2023 Nissan Rogue: Sell It Now Before Engine Problems Get Worse

The setup

You bought a 2023 Nissan Rogue thinking you were getting a practical crossover with good crash scores. Three years in, you are watching recall notices pile up in your mailbox and wondering whether that knocking sound from under the hood is the beginning of the end. The question is whether to sell now or hold on.

The answer is sell. This vehicle has a documented pattern of catastrophic engine failure that Nissan is trying to patch with software updates instead of fixing the underlying hardware problem. You own a machine with 750 owner complaints on file with NHTSA, 6 open safety recalls, and a failure mode that can leave you stranded in traffic or worse, spraying hot oil onto the road beneath you.

What NHTSA data actually shows

Of those 750 complaints filed with NHTSA, the ENGINE category alone accounts for 299 reports. Add ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING at 124 complaints, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM at 100, and POWER TRAIN at 84, and you are looking at 607 complaints out of 750 that involve the systems responsible for making the vehicle move. That is 81 percent of all reported problems.

Those are not minor irritations. The complaints include 24 that involved a crash, 3 that involved a fire, and 16 that reported injuries.

Two of the six open recalls, 25V437000 and 26V080000, address the same fundamental problem: bearing failure in the engine that can punch a hole in the engine block and spray hot oil onto the road. Here is what NHTSA says about the consequence: "Engine failure increases the risk of a crash. A bearing failure may cause a breach in the engine block, allowing hot oil to be discharged, increasing the risk of an engine fire."

Nissan's remedy for both recalls is to reprogram the engine control module software. Not replace the bearings. Not rebuild the engine. Software.

Here is what owners are reporting. One filed with NHTSA: "On October 7, 2026, while driving a 2023 Nissan Rogue equipped with a 1.5L 3-cylinder VC-Turbo engine, the vehicle suddenly began jerking and making loud mechanical knocking and rattling noises. Shortly afterward, the engine stalled, completely lost power..."

Another: "My truck started making a rattling noise, shooting white smoke at start up at times, and always sending a low oil message often I took it in to Chuck Hutton Nissan in Jackson and they told me it needed a new engine they said the replaced the engine when I g..."

And another: "Since purchasing my car there have been issues from having to have the internal parts of the trunk to varies recalls. Despite my maintaining ongoing maintenance, the engine suddenly has issues. It was seen by a mechanic, Nissan then required me to have it t..."

The other four recalls involve the seat rails breaking loose from their welds, seat belt anchor bolts coming loose, the driver's airbag deploying incorrectly, and seat belt pretensioners failing. Every single one of these increases your risk of injury in a crash.

The crash test scores are fine: 5 stars overall, 4 frontal, 5 side, 4 rollover, with a rollover probability of 17.9 percent. But crash test performance does not matter if your restraints are not bolted down properly or your engine quits in the middle of an intersection.

The math

Let's assume you financed a 2023 Rogue in early 2023 at a typical rate for that period, say 6 percent over 60 months. You are now 45 months in with 15 payments left. If your original loan was around $30,000, you owe roughly $7,200.

A 2023 Rogue in average condition might fetch somewhere in the range of $18,000 to $22,000 on the private market today, depending on mileage and trim. Let's use $20,000 as a working number. After you pay off the loan, you walk away with about $12,800 in cash.

If you keep the vehicle, here is what you are looking at:

You are gambling that Nissan's software patch will prevent a mechanical problem that has already caused hundreds of complaints, multiple recalls, and documented fires. If you lose that bet after your powertrain warranty expires, you are paying for an engine replacement that could cost as much as the vehicle is worth.

If you sell now, you capture the remaining equity before the next wave of engine failures hits the resale market and before the warranty clock runs out. You also transfer the risk of catastrophic failure to someone else.

Our sell or keep analysis usually favors keeping a vehicle that is mechanically sound and mostly paid off. This one is not mechanically sound.

What we recommend

Sell the 2023 Nissan Rogue now, today, while it still runs and before the engine problem becomes common knowledge in the used market. Take the equity and put it toward a vehicle with a better reliability record.

Before you list it, get all six recalls completed. You have a legal obligation to disclose recall status in many states, and an ethical obligation everywhere. The repairs are free. Make the appointment.

Do not trade it in at a dealer unless you are prepared to leave significant money on the table. Sell it private party, disclose the recall history and current mechanical condition honestly, and move on.

If you owe more than the vehicle is worth, the math gets harder but the underlying problem does not change. You still own a machine with a documented engine failure pattern. Look at whether a refinance verdict makes sense to get out from under a high rate, but prioritize getting out of the vehicle entirely.

What would change our mind

Nissan would need to issue a recall that replaces the defective engine hardware, not just reprogram the software. A true fix would involve replacing the bearings or the short block in affected vehicles, with an extended warranty to cover future failures.

We would also need to see the complaint rate flatten and stay flat for 12 months, indicating that the software patch actually solved the problem. Right now the recalls are dated 2025 and 2026, and owners are still reporting sudden engine failures in October 2026.

Short of that, the only scenario where we would recommend keeping this vehicle is if you are within the powertrain warranty period and you have a written commitment from Nissan to replace the engine at no cost if it fails. Even then, you are signing up for the inconvenience of being stranded and the time cost of a major repair.

Bottom line

The 2023 Nissan Rogue has 750 complaints on file with NHTSA, 81 percent of them involving the powertrain, and six open safety recalls including two that address catastrophic engine failure. Owners are reporting sudden loss of power, metal shavings in the oil, white smoke, and engines that need complete replacement despite regular maintenance.

Nissan's answer is a software update. That is not a fix. That is a band-aid on a structural problem.

Sell it now, while it still starts, before the market catches up to what the NHTSA data already shows. Take the equity and buy something that does not have a documented history of punching holes in its own engine block. You bought a crossover to get you where you need to go reliably. This one is not doing that job.

Safety figures on this page come from the NHTSA public complaint and recall database for the 2023 Nissan Rogue, retrieved 2026-10-24. Complaint counts reflect reports filed by owners and are not verified defect findings.