With the all-new Rogue Sport – which debuted at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit – Nissan is looking to fill an ever-growing gap in the North American crossover market.
Compact crossovers are getting larger with each generation – with cars like Nissan’s own Rogue now available with three rows of seating – and subcompact crossovers are too new to fill the gap. Jeep already announced the new Compass, which slots between the compact Cherokee and the subcompact Renegade.
Fortunately for Nissan, they didn’t have to look far to fill the gap between the Juke and the Rogue. The Rogue Sport is nothing more than a Qashqai, a car that has one of the most unfortunate and unpronounceable names in automotive history. The Qashqai has been a big hit in Europe and around the world, so it was a no-brainer for Nissan to bring it to the States.
Although it shares a platform with the Rogue, the Rogue Sport is 12.1 inches shorter than the Rogue, and rides on a 2.3-inch shorter wheelbase. The big difference though is height – the Sport is 5.1 inches shorter than its big brother.
Under the hood is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder that makes 141 horsepower and 147 lb-ft of torque. One thing that didn’t make it from the transition from Qashqai to Rogue Sport is the six-speed manual transmission – the Sport will only have Nissan’s Xtronic continuously variable transmission.
Nissan also deserves credit for saying that the Rogue Sport is targeted at singles and couples. Not everyone in the market for a crossover has a family to haul around.
The Rogue Sport will come in Nissan’s typical trim levels of S, SV and SL. The company hasn’t announced pricing or availability yet, but since it’s a 2017 model, it should be in showrooms sooner than later.
Check out this TFLcar video of the debut of the all-new – at least to the U.S. – Rogue Sport:
