On August 14^th, 1965, the Beatles flew to America for their second concert tour here while at the zenith of their popularity.  It was a ten city tour and in the middle of it the band visited old White Sox Park in Chicago for an afternoon and an evening set.  Each lasted 35 minutes and the best seats in the stadium cost $5.50 each.

I found out about the Beatles visit when my wife and I went to White Sox Park on August 14^th of this year, exactly 48 years after the Beatles came to America.  I love the Beatles, baseball, and cars, and the Chicago visit was to watch baseball and test a new Nissan Rogue.  The baseball game we attended was between the Detroit Tigers and the White Sox; an afternoon affair which Detroit won.  Tiger star Miguel Cabrera cracked his 38^th home run of 2013, and made more money that afternoon ($177,000) than the Beatles did at White Sox Park ($155,000).

The Rogue that I tested was the SV (with SL package, M.S.R.P. – $30,965), with “intuitive” all-wheel drive, which puts power to all four wheels at takeoff and moves into front-wheel drive mode on the road for efficiency.  Power is supplied by a 2.5 liter, four cylinder engine (170 hp/175 lb. ft.) rated at 28 mpg highway mileage.  I did better than that for the week in the Rogue at 28.9 mpg.  The tank holds 15 gallons of regular gasoline.  The transmission in the Rogue was the continuously variable “gearless” unit with sport mode for enhanced response.  Zero to 60 acceleration time for the Rogue is reportedly 7.9 seconds.

From Chicago Ruth and I travelled to Western Illinois, specifically the resort town of Galena.  We like Galena, have been there several times, and enjoyed yet another visit.  Our stay was at the old Desoto House Hotel, where Abraham Lincoln spoke from the balcony on July 23^rd, 1856, when the establishment was one year old.  Galena also was the home of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and 25,000 locals welcomed Grant home after the Civil War.  The Rogue’s ride was suitable and made the trip to Galena go by quickly, travelling on Interstate 90 through Rockford. 

The Rogue seats five, and the back seat flops down, providing almost 70 cubic feet of cargo space – 30 cubic feet less when that seat is erect.  The front buckets were heated and pretty comfortable, and the Rogue had pushbutton start, moonroof, navigation, Bluetooth, 7-speaker Bose stereo, backup camera, satellite radio and the “eye in the sky” or “around view” parking assist I find practical.

The Rogue’s styling is conventional, and in fact has a resemblance to the Murano, Nissan’s larger and more expensive SUV.  The Cayenne red paint job enhanced the Nissan’s attractiveness, as did the chrome roof rack and door handles, the ten-spoke 18” alloy wheels, and the chrome exhaust finisher.  Sales of the Rogue are pretty strong, up 13% so far this year.  My experience with the car in Illinois managed to “Please Please Me”, and if a reason exists why someone shouldn’t buy a Rogue, they need to “Tell Me Why”.