Nissan Rogue CVT Transmission Problems by Model Year: 2008-2026 NHTSA Records

Most lists of Nissan Rogue years to avoid come from law firm pages, dealer blogs and forum threads, and few of them say where the years came from. This one is counted. We pulled every complaint owners filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the 2008 through 2026 Rogue, 7,211 in all, and read which ones describe the continuously variable transmission (CVT). 1,514 of them do. How those 1,514 split by model year tells a clearer story than any top-five list.

How We Counted

NHTSA publishes every owner complaint with a component tag and the owner's own description. We used both, because the tag alone misleads. The "power train" tag also catches problems that are not the transmission, and many owners who describe a CVT failure file it under "engine" or "unknown."

Two cautions. Complaints are unverified owner reports, not confirmed defects. NHTSA publishes them as filed. Older model years have also had more time to collect reports, so a 2024 Rogue with 10 is not directly comparable to a 2013 with 281. One filing detail for the newest cars: NHTSA lists the 2026 model year under the names "Rogue ICE" and "Rogue Later Release ICE" instead of plain "Rogue." The two lists share complaint numbers, so we merged them and counted each complaint once. You can read the underlying records yourself on NHTSA's vehicle pages, for example the 2013 Rogue and the 2016 Rogue.

Nissan Rogue CVT Complaints by Model Year

Read the last two number columns together. In 2011, 173 of 362 complaints, 48 percent, mention the CVT. In 2018 it is 36 of 609, about 6 percent. The 2018 Rogue drew as many complaints overall as the 2013, but they are about other systems.

2008-2013: Losing Speed on the Freeway

The first-generation Rogue carries 895 of the 1,514 CVT complaints, and three model years, 2011 through 2013, carry 595 of them. What sets these years apart is where the failure happens. In the 2013 record, 151 of the 281 CVT complaints mention a highway, freeway or interstate.

The story owners tell is consistent. The car is at steady freeway speed, often on a long grade or a hot day. It stops responding to the pedal, speed falls away, and the driver works over to the shoulder. After sitting for a while it drives normally again. That recover-after-cooling behavior is how a CVT acts when its fluid overheats and the transmission computer cuts power to protect the unit.

What the 2013 narratives mention, out of 281:

The same profile shows in 2011, where 67 of 173 mention the highway and 67 mention a replaced transmission, and in 2008, where 63 of 144 mention a replacement and 21 mention a whine.

For a Sonoma County driver this pattern matters more than the raw count. A first-generation Rogue that only runs errands around Rohnert Park and Cotati may never show it. The same car held at 65 to 70 on US-101 over the Cotati Grade, or driven inland toward Sacramento in August, is doing exactly what these owners describe just before the power went away.

2014-2017: Judder, RPM Flare and Harsh Engagement

The Rogue was redesigned for 2014, and the complaints change character with it. The freeway power-loss story fades. In its place owners describe a shake or judder under light throttle, RPM that flares without the car speeding up, and a jerk or clunk when the transmission engages.

What the 2016 narratives mention, out of 150:

Set that last line against 2013, where 53 narratives mention overheating. It is a different failure. Nissan's own 2022 warranty bulletin reflects this: it tells dealers that a control valve body or a belt and pulley kit can be replaced without pre-approval, while a complete CVT assembly needs approval first. In plain terms, Nissan itself treats a part inside the transmission and the whole unit as separate repairs.

That is worth knowing before you accept a quote for a complete transmission on a 2014-2017 Rogue. It may be the right call. It should come after a diagnosis that rules out the smaller repair, not before.

2018-2020: The Numbers Fall Away

CVT complaints drop from 108 for the 2017 model year to 36 for 2018, 17 for 2019 and 3 for 2020. These cars are six to eight years old now, old enough that an early-failure pattern would already be visible in the record. It is not there. On the evidence of NHTSA complaints alone, 2018-2020 are the second-generation years with the least CVT trouble.

A low count is not a clean bill of health for an individual car. A used 2019 Rogue that has never had its CVT fluid serviced is still a risk. The record only says these years do not share the widespread pattern of the earlier ones.

2021-2026: Too Early, With One Year to Watch

The third-generation Rogue has few CVT complaints so far: 16 for 2021, 21 for 2022, 10 for 2024, none yet for 2025 and 6 for 2026. The 2023 model year stands out at 47, within an unusually high 709 complaints overall.

We read the 2023 narratives and they do not describe one problem. Some report a "Service CVT" power-reduced warning, some describe the electronic shifter, and several are engine complaints that mention the transmission in passing. That is too mixed to call a pattern, and many of these cars are still inside Nissan's factory powertrain warranty. If you own one and see a CVT warning, the dealer is the right first stop.

The 2026 Rogue is the model year on sale now, and its record is only months old: 38 complaints, 6 of which mention the transmission. Six reports cannot show a pattern, and they do not describe one problem:

Every one of these cars is inside Nissan's factory warranty, and the 2026 model year also has an open recall, covered in the next section. A Nissan dealer is the only place a 2026 Rogue owner should go for any of this.

What Nissan Covered, and What It Did Not

There are two power train recalls in the Rogue's history, and neither addresses the CVT failures described above.

You can check any Rogue by VIN at NHTSA's recall lookup.

For the CVT itself, Nissan used warranty extensions instead of recalls. We could verify two.

Here is the gap. Neither document we could verify names the 2011, 2012 or 2013 Rogue, the three model years with the most CVT complaints on file. We are not saying no coverage ever existed for those years, only that we could not find a Nissan document that shows it. If you own one, ask a Nissan dealer to run the VIN for open campaigns. It costs nothing.

The calendar matters too. Seven years from the sale date of even the newest covered car, a 2018, ends in 2025 or 2026. As of September 2026, that window has closed or is closing for the last of them. For nearly every 2008-2018 Rogue on the road today, CVT repairs are now the owner's expense.

What to Do If You Own One of These Years

• Run the VIN at NHTSA's recall lookup and ask a Nissan dealer whether any warranty campaign is still open on your car. Do this before paying anyone, including us.

• Find out when the CVT fluid was last changed. If nobody knows, assume it never was. Our CVT maintenance guide explains why fluid condition matters more on a CVT than on a geared automatic.

• On a 2008-2013 Rogue, treat a whine that rises with road speed, or any loss of power on a long freeway pull, as the early warning it is. Stop, let it cool, and have it checked before the next long trip.

• On a 2014-2017 Rogue, note when the judder happens: the speed, light or heavy throttle, cold or warm. That detail shortens the diagnosis.

• If a warning light is on, have the codes read before clearing them. Our guides to CVT warning signs and limp mode explain what the car is telling you.

• Buying used? Ask for service records showing CVT fluid changes, and take a test drive that includes ten minutes at freeway speed, not just a loop around the block.

What Decides the Size of the Repair

We do not publish prices, because an honest number depends on what is actually wrong with your car. These are the factors that move it.

Call (707) 584-7727 for a free estimate once we know what your Rogue needs.

Where Our Shop Fits

Recall and warranty-campaign work belongs to a Nissan dealer, at Nissan's expense. Do not pay an independent shop to duplicate it. Where an independent transmission shop earns its place is after that coverage has ended, which for the Rogue is now almost every car.

At Rohnert Park Transmission & Auto Repair, a Rogue with a CVT concern starts the same way every time:

Our ASE and ATRA certified technicians work on Nissan CVTs at 305 Laguna Dr in Rohnert Park. See our Nissan CVT service for how we handle these transmissions, our Nissan repair work for everything else on the car, or the make-wide Nissan CVT problems guide if you drive an Altima, Sentra or Pathfinder instead.

Call (707) 584-7727 or request an appointment to have your Rogue's CVT checked.

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