Anemic.
The Nissan Rogue Sport is grossly underpowered. It's 141 horsepower, 2.0 liter, naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine tries its hardest, but it simply lacks the grunt to keep up with the needs of this 3,400-pound crossover. The experience is made worse by a continuously variable transmission that dulls the delivery of what little power there is.
The Canadian market's standard six-speed manual transmission option would certainly help make things better for the select few who still remember how to use a clutch pedal.
Regardless, the Rogue Sport's acceleration is pedestrian. It will have to fight hard to hit 60 mph from a standstill in less than 9.5 seconds. Car and Driver clocked the Rogue Sport at 10.0 seconds while Motor Trend got 9.8 seconds out of their test car.
That means virtually all minivans sold in the US over the past 15 years will embarrass the Rogue Sport at a drag strip. Fortunately for Nissan, it's a problem that plagues all of the new tiny-utes that have debuted in recent years. We were also disappointed with the acceleration of the rival Honda HR-V we tested last year which did 60 mph in 9.3 seconds at Car and Driver. We haven't driven the new Toyota CH-R yet, but Car and Driver's test car clocked in with an 11.0 second 0-60 mph run.
Talk of drag strips aside, this lack of power poses a real problem on highway on-ramps and in high-speed passing situations.
There simply isn't enough grunt to get the car up to highway speeds in an adequate amount of time, especially when it's weighed down with passengers and their stuff. Shifting gears yourself using the CVT's artificial shift points helps with the situation.
In addition, the loud, high pitched drone the engine emits under hard acceleration is unnerving. It's obvious the engine is being pushed to the upper limits of its performance envelope every time you need to merge onto the highway.
And because the engine has to work so much harder to get the car going, the Rogue Sport's fuel economy is actually one mile per gallon worse in the city and two MPG worse on the highway than the larger Rogue.
The Rogue Sport really cries out for the outgoing Juke's 188 horsepower, 1.6-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder.
The lack of power is a real shame because the Rogue Sport drove quite well. Its ride is as compliant without being too soft while its handling was tight and well tuned, even though the steering was a bit numb.