It’s surprising that the 2013 Rogue racked up more complaints than any other model year. This was the last year that the first-gen was on sale, so one would assume Nissan had ironed out all the kinks, but it wasn’t to be.
Both Car Complaints and the NHTSA list this as the model year with the most complaints overall. Car Complaints suggests most of these issues are related to the transmission, the unloved CVT that results in plenty of engine drone.
The NHTSA categorizes most of the complaints as being related to the powertrain, specifically the CVT. Many customers were alarmed at an issue with the CVT, which caused a sudden loss of acceleration. Often, this happened in the middle of intersections or on a highway on-ramp, and some even claim to have been involved in an accident because of it. One customer got slapped with a $6,000 bill to fix the CVT since that Rogue was out of warranty.
Continued CVT issues led to a class-action lawsuit, with Nissan extending the warranty on 2014 to 2018 Rogues (and the 2015 Rogue Select) as announced in June 2022. The original 60-month/60,000-mile warranty was extended to 84 months/84,000 miles. The 2013 Rogue wasn’t included, likely because it was a different generation, but the fact that it wasn’t is all the more reason to steer clear of this model.
The 2013 Rogue also has one recall for an electrical short due to water seepage, which affected a substantial number of Rogues – 468,815, to be exact.
