The weight gain over the first-gen Rogue we tested six years ago is a modest 160 pounds, thanks in part to a new aluminum hood and plastic hatch. The well-equipped Rogue SL we tested was armed with all-wheel drive, a double-length sunroof, and a vast arsenal of lane-keeping, blind-spot, and incoming-missile technologies, boosting the price to an ambitious $32,395. Small gripes: Thick rear roof pillars restrict outward visibility, and the stowed side curtain airbags crowd lateral headroom for outboard second-row passengers. To coddle soccer teams and growing families on road trips, the second-row seats recline and slide fore-and-aft nine inches, and every nook and cranny is equipped with a bottle holder, media connector, or some gadget to play with. The 32-cubic-foot cargo hold is 10 percent larger with the rear seats folded, a nearly level load floor offers an awesome 70 cubic feet for Home Depot booty. Inflating the cabin stretches rear legroom by a whopping 2.6 inches and rear shoulder room by nearly as much, as well as allowing Nissan to squeeze in an optional third row of kid perches.

The dimensional gains are actually modest-1.5 inches of width, 1.2 inches of height, a 0.6-inch-longer wheelbase-but the result is a new Rogue that’s as large as the mid-size Nissan Pathfinder, Ford Explorer, and Jeep Grand Cherokee were a decade ago. Sent back to finishing school, given a fresh body and chassis, and relocated to Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, the Rogue is back to honor that golden American idiom-bigger is better. Six years ago, the Rogue was born a Sentra dressed in big kids’ clothes, and it quickly became the second-bestselling badge in Nissan’s lineup. Case in point, the Nissan with the swashbuckling name. The same thing happens to SUVs: Take your eyes off them, and they grow. While you weren’t paying attention, that sapling you planted matured into a mighty oak, your kids slipped out of diapers into graduation gowns almost overnight.

2014 nissan rogue reviews