An oft-repeated tourist tip is to carry yourself with purpose, projecting confidence and determination when voyaging through unfamiliar places. Doesn’t matter if you’re feeling soft and nervous inside, just looking like you can take on a challenge is often enough to deter malfeasance.
That’s the story with the new 2025 Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Underneath, it’s a soft and cushy Nissan Rogue with a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine, a continuously variable automatic transmission, all-wheel drive, and a comfortable, spacious interior. But on the outside there’s new, rugged-looking bodywork, chunky all-terrain tires and a roof rack, all of which project confidence about going anywhere you want to take it.
Related: 2025 Nissan Rogue Starts at $30,620, Offers More Capability and Greater Safety
But that’s just it – it’s almost entirely a tough look; there’s not much to make the Rogue a true off-roader, as is also the case with Nissan’s larger Pathfinder Rock Creek. Even Nissan admits that if you want a truly off-road-capable Nissan, you should look for a “Pro-4X” badge, which can be found on versions of the Frontier and upcoming Armada.
So what does the Rock Creek bring to the Rogue, and why would you want one? Nissan recently invited us to the Holly Oaks Off-Road Park just north of Detroit so we could try the new Rogue Rock Creek on a carefully curated trail to see what it can and cannot do. We then took it out on local roads to see how the changes affect its on-road manners.
What You Get Out of the Creek
The Rock Creek trim adds more than an appearance package, but not much more. You get a new front end, with some black plastic trim up front and down the sides, along with some unique Rock Creek badging. One of the more substantial changes comes in the form of Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires on unique 17-inch black wheels. These tires are more suitable for dust, dirt, rock and sand, just don’t go too deep into the mud; these are well-siped all-terrain tires, not chunky mud-terrain tires. Up top is a standard tubular roof rack capable of supporting up to 220 pounds of dynamic load, which is more than enough for bikes or luggage, but maybe not a rooftop tent.
That’s all the stuff you can see, but it’s not where the Rock Creek enhancements end. Nissan engineers re-tuned the shock absorbers to accommodate the all-terrain tires, and they gave the Rock Creek unique steering tune and stability system tune, as well, making its Off-Road mode more capable to go along with those grippier off-road tires. The Rogue Rock Creek also has an exclusive hill descent control program that enables you to keep your feet off the pedals and just steer while slowly descending steep, slippery off-road trails. All-wheel drive is, of course, standard on the Rock Creek trim.
Contributing to the SUV’s off-road ability is a 360-degree camera system that pops on whenever you put the Roque Rock Creek in Off-Road mode. It’s not the highest-resolution system I’ve ever used, but it’s useful for seeing what’s in front of you if your nose is pointing at the sky, or for placing the tires in tricky trail situations. Other cabin modifications include new interior upholstery that features a unique moisture-repellent ballistic nylon material (with embroidered, heated front seats), and a 12-volt power socket for the cargo area. Throw in some special floormats, and that’s the Rock Creek in a nutshell. If you want to fancy it up a little, opt for the very reasonably priced $800 Rock Creek Premium Package, which adds wireless phone charging, a heated steering wheel, a four-way power-adjustable front passenger seat, a motion-activated power liftgate, a memory feature for the driver’s seat and side mirrors, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, interior LED accent lighting and more.
Does It Work in the Dirt?
The purpose of bringing journalists to an off-road park was for Nissan to prove that the Rock Creek is more than just an appearance package — while delicately balancing that idea with an explanation that the vast majority of Rock Creek customers will never do anything like what we were about to do. Most customers just like the more rugged look, or maybe want to take a Rogue Rock Creek down a dirt two-track or gravel logging road now and then. For those folks, the Rock Creek will work just fine.
Still, out in the dirt, the chunky Wildpeak tires did a surprisingly good job maintaining traction on all surfaces we took them over, from sand to gravel to slippery rocks. The Rock Creek never wanted for traction; Nissan did a great job tuning the stability and traction control systems to redistribute torque to the wheels that have grip, allowing this SUV to scamper up hills and large rock faces without much drama.
It’s when surfaces get a little too rutted, or the water gets a little too deep, that the Rogue Rock Creek’s limitations surface. They mostly have to do with vehicle survivability; there’s no additional underbody protection in the Rock Creek, and its ground clearance is the same as a regular Rogue’s, at 8.2 inches. In the Rock Creek, you look like you can go off into the wilderness — but for the sake of the things underneath the SUV that won’t do well when bashed on a boulder, all of which are left unprotected, you really shouldn’t. I witnessed a wheel-well liner break free on a run through some not terribly deep water, and I saw other underbody plastic bits hanging off a different Rogue Rock Creek when our off-roading time was done. There’s no bash plate up front, no skid plates underneath and no rock rails down the sides to keep sensitive components safe. Drive it to your favorite dirt-road campsite, but don’t go any farther if you want to avoid expensive repairs — and possibly a tow out of the park.
What About On-Road Performance?
If you, like most people, just like the way the Rogue Rock Creek SUV looks with its special trim and equipment, and plan to only drive it on the street, you’ll probably be satisfied with it. The all-terrain tires do result in a slightly louder highway experience and slightly less responsive steering, but acceleration, braking and ride quality aren’t really any different from other Rogues. The 201-horsepower, turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine and continuously variable automatic transmission (both of which are shared with the rest of the Rogue lineup) are adequate for propelling the Rogue Rock Creek down the highway without much fuss. Its mid-range responses — such as accelerating out of corners or quick bursts of low-speed acceleration — are better than its foot-to-the-floor, high-rpm highway entrances, but it’s decently peppy and sufficiently powerful overall.
The Rock Creek’s handling does get a little squishier than the standard Rogue’s, thanks to its all-terrain tires, but it’s not something most buyers will notice. The brakes are still solid, the CVT still drones when you floor it and the rest of the SUV still works as expected, which is to say quite well. It’s comfortable, with good adjustability for a wide variety of driver sizes, and it has more than adequate backseat legroom, plenty of headroom (a moonroof isn’t offered on the Rock Creek due to the roof rack) and a cavernous cargo area. All the good parts about the Rogue remain — except perhaps its fuel economy. That drops to 29 mpg combined on the Rock Creek, which is 2 mpg lower than other AWD versions of the Rogue. So there is a price to pay for looking butch, and you’ll pay it at the pump.
Pricing and Competitors
You’ll also pay for it at the dealership, but maybe not as much as you’d think. A Rogue Rock Creek with the Premium Package is $37,610, including destination fee, which is decent considering all the content and features this SUV provides — and it’s nearly $10,000 less than the average price of a new car these days. For that money, you get a rough-and-tumble-looking compact SUV with a tiny bit of extra off-road capability, smart good looks and pleasant road manners, too. If you need to go further off-road, a Ford Bronco Sport Badlands or Jeep Compass Trailhawk should be your choice. If you’re only interested in the appearance of off-road capability, however, the Rogue Rock Creek isn’t a bad choice.
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