For the longest time since we bought it new back in Dec, I couldn't tell why when the wife drives the Rogue she gets poor gas mileage. While, I drive it. I get pretty good MPG on the read out. Since, owning the car I never had my wife drive the car while I'm in the passenger. This week, she finally picked me up at the county court house for lunch. Right away, I noticed she has the car in manual shift mode. I asked her why she does that and if she ever electronic shift the car. She looked at me weird and said she always drive the car this way....I said what... .you been driving the highway in 1st gear. Hopefully there aren't any harm done but will have good mpgs from now on...

I think it's safer to tell her just to drive it in D. Let the car do all the work. There really isn't any need to drive it in manual mode.

Well, it's not really 1st gear... the CVT will still 'upshift' to protect the transmission and engine from high rev's.

Regardless, leave the transmission in 'D' for the best fuel efficiency. Manual mode can be fun, but 'D' is easier for around town commuting.

Also, some have noted that the engine rpms's are lower in 'D' on the highway than selecting '6th' gear via the paddles or shifter.

philipa_240sx wrote:Well, it's not really 1st gear... the CVT will still 'upshift' to protect the transmission and engine from high rev's.

Regardless, leave the transmission in 'D' for the best fuel efficiency. Manual mode can be fun, but 'D' is easier for around town commuting.

Also, some have noted that the engine rpms's are lower in 'D' on the highway than selecting '6th' gear via the paddles or shifter.

+1 - the CVT will automatically 'switch' gears right before the engine redline. No damage has been done to your engine....only your wallet

Honestly, I test drove a Rogue with paddle shifters. Didn't like it. I drove it back to back with my Altima 2.5S, with a 5spd manual transmission. It just felt very unnatural not having a clutch and shifting gears using paddles.