through the mountains around Reno/Lake Tahoe last weekend in my new Rogue SL AWD w/premium pkg. When I bought it, I was concerned that the 4-cyl wouldn't have enough power, so I was seriously considering the Rav4 V6 instead, but I liked everything else about the Rogue better.

Here are my impressions from my trip from Reno (elev 4500ft) to Mt. Rose (elev 8900ft) to Incline Village (elev 6200ft) and back.

1) Cornering: The Rogue was awesome on the winding 2-lane mountain road. No body roll, the paddle shifters deliver instantaneous response. Coming down the mountain, I took some turns way too fast, but the Rogue handled them perfectly.

2) Acceleration: It performed as I expected/feared from a 4-cyl. Driving uphill from Incline Village, the highway is pretty steep. I pulled off the road until the traffic was clear, then tested the acceleration uphill. It did pretty good from 0-40mph -- I had no complaints. Going from 40-50 took quite a bit longer, and it seemed to hit a wall at 50. Eventually I got to 55mph, but it took forever to get there.

The rpm's were around 3200 the whole time, and we only had two people in the car. Maybe if I had downshifted it would have provided a bit more power, but I don't like driving at high rpm's for a long period of time.

3) Engine braking: The paddle shifters again were great. I had read that whenever you maintain a constant speed, the transmission will shift back to D automatically. But that's only true when you are using the gas pedal. When you're going downhill, if you downshift with the paddle shifters, it holds that gear. Only when you use the gas pedal for a while will it shift back to D.

- Ted

Good stuff Ted!

That manual mode feature allowing you to basically engine break is a fantastic feature. So easy to use!

I bet using manual mode to get up to speed would have helped a bit on that long uphill acceleration. I guess it depends on what you are after.. efficiency or performance..

Perhaps we'll have to slap a turbo on one of these bad boys to take care of that acceleration from 40-60 issue. lol.

My limited experience has found that at some point elevation does effect 4cyls and there limited horse power. I 'm sure others can share their more frequent experiences.

tedp wrote:2) Acceleration: It performed as I expected/feared from a 4-cyl. Driving uphill from Incline Village, the highway is pretty steep. I pulled off the road until the traffic was clear, then tested the acceleration uphill. It did pretty good from 0-40mph -- I had no complaints. Going from 40-50 took quite a bit longer, and it seemed to hit a wall at 50. Eventually I got to 55mph, but it took forever to get there.

The rpm's were around 3200 the whole time, and we only had two people in the car. Maybe if I had downshifted it would have provided a bit more power, but I don't like driving at high rpm's for a long period of time.

- Ted

So if I understand you correctly, the problem you had was the length of time it took to reach 55mpg on a grade, while only using 3200 rpms.

To put it in another perspective, at over 6000rpms, and thus closer to redline, your engine is putting out 170hp. at 3200rpms your engine is only producing, lets say just above half the hp, 100. (i don't have a dyno chart in front of me)

so in effect, you are trying to accelerate that big heavy vehicle, up elevation, using only half the power of your engine. That's not doing your engine any favors. It is indeed better to hit a downshift, and accelerate up to your desired 55mph, and then cruise at a sustained speed. (and your cvt will keep the revs gloriously low)

Every vehicle will feel lethargic going uphill at high altitude, and will especially feel weak if what you're doing is testing acceleration using only 50% of the engines potential.

I know what everyone is thinking when it comes to revs.. "I don't want to hurt it". But these engines are designed to operate in these rpm ranges, that's why you have a rev limiter - to keep the engine operating with safe limits. Also take into account that these engines are tuned for reliability. I think an engineer said it best, "these cars have to last at least as long as the payments".

It is true that the higher the rpms, the higher the wear, but you are WELL within your limits to use your engine as public roads dictate, over the course of your ownership. You'd only run into issues if the vehicle was track-only, but that's highly unlikely (and slightly demented) with this vehicle.

So don't be afraid to use that gas pedal when it's appropriate. It'll sure as hell be alot more fun too.


Modified by rossifumi at 10:18 PM 11/14/2007

rossifumi,

You are so right! I always avoid running at high rpms, but I didn't realize how much power I was giving up. In that situation I should have downshifted to get up to speed faster.

I will try same road again at higher rpm, BUT it will have to wait a few weeks until I get past the break-in period.

By the way, the road I was trying this on rises 1500ft in 4.5 miles.