My son needed a new car. He drives about 80 miles round trip to work. His 2004 Civic pooped out after 162k miles. To replace it, he just bought a new Nissan Rouge Sport. I looked up the reliability history the brand and it was more sales hype than anything. Their transmission problems seem to be in the past. I hope he didn't make a bad choice. He got a lifetime power train warranty included in the deal. Does anybody have any real ownership experience with the brand. On trips to other continents I see a lot of them. Thanks

The Rouge and Murano are decent vehicles. They share the same platform with the Rouge being just a little smaller.
Being late into the current generation (started in 2013) there shouldn't be too many kinks left to worry about.
We looked at them when my wife was in the market for a new vehicle, but she preferred the Ford Escape.

I bought the wife a new 14' Pathfinder and she loves it so far, no problems whatsoever. I would have preferred her choice for a CRV but it's ultimately her vehicle and she chose it. If she's happy..so am I

Before I bought my Cherokee a couple years ago, I had driven two Altimas and a Sentra before that. My last Altima, which was the only one I had bought new, ran for almost 8 years and 330K miles on the original engine and tranny. The biggest maintenance item was replacing the cats around 225K miles. Absolutely no complaints.

Also in my family, we have a owned a Frontier, a Titan, two Murano’s, and another Sentra. Nissan is easily one of the best values for your dollar out there today, IMHO.

-Rob

quote:

Does anybody have any real ownership experience with the brand.

I'd look to experiences with the model not the brand along with specifying what your concerns are: such a gas mileage, ride-ability, insurance rates,or whatever your worries are, etc.
My Titan is a 2004 bought new and still is great, my wife's Xterra 2005 bought new also is great.
YMMV

I have owned both a Frontier and an Xterra.
No problems. Both were tough little vehicles.

Thanks for the responses. My big concerns are not comfort and convenience items, but rather reliability and longevity. It is a Rouge Sport so I’m sure it shares the platform with something in the Nissan lineup.

I just rented a Rogue for a few days in Maui. No complaints about driveability/performance, but I found the interior to be less than convenient. There were two cup holders, but nowhere else in/on the console to put stuff. Lots of curved surfaces. Looked nice, but frustratingly unuseful.

-Rob

I bought a used ‘13 Frontier in Canada and when I moved back to the States I bought a new Frontier. Only routine maintenance needed (fluids, filters, etc).

Used to have a Maxima. Ran great until two head bolts broke. Made a HUGE mistake in taking the car to a dealer to have them do the fix; after that visit the car was never the same. Prior to that I did get 16 years of reliable use out of that car. I still miss that 4DSC, even if it really wasn't.

quote:

Originally posted by greco:
His 2004 Civic pooped out after 162k miles.

I know quite a few Hondas that have busted 200k. What happened to the Civic?

We have a 2014 Rogue SV that we bought used in 2016 from a Toyota dealership.

The transmission went out at around 40K miles.

We took it to the local Nissan dealership and they immediately made it right. New transmission, loaner car, detail job, did not have to fight with them and we did not spend a penny.

My wife loves lt and I don't mind driving it whe we take it somewhere. The fit and finish seems to be holding up well and there are no issues with any of the systems.

Overall I have been impressed with it and would consider buying a new one.

What happened to the Civic? Well the control arms went at 80k. At 100k I did the timing belt, water pump, tensioner, and belts routine. Also alternator soon after. Then a couple of years later (50k miles) there was a leak underneath. So I replaced the water pump and did the rest of the required maitenance with the belts, timing belt, tensioner. Ran fine for a while. Master cylinder had problems so I replaced that. Then it started to run hot so it needed coolant once a week, Then once every other day. Then the dealer said I needed a new head gasket. I should have done it when I had the car apart for timing belt/water pump, but no problem at that time. Dealer wanted $1800-2000 to do the gasket.

So I called my cousin Joe over to give me a hand. We took the engine apart again. The intake manifold and exhaust manifold were no fun. Let alone wires, cables, and fuel injection system. After removing the head, we sent it out to a machine shop for a once over. We cleaned up the block while we waited. After installation and torquing, i performed a leak down test. Cylinders number 4 and 3 were leaking into each other. I bought a new gasket and performance bolts $162. Torqued again and still had a leak into the water jacket. At this point we put it back together, knowing a lost cause when I see one. This is a real common problem on 04 and 05 Civics. He had his fill of Honda’s. So that’s what happened to his Civic.

Just as an aside, my daughter has an 05. I did the timing belt shtick on that one about 50k miles ago and am waiting for the other shoe to drop on hers, but she lives in NY so I don’t know how that will work out. By the way I am 66 now and am getting too old for crawling under cars for fun.

We purchased a very clean low mile 2015 Pathfinder Platinum last year. Took it on vacation in May. 8 hours each way. No problems whatsoever. Very comfortable and very reliable so far.

Nissan makes a fine vehicle.

Good friend of mine had a 2010 Sentra with a CVT transmission and he was on his 2nd replacement when he sold it at just under 80,000 miles. He will never buy a Nissan CVT vehicle again. Apparently not a rare problem.

Mrs Mike had a 2003 Niss Altima that ate a spark plug... well part of it.

Ruined that cylinder

Took it to Nissan local dealer and the service guy called the guy (whoever that is in the foodchain of higher ups)...asked to replace the entire engine vs. just removing the head and the cylinder, bore it out and replace the piston.

They hesitated for 30 seconds and the local guy said. If it was my daughter I'd approve it....

Whomever was on the phone said "do it".

Took two days...they literally pulled an engine from on hand car for sale and sent us on the way.

We gave that car to my biggest kid for his first car.

Mrs. Mike strayed and got a Traverse, but figure out we weren't having any more kids and we got a 2014 Altima, in 2015. Got a good deal too.

I will never say anything bad about them( Nissan) until they prove other wise.

I've got the goofy Nissan loyalty. The daily ride now is a 2002 Pathfinder -- I'll touch the 260k mile mark in a couple of weeks, having had (knock wood if you'd like) no major service. I bought it with the intent of seeing 300k. At this point, it's "run it to failure."

The only time this PF has been in the shop for more than a day was for body work after a college student ran a stop sign. A friend has a 2001 Pathfinder, very similar to mine. She got it with just under 100k miles, and has over 230k now. No sweat. There's a business owner in town with a 1999 or 2000; she's got over 400k miles showing.

My brother had a Nismo Frontier -- he sold it at something over 210k miles, many of those miles hard-earned.

I don't have specific experience with Rogue, but another family member has a 2016 and likes it very well. It's comfortable, quiet, and way easy on gas.

I just semi-retired my 2007 Pathfinder with 335,000 miles on it. I loved the vehicle, but Nissan as a company I will never buy a car from again. This is due to several well-known issues with the model (2005-2012 model year style) that had several issues that were CATASTROPHIC for owners that Nissan refused to recall/fix satisfactorily.

The biggest issue was with a known problem with failing cooling transmission lines that run through the radiators. Those lines would crack, allowing water/coolant to mix with the transmission fluid, basically mixing water with tranny fluid. The results were to destroy the transmission. This little grenade would take some time to show up, but when it did, it was almost always out of warranty and Nissan wanted $6k to replace the transmissions. This should have been recalled with a radiator replacement that would have gotten those junk radiators out of the cars. I got lucky, probably just because I am a bit fanatical about checking my car out. Both my mechanic and I were smelling a super faint whiff of coolant so he recommended a new radiator since I was going into winter. Cost me about $400, but if I would have lost the tranny there was no way I could have swung 6k for a replacement.

There are other known issues, such as the airbags, failing airbag sensors, and another bigger one that bit me.

The Pathfinder also has a known problem with the fuel tank sending unit that fails and thus sends a "Check Engine" code. Only fix is to drop the tank and replace the arm and sending unit that is inside the fuel tank. Fuel gauge fails to work and the check engine light goes on, so vehicle won't pass my state inspection until it is resolved. That whole mess was also not covered by Nissan and cost me over $800 to fix. It is just another well documented failure of an expensive part that the manufacturer should have recalled, but wouldn't bear the cost of. Screw Nissan.

The new Pathfinder has a CVT transmission, not a gearbox, which I avoid. A co-worker bought a new 2015, and his transmission control unit failed at mile 45. Totally dead car on the side of the road. The dealership did give him a new vehicle on that one though.

I will say that I love my 07. I just won't buy another car from Nissan. I replaced it with a 2016 Toyota 4Runner. So far I am very happy with it, but it only has 30k on it. Not even broken in yet!

Just visited wife’s old friends in CO. They have a 3ish year old Rogue. It is no shit on it’s 3rd, yes 3rd, transmission. 62k miles total and the replacement tranny’s only carry a 1 year/12k mike warranty. They haven’t, yet, had issues with this 3rd transmission but feeling snakebit they are looking for something else.