AFTER spending a few days in one of Sydney‘s wealthier harbourside suburbs, we were surprised to see few examples of Jaguar‘s F–Pace.
The company‘s first and largest SUV ticks all the boxes, or so we thought.
It‘s stylish, pricey and with its long British lineage – what more could one want?
Or so we pondered searching for a parking spot, on a long narrow street that was not wide enough for two vehicles to pass and which offered parking on one side only.
A small city car starts to make a lot of sense in this context, because the F–Pace is long and rather wide and finding somewhere to pop it is not accomplished easily.
In fact, parking the car can be a challenge full stop, because you can‘t see over the bonnet and the auto dipping rear vision mirrors can be both a help and hindrance trying to guide it into a tight spot with scraping the rims (fortunately they can be disabled).
STYLING
That gifted Scot Ian Callum designed the F–Pace.
As Jaguar‘s very first SUV, he got to start with a clean slate.
Like his other designs the proportions of the five–seat SUV are near perfect, but we can‘t help feel the front, lower air intakes could do with some embellishment – at least in this model.
They‘re a bit large, a bit plain and appear designed to fill empty space more than anything else.
The rear of the wagon with its broad haunches, chunky rubber and horizontal tail lights is beyond criticism.
F–Pace is offered with a choice of petrol and diesel engines, some turbocharged, others turbocharged and hybrid together while still others are all three: turbo, supercharged and hybrid combined – all underpinned by all–wheel drive.
Prices start from $82,200 for the entry F–Pace R–Dynamic P250 S, with a turbocharged 2.0–litre petrol engine.
There‘s pages and pages of options to personalise your car and contribute to the bottom line.
Determining what is standard and what is optional however could require confirmation.
The 22–inch wheels bring a tyre repair kit instead of the space saver.
Standard kit includes 20–inch alloys, black exterior pack, two zone climate air with rear vents, heated 12–way power–adjust DuoLeather sport seats with driver memory and configurable cabin lighting.
There‘s also LED headlights, auto high beam, auto dimming interior mirror, auto lights and wipers, power fold and dip exterior mirrors, front and rear parking sensors and a power tailgate.
F–Pace is covered by a five–year/unlimited–kilometre warranty. But get this, there are no service intervals. Instead, the vehicle tells you when it‘s ready to be serviced – how cool is that?
As such Jag offers a pre–paid service plan for $2650 that covers the car for all services in the first five years or 102,000km.
INTERIOR
F–Pace presents well and has the requisite ambience, with tobacco–coloured leather, offset by mood lighting, stainless steel trim and earthy tones for the infotainment system.
But for a big car it has surprisingly little room in the back seat and the raked roofline could find you ducking to avoid bumping your head.
The boot on the other hand is quite large at 755 litres with the seats up, suggesting the design is skewed towards two people and plenty of luggage at the expense of their passengers.
The part analogue/part digital instrument cluster, features a central 7.0–inch mitred digital display that is mortised between two analogue dials.
A full 12.1–inch ‘interactive‘ display is an $845 option.
Entry is keyless.
ENGINES / TRANSMISSIONS
Feeding the beast is a 3.0–litre twin turbo six–cylinder diesel, with a mild hybrid that delivers a substantial 221kW of power and 650Nm of torque, the latter from 1500 to 2500 rpm. Power is delivered to all four wheels through an eight–speed automatic, with paddle shifters and auto engine stop–start to save fuel.
But it‘s a torque–on–demand system so most of the time it operates in two–wheel drive with a bias to the rear wheels.
SAFETY
Five–star safety comprises six airbags, a rear–view camera, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning (LDW) and speed assist systems (SAS).
INFOTAINMENT
Infotainment consists of the latest Pivi Pro system with a floating 11.4–inch touchscreen that is quick to start and features Bluetooth, voice control, satellite navigation, AM/FM/DAB+ radio, wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto and wireless phone charging, along with an online data plan.
DRIVING
Jaguar has been a long–time proponent of aluminium to reduce weight.
A lighter vehicle means better performance and fuel economy.
The higher torsional rigidity also delivers better handling from the coil over double–wishbone front integral link rear suspension.
Together with brake–based torque vectoring and variable electric power steering, this SUV has a lot going for it.
The dash from 0–100km/h takes 6.4 seconds and it has a top speed of 230km/h and uses a claimed 7.0L/100km of fuel.
The latest JaguarDrive Control features four drive modes: Comfort, Eco, Rain–Ice–Snow and Dynamic, that can be selected based on road conditions.
Auto vehicle hold provides added convenience and smoother operation than conventional automatic hill hold.
The new technology holds the brakes for an unlimited period of time when stationary on a gradient, gently releasing the brakes when the driver depresses the accelerator to drive away.
Adaptive surface response is designed to distinguish between different low traction surfaces, like mud, ice, gravel, and snow and delivers the ideal torque split for the conditions.
Sounds good, but many reviewers find it hard to get past the badge.
Just because it‘s a Jag, doesn‘t mean it‘s perfect.
There‘s more than enough oomph from the 650Nm diesel to barrel off the line and the car is extremely quiet for a rattler, but throttle response is jerky and can make it difficult to manoeuvre at low speed.
Ride quality is pretty damned good, even in sport mode, but the adaptive suspension (or is it the adaptive surface response) generates an inconsistent and sometimes jiggly feel in the default comfort mode.
It‘s not as bad as air suspension, but not as good as plain old springs.
Sport mode is your friend, but needs to be selected with each start.
The optional panoramic sunroof fitted to our car comes with a retractable gauze screen to keep out glare, but struggles to exclude the heat of the sun.
With a 68–litre tank, we were getting 8.0L/100km after close to 400km.
SUMMING UP
While Jaguar is now owned by the Indians, they have been wise to let them get on with the job.
With Callum gone and plans to go all–electric by 2025, there‘s big changes ahead and cars like this diesel F–Pace will soon cease to exist.
If you fancy one, may we suggest you get one while the getting‘s good?
RATINGS:
Looks: 7.5/10
Performance: 7.5/10
Safety: 8/10
Thirst: 8/10
Practicality: 7/10
Comfort: 7.5/10
Tech: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 7.6/10
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
F–Pace R–Dynamic S P250 2.0 petrol: $82,200
R–Dynamic SE P250 2.0 petrol: $87,000
R–Dynamic SE D300 3.0 diesel: $103,200
R–Dynamic SE P400 3.0 petrol: $105,700
R–Dynamic HSE P400 3.0 petrol: $116,800
400 SPORT P400 3.0 petrol: $124,600
SVR P550 5.0 petrol: $149,900
Note: These prices do not include government or dealer delivery charges. Contact your Jaguar dealer for driveaway prices.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Jaguar F–PACE R–Dynamic SE D300 3.0–litre turbo diesel five–door wagon
