Video: 2017 Nissan Rogue Review

Steering wheel has a race year design. It's really a lot more attractive than the old Rogue's wheel, which had about the styling pizazz of a two by four. There's also some stitching on the passenger side of the dashboard. Some stitching and padding down here where your knees fall. All very good stuff. Really helps put the Rogue near the top of its class in terms of interior quality. One buzzkill though, still no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Now, those are really the cost of entry for any good multimedia system these days. Nissan really needs to get with the program in the Rogue. But utility remains a big strength and continues to set the Rogue apart in this class. The backseat, for example, is one of the rare ones that doesn't just recline, but actually moves forward and backwards. That means you can maximize either cargo or passenger space. Or parents can move a child in a baby seat to be closer to mom and dad. Adult passengers back here should have no complaints, thanks to a seat that sits high enough off the ground, but has plenty of headroom left over. Many competitors have one, but not the other. But here's the knockout punch. The Rogue offers an optional third row, but even without it, Nissan's innovative divide and hide cargo storage system really puts utility on a whole new level. It gives you these two movable partitions here with up to 18 adjustable configurations, Nissan says. You can maximize cargo height if you wanna just keep them in their lowest position. Or if you wanna fold the second road down and have a relatively flat cargo floor, there's a position for that as well. You can move them higher if you really want to have a second shelf like so, and you can stack things on top of that shelf. You could even create a box, if you want, to put things in right here, kind of hides stuff and allows you to tuck things in underneath the shelf. Really cool. Really sets the Rogue apart. That's part of the reason why the Nissan rogue is cars.com's reigning family car of the year. If you have a small family or are thinking of moving in that direction, this wouldn't be a bad place to start.