orti N ovem ber 26, 2 0 0 8 ortlanò ©hseruer Page A 9 News and reviews on new motor vehicles 2009 Nissan Rouge with a truck. It has a unitized body K athleen C arr The Nissan Rogue is mostly and chassis with fully indepen­ unchanged for 2009. U pgrades dent suspension, and it will be include new doors that lock auto­ offered with front-w heel drive or matically when the Rouge hits a single-range full-tim e all-wheel certain speed, a fold-dow n front drive. In an im pressionistic way, passenger seat and a dual-level the Rogue looks som ething like cen ter console tray. "O verall, the M urano Rogue's com petitors are quieter The interior has a youthful look and more refined, but this com ­ with a few helpful tw ists such as pact Nissan gets points for sleek an auxiliary jack for iPods and > styling and high levels o f interior large HUVA controls. The instru­ ment panel is trendy, but the bright fu n ctio n ality . T he engine is very responsive orange light from the gas gauge with its 2.5-liter four-cylinder and the small fonts make them pow erplant producing 170 horses very difficult to read quickly. The and 175 Ib-ft o f torque. It com es tachom eter and speedom eter are with four-wheel anti-lock brak­ about six inches and the fuel and ing, Electronic Brake force Distri­ tem perature gauges two inches bution, Vehicle Dynamic Control in diameterand reside in the middle and Traction Control to help con­ o f the instrum ent cluster and has trol your emotional outbursts. The a strange orange illumination. The Rogue has m ore in com m on with seats are firm and need more lum ­ the typical sedan than it does bar and maybe a touch more pad- by Specifications: 2.5-liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder engine; Xtronic CVT™(Continuously Variable Transmission); 22 city mpg, 2 7 highway mpg; MSRP $ ding, but overall they feel good. Buyers will he able to outfit Rogue with luxury-grade am enities, in­ cluding heated leather seats, xe­ non headlights, universal o n ­ board garage door opener, and a Bluetooth wireless cellular phone interface with controls on the steering wheel hub. The optional Bose audio system features seven s p e a k e rs an d a p o w e re d subw oofer. The Rogue's strengths are its pleasant on-pavem ent ride, good fuel econom y and good value com pared to the com petition. H ow ever, it falls short on engine pow er because o f its lack o f a V6. Perform ance also falls in the so- so category, as we would want better fuel econom y in exchange for its lack o f power. But the con­ tinuously variable transm ission gives its score a little boost. Fi­ nally, we like its design. The car looks good and offers a lot o f practical room inside. Churches Extend Invite to Obama F amily Many are easy walk from White House (A P) -- Churches in the nation's capi­ tal have started extending invitations to President-elect Barack O bam a and his family, touting their A frican-A m erican roots, their ties to presidents past and to O bam a himself. The choices are abundant. N um er­ ous, thriving congregations are an easy walk from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. J ust across Lafayette Square from the W hite House is St. John's Church, an Episco­ pal parish known as the "Church o f the Presidents," w here presidents as far back as Jam es M adison have w or­ shipped. St. John's has a standing invi­ tation: Pew 54 is the President's Pew, reserved for the nation’s leader. O r he could choose, as many presi­ dents have done, not to attend services at all. President G eorge W. Bush, for instance, has only infrequently attended services in W ashington, occasionally going to St. John's. W hatever choice the O bam as make, it is sure to be analyzed through the President-elect Obama drops his daughters Malia (left) and Sasha, o ff at school in Chicago. At right is a U.S. Secret Service agent. (AP Photo) prism o f O bam a's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama's pastor for 20 years at Trinity United Church o f C hrist in Chicago. O bam a resigned from Trinity during the presidential cam paign after inflam­ matory com m ents by W right from the pulpit became a cam paign issue. N ick S h ap iro , a sp o k esm an for O bam a's transition, declined to discuss which church the Obamas m ight attend. O banja has spoken frequently about the importance of his Christian faith. In his 2006 book, "The Audacity o f Hope," he wrote that "the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this w o rld .... You needed to com e to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it." Despite those words, O bam a has at­ tended church sparingly in the past several m onths. Since winning the elec­ tion, he has spent Sunday mornings at th e g y m . M an y W a s h in g to n -a re a churches hope that will change after he is inaugurated. At Metropolitan AM E Church, a his­ toric, predominantly black congregation six blocks from the White House, senior pastor Ronald Braxton says parishioners have been buzzing about the possibility that the incoming president, his wife, Michelle, and theirdaughters, — 10-year- old Malia an