Thumbs Up: Drives like a sedan, but with the functionality of a crossover.

Thumbs Down: Only transmission choice is a CVT

Buy This Car If: You want a compact crossover with a comfortable ride and distinct style.

It hasn’t even been a year since we last reviewed the Nissan Rogue crossover, and to be honest, not much has changed since then. Park the two side by side, and you won’t see any differences; look inside, and nothing has changed from last year, either. In fact, you’d need to comb through Nissan’s press release on the launch of the 2012 Rogue to find any changes between the two models.

In the case of the Rogue, which was refreshed for the 2011 model year, that’s not a bad thing. Like some of its better-known competitors (the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4, for example), the Nissan Rogue manages to fit quite a bit of content into a reasonably priced compact crossover. It’s available in versions to suit almost any family’s needs, including both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive platforms. Like its other Japanese rivals, the Rogue isn’t an appropriate choice for off-road adventures; however, equipped with AWD and fitted with winter tires, the Rogue is more than capable of getting you safely through the worst that winter can deliver.

New for 2012 is a Special Edition package for base trim Rogue S models. The package includes steering wheel mounted audio controls, a reverse camera, a 4.3-inch audio display, USB input, satellite radio, fog lights, privacy glass and 16-inch alloy wheels. Opting for the SL trim package (available on upscale SV models only) now includes Nissan’s paranoia-inducing “Around View” monitor, which gives a birds-eye, real-time view of your Rogue and its surroundings. Useful for navigating in close quarters, the view is oddly reminiscent of the view from a laser-guided bomb, just before it obliterates a target.

Also new for 2012 is a “Sport” button for the continuously variable transmission (CVT). To be honest, we’re not really sure what the button does, since CVTs (in theory, anyway) provide near-linear acceleration that optimizes performance based on an engine’s output. In practice, however, we find all CVT’s to be be harsh and buzzy, and accelerating with purpose in a CVT-equipped vehicle is never a pleasant experience. That said, no automaker has put as much effort into the development and refinement of its CVTs as Nissan, who builds the least-worst CVTs on the market.

Inside, the Nissan Rogue offers comfortable but soft seating. That’s fine for the type of around-town errands most Rogues will be used for, but on a long road trip a firmer seating surface would be preferred. Our SL Package-equipped Rogue came with leather seats, heated up front for winter comfort and mounted high, SUV-style, for a commanding view of the road. We’d have liked the ability to lower the passenger seat just a bit, since taller passengers occasionally hit their head on the door frame getting in.

Rear seats offer both reasonable headroom and decent legroom, especially given the Rogue’s compact size. Rear seat backs are fixed and we’d prefer to see reclining seat backs for rear passengers. While we’re adding to our Rogue wish list, we’d also like rear seat backs that fold flat. Rear seats in place, the Rogue still offers a decent amount of carrying capacity in the hatch, but its sloping roof means the Rogue doesn’t have quite as much carrying capacity as some competitors (the Honda CR-V, for example).

The dash feels more upscale than the Rogue’s mass-market price would indicate. Yes, there’s some hard plastic, but the bulk of the dash is wrapped in coarse-grained, soft-touch vinyl. While the dash upper uses primarily black materials, Nissan works in enough variances in shapes and textures to keep things interesting. The dash lower is trimmed in light-colored plastic to match the carpeting, and aluminum-colored trim adorns the shifter, door grab handles, steering wheel and vents.

The Rogue (thankfully) forgoes any attempts at flashy instrumentation, which is becoming more and more common among automakers. Drivers get a tachometer with an embedded temperature gauge, an LCD driver information display and a speedometer with an embedded fuel gauge. In short, that’s everything you need and nothing you don’t.

Powering the Rogue is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, good for 170 horsepower and 175 pound feet of torque. That may not sound like much, but the Rogue only weighs around 3,300 pounds in front wheel drive configuration, which means that acceleration is more than adequate for the compact crossover segment. The Rogue delivers reasonable fuel economy, too, with an EPA rating of 23 mpg city and 28 mpg highway. In a mix of city and highway driving, we saw an average of 25.2 mpg.

On the road, the Rogue drives more like a sedan than a crossover or SUV. Most drivers will like the elevated seating position, as it gives a commanding view of the road ahead. Thanks to a four-wheel independent suspension and a surprising weight distribution of 53-percent front and 47-percent rear, the Rogue handles better than you expect it will. Despite its relatively high center of gravity, even sudden lane changes and other evasive maneuvers are accomplished with very little drama. While the Rogue can’t offer up the same entertainment value as even a sporty sedan, it’s confidence-inspiring road manners make a good choice for a compact family vehicle.

Nissan supplied the vehicle for our road test and evaluation. Our 2012 Nissan Rogue SV FWD had a base sticker price of $24,780, including a destination charge of $810. Options included the $135 Splash Guards, the $60 Rear Bumper Protector, the $190 Floor Mats and Rear Cargo Protector, the $225 Illuminated Kick Plates and the $3,900 SL Package (leather seating, heated front seats, heated outside mirrors, leather-wrapped steering wheel, 18-inch alloy wheels, navigation system, Bose premium audio, Around View Monitor, auto dimming rearview mirror, Xenon headlights with auto on/off, power moonroof, automatic climate control, fog lights), for a total sticker price of $29,290.

For comparison, a similarly equipped Honda CR-V EX-L with navigation would sticker for $29,355, while a comparable Toyota RAV4 Limited would list at $29,565.

The mighty 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Centennial Edition vs Godzilla, the 2013 Nissan GT-R Premium. Both of these cars are titans of speed. One is a technological powerhouse, the other a tried and true American sledgehammer. Neither of these cars is for the faint of heart and both will get you into serious trouble if you’re not careful. The big question though is… which is faster? Inside Line recently pitted these two road rockets against each other to find the answer to that exact question.

Source: InsideLine.com

I think Dire Straits put it best when they said, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes your the bug”. It happens to all of us at some point in time. We set out with the best of intentions but then somewhere along the way Murphy’s law kicks in and fucks it up for everybody. That’s exactly what happened to this drifter while he was entertaining a few track side spectators. When a entering a corner the driver caught a front wheel, thus sending him up and over onto his roof. Thankfully though there was a pillar of the community there with a camera phone that captured all the action. Good times for all those watching, bad times for the driver. But as they say, shit happens…

Source: Autoholics.com

OK Nissan, enough already with the damn Juke-R. They’ve been touting this thing around now for quite some time, pimping it out like it’s ready for production. Granted, it is cool in its own right, but what people have to remember is that this is a full-on factory spec racer that will NEVER see even a limited production run. However that hasn’t stopped Nissan from running it all over the place against some of the worlds best. Listen, I have no problem with concept cars and whatnot, but when I see the Juke-R going up against the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz, well… it just kinda’ urks me. Hell, for all intents and purposes this little black box should beat everyone into the ground with all the support it’s had. Let’s face facts though, while the Juke-R is a neat little publicity stunt for Nissan, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s nothing more than the poster child for a vehicle that will never be offered to the public.

Source: Youtube.com

The Nissan GT-R is one of those rare cars that has the ability to put the hurt on just about any super car out there. They make big power, are ungodly fast and have the ability to make even the most mundane driver look like a rock star behind the wheel. Now just imagine that you’re a GT-R owner at your favorite drag strip for a test and tune night. On any other day you’d pull up to the lights, watch the tree and at the end of the 1,320 you’d become the evenings champion. This however is not that night. You see tonight there’s a guy next to you with an even bigger gun. Sure it cost over 10 times as much, but at days end, there’s a reason. Enter the 1,000 + hp Bugatti Veyron, a car that’s just as comfortable cruising at 75 mph as it is maxing out at over 250 mph. The GT-R however is no slouch, in fact when you see the results of this run you may in fact be asking yourself what would happen if Nissan built a $1-million super car. Click through for the video and enjoy.

Source: Youtube.com

Thumbs Up: The only all-wheel-drive convertible crossover we can name.

Thumbs Down: Top down, there isn’t much cargo room; luxury-car price tag.

Buy This Car If: You want an AWD ragtop that seats four in relative comfort.

Sometimes, blending two (or more) things into one is good. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is a prime example, since nothing goes with chocolate quite as well as peanut butter. Blending a telephone with a GPS device and web browser was another stroke of genius, since it all but made in-car and stand-alone GPS systems obsolete. There’s a reason, however, that no one has ever launched a combination cough syrup and dessert topping.

Which category the 2012 Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet falls into depends entirely on your perspective. On the one hand, it will carry four adults comfortably, offers the benefits of top down motoring and even comes with standard all-wheel drive for year-round-confidence. In fact, the Nissan Murano stands alone as the only cabriolet crossover we can name.

On the other hand, people buy crossovers because of their versatility. They’re equally adept at hauling passengers or cargo, which is a large part of their appeal. A crossover with limited cargo capacity, at least in our eyes, will have limited appeal. Top down, the Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet only offers a small fraction of the cargo room that its hard top sibling does, so forget about bringing that big-screen TV home (unless you drop the top and throw it in the back seat). There isn’t much luggage space, either, so don’t plan on any multi-week driving vacations with three of your closest friends.

There’s no denying that the Murano Cross-Cabriolet is unlike anything else on the road, and that includes its polarizing style. Fans love it for its originality, and its one of the few press-fleet vehicles that drew routine comments from passers-by. Some praised its lines, while others equated it to Moe, the overbite-saddled bartender from The Simpsons. Love it or hate it, you absolutely, positively won’t lose the Murano Cross Cabriolet in a parking lot.

Top down, its a far better looking vehicle, even though its proportions are somewhat unusual. The windshield, for example, is very steeply raked, while the front fender is oddly short. From a side view, there isn’t much front overhang, but head on, it seems out of proportion. Even the flared wheel arches seem more pronounced than on the regular hard-top Murano, although they probably aren’t.

Like Nissan’s smallest crossover, the Juke, the Murano Cross Cabriolet’s styling will draw an equal number of fans and critics, but we’ll give mad props to Nissan for putting the car into production. You can’t be a leader by building the same products as everyone else, and Nissan was clearly thinking outside the box with the Cross Cabrio.

Inside, the Cross Cabrio blurs the lines between Nissan and Infiniti, which is a good thing given its premium price tag. The dash is wrapped in sculpted, soft-touch vinyl that wouldn’t be out of place in a luxury vehicle. The infotainment system is driven by the same type of intuitive controller used on Infiniti models and even the aluminum dash trim is a welcome touch. There’s blonde woodgrain plastic trim used on the doors and center console, and it blends well with the camel-colored interior. Overall, the interior is among the nicest we’ve seen in a non-luxury brand vehicle.

That carries over to the Murano Cross Cabrio’s front seats, too. Leather clad and heated for all-weather comfort, the seats are wide and reasonably well bolstered. As part of the Upgraded Leather Seat Package, both front and rear seats get diagonal stitching for an enhanced appearance.

Rear seats will accommodate two passengers only, although Nissan opted for a semi-bench style instead of individual bucket seats. There’s a reasonable amount of leg room, but accessing the seat with the top in place is somewhat challenging. Nissan does provide a handy switch for the driver to move the front passenger seat out of the way, allowing better access to the rear accomodations. We wouldn’t want to travel cross-country in the second row seats, but for a top down run to the beach or out to dinner, they should be just fine.

The Murano Cross Cabriolet is powered by Nissan’s ubiquitous 3.5-liter V-6, but that’s a good thing. In this case, it produces 265 horsepower and 245 pound-feet of torque, which is enough to accelerate even the AWD Murano with reasonable authority. Your sole transmission choice is Nissan’s continuously variable transmission (CVT), and while we generally aren’t fans of CVTs, Nissan’s version is as good as it gets. Despite the CVT, the all wheel drive takes a toll on fuel economy, which is rated at 17 mpg city and 22 mpg highway; we saw 18.3 in mostly-city driving. Offering a front-drive Cross Cabrio would help with both the sticker price and with fuel economy, so lets hope that Nissan gives this consideration for the future.

The Murano Cross Cabriolet isn’t a drivers car, and it’s handling is best described as “adequate.” Turn-in is leisurely, although the steering is nicely weighted and provides a reasonable amount of feedback. The Cross Cabrio’s area of expertise is leisurely cruising, making a run to the beach an ideal mission. Blasting up a canyon road with anything resembling haste isn’t what the Cross Cabrio was designed for, but the trade off is a comfortable ride that’s relatively quite for a cloth-top convertible.

Dropping the top requires just the press of a button. There are no latches to release, but the complete operation takes a while. You’re better off planning ahead, since attempting to go topless at a red light is likely to produce some angry motorists behind you. Stowed, the top takes up a considerable amount of the Cross Cabrio’s trunk, but the hard tonneau cover adds a completed, custom look to the Cross Cabrio.

Few people buy convertibles for their practicality, and with the top down on a bright, sunny day (or a star-filled summer’s night), the sins of the Cross Cabrio will likely be forgiven. Fans will argue that convertibles give limitless (if not secure) carrying capacity, and that the all-wheel-drive makes the Cross Cabrio a do-it-all vehicle for every imaginable climate. Even the luxury touches are surprising from a major manufacturer, and the Cross Cabrio would fit in to the Infiniti lineup with almost no changes.

You pay for that luxury, however. The Murano Cross Cabriolet has a base price of over $45,000, and that doesn’t even include a navigation system. That’s comparable to luxury crossovers from Cadillac and Lincoln, although neither brand builds a convertible variant to go toe-to-toe with the Cross Cabrio. If that’s what you really want, and your budget will allow a Cross Cabrio in your garage, the Nissan stands alone.

Nissan supplied the 2012 Murano Cross Cabriolet for my review. Base price on the press fleet tester was $45,350, including a destination charge of $810, and options were the $190 Floor Mat Set, the $1,850 Navigation Package and the $500 Upgraded Leather Seating Package for a total sticker price of $47,890.

For an indirect comparison, a similarly equipped Cadillac SRX Luxury AWD would sticker at $45,975, while a comparable Chrysler 200 Limited Convertible (only available in FWD) would sticker for $33,490. Neither one is a direct comp for the Cross Cabrio, but both are as close as you’re likely to get. At $47,890, the Cross Cabriolet isn’t inexpensive, but on the other hand buying both the Cadillac SRX and the Chrysler 200 to get the same capabilities would cost you far more money.

The 1971 Datsun 510 was a small econobox of a car that was built before the econobox was in fashion. It got decent gas mileage, had OK looks for it’s time, and basically served as decent reliable transportation for those who wanted an alternative to the big American land yachts that roamed the freeways. The 2011 Nissan Juke is a pint-sized, turbocharged, all-wheel drive SUV that looks like it got hit in the face with a bucket, BUT for some miraculous reason, is still plenty fun to drive. Edmunds Inside Line recently pitted these two cousins against each other on a 1.3 mile gravel course to see which was the fastest, the 39-year old 510 or the brand new and butt-crack ugly, Nissan Juke.

Source: InsideLine.com

Nissan's Juke R concept. Image: Nissan

I’ll let you down up front: Nissan isn’t bringing it’s Juke R uber-crossover to market, and you won’t be able to buy one any time soon. In fact, Nissan is only building two, one in left hand drive and one in right hand drive, and we seriously doubt that anyone outside of Nissan will have an opportunity to take one for a spin.

So what’s the point of building a one-off tease like the Juke R? First, it raises awareness of the Juke as a sporty-but-practical alternative to conventional crossovers, and it gauges public reaction to the idea of a seriously sporting version of the Juke. The Juke R as seen here would have an astronomically high price tag, but a more moderately powered Juke could dial up the right combination of performance and cost. No one would buy a $75k Juke,even if it did pack a 500+ horsepower V-6 under the hood. On the other hand, a $30k Juke with 300+ horsepower may be… interesting.

The Juke R is a collaboration between Nissan Europe and RML, a race car builder and fabricator who’s built project cars for Nissan in the past. Currently under construction, the Nissan Juke R is expected to complete initial shakedown testing before the end of November. Look for it on the major auto show circuit in 2012, and you can follow its progress on the Nissan Juke Facebook page.

The non-super, standard Nissan Juke

There’s a story by science fiction author Harlan Ellison called “How’s The Night Life on Cissalda” that involves an astronaut from earth and a hideously ugly alien from a planet called Cissalda. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say the astronaut and the alien hook up, and that the alien, repulsive though it may be, turns out to be the best booty call in the entire universe.

If the rumors of a GT-R-motored Nissan Super Juke are true, the car might as well be called the Nissan Cissalda. It would be hideous to look at, and you’d be embarrassed to be seen behind the wheel, but all that would go out the window when you dropped the hammer and tapped into the Super Juke’s alleged 480 horsepower and all-wheel drive. The Super Juke will shed pounds compared to a standard Juke, and will get a race car inspired interior to ensure drivers don’t forget the car’s purpose. Expect the obligatory body kit (and the mandatory and ridiculous rear wing), and expect a 0 to 60 time in under four seconds.

Color us skeptical on this one, since it’s just the kind of bogus story that manufacturers (and other web sites) like to “break.” From a financial perspective, a Super Juke makes no sense, since a GT-R engine would drive the cost well out of a Juke buyer’s price range, and worldwide demand for such an animal is likely to be low. Sure, Nissan could build one as a concept to pump up interest in the Juke, but we’re not sure that would really help them push tin.

In the automotive world, we suppose that anything is possible; all the same same, we’re going to file this one in the “unlikely” bin.

Source: Jalopnik

The 2012 Nissan GT-R. Image: Nissan

The 2012 Nissan GT-R is as fast as you can go for less than $100,000, period, end of sentence. It’s 530 horsepower, twin turbo V-6 can get you from 0 to sixty in under 3 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 196 miles per hour. It’ll run the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds at just over 123 miles per hour, which is fairly impressive for a car with a full factory warranty and a price tag below six figures (although just barely).

As good as the 2012 Nissan GT-R is, the 2013 is shaping up to be even better. Word from Europe, where a press event recently unveiled rough 2013 model year specs, is to expect a gain of “at least” 40 horsepower, which would push Godzilla up to 570 horsepower. There are suspension and transmission logic tweaks as well, which should help to drop lap times, and the 2013 GT-R will produce less CO2 emissions. Expect the revised GT-R to attempt a record Nürburgring Nordschleife lap sometime next month, too.

Look for a “Track Edition” GT-R, too – just not in the United States. The Track Editions is said to be right-hand-drive only, and will come with lots of carbon-fiber parts and Dunlop racing slicks mounted to ultra-light Volk wheels. It won’t be street-legal, but it will certainly be faster than a stock 2013 GT-R.

Source: NAGTROC, via Autoblog