Cruising through to Dunkeld in Jaguar’s F-Pace I’m struck by how car-like it is.
The firm ride befits a sporting brand and it handles better than any SUV this side of a Porsche Macan.
It took Jaguar a while to come up with an SUV, right enough. Audi has had the Q5 since 2008 and BMW the X3 and X5 for much longer.
Still, better late than never, and the F-Pace certainly has looks going for it. Penned by Jaguar’s Scottish head of design Ian Callum, it’s beautifully proportioned with a low, sporty stance and details – such as the bonnet bulges and stylised headlights – that point to the company’s sporting heritage.
Prices start around the £35,000 mark, with most models costing between £40,000 and £50,000.
I drove the bread-and-butter model, which is the 2.0 litre diesel. Mine came in R-Sport trim and cost a little over £40,000. With 180bhp under the bonnet it’s not short on oomph. Zero to 62mph comes up in 8.7 seconds and top speed is 129mph.
Those are healthy enough figures and the 2.0 model should be all most people need. I have driven the 3.0 litre V6 diesel, though, and it is a wonderful engine. It shaves 2.5 seconds off the 0-62mph time and brings top speed up to an impressive 150mph. Is that worth paying around £10,000 extra for? Probably not, but a lot of Jaguar owners buy with their hearts as much as their heads.
You can have an F-Pace with rear wheel drive but I wouldn’t recommend it. For a start, the 4×4 version operates in rear wheel drive most of the time, switching up to 50% of power to the front wheels when it’s needed.
Particularly at this time of year, the surefootedness granted by all-wheel traction is not to be sneezed at.
On wet and slippery Perthshire country lanes my 4×4 F-Pace acquitted itself tremendously. Even given a fast start from standstill on slick roads the tyres bite with grip and launch you forward.
You don’t pay a great economy penalty for four-wheel drive either. I averaged 50mpg driving to Dunkeld on back roads and back to Dundee on the A9 and A90. That’s impressively close to the official economy figure of 53.3mpg.
Every F-Pace comes with an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It sequences almost imperceptibly through the large number of ratios and is barely ticking over in at 70mph in eighth gear.
The interior of the F-Pace is a nice place to be. Quality, as you’d expect from Jaguar, is first rate. From the stitched leather trim to the rotary gear knob that sinks down flush with the centre console when you turn the engine off, it’s wonderfully done. Practicality hasn’t been neglected either. Although there’s no seven-seat option there’s plenty of room front and rear and a very large boot as well.
Show it a corner and the Jaguar performs as well or better than most saloon cars. Some clever electronics like torque vectoring, which brakes the inside wheel to improve stability, help push it beyond what most SUVs are capable of.
It does have weaknesses. There’s no doubt the ride is harsher than an Audi Q5 or Lexus RX450. The touchscreen interface looks great but isn’t easy to use on the move – Audi and BMW’s rotary dials are more user friendly. It has a modicum of off road ability but if you’re one of the few SUV buyers who regularly gets in the dirt the Discovery is a far better bet.
It may not be the first choice for a drive across the Amazon but it is lovely to look at, great to drive and extremely practical.
Price:
£40,360
0-62mph:
8.7 seconds
Top speed:
129mph
Economy:
53.3mpg
CO2 emissions:
139g/km