Jaguar F Pace
The F-Pace is Jaguar’s most important car for a generation. It’s not only Jaguar’s first SUV but it’s the very first jaguar designed and built specifically with women in mind.
This elegant looking car is the first SUV in Jaguar’s eight year history. While some may question just why Jaguar is branching out into the world of SUVs others are asking why it’s taken so long. By not having an SUV in their range Jaguar was not only missing out on this important sector of the car market but they were also missing out on female buyers. Women now influence over 80% of all new car sales and they simply love SUVs.
When you get inside you’ll find that the F-Pace has a similar look to the small jaguar XE Saloon and what we really like about it in here is just how simple and laid back it is. It’s the type of car interior that you just know that an awful lot of thought and work went into designing it. Once you take your seat it doesn’t need to shout out too much in fact it just gets on with the job quietly. There are some really nice design details like the dial that operates the 8-speed automatic gearbox. As you’d expect a woman tends to like a different seating and driving position to men and the F-Pace’s seats have been specifically designed with a woman’s body shape in mind. There’s also enough adjustment in both the seats and the steering wheel to suit a small woman or a big strapping bloke. Storage is excellent with good sized door bins, a large glovebox and centre console along with other neat storage compartments dotted around the interior.
Space in the back is particularly good where you’ll find excellent head room and leg room even with a 6-footer in the driving seat. Unfortunately however, you’re not going to want to be the adult sat in the centre seat for very long journeys. For families it’s also a shame you can’t fit three car seats along the rear. We love the practical details you’ll find at the back and there are a lot. There are good sized door bins, nets at the back of the seats and two USB charging points – which as any parent will tell you are especially important on long travel with the kids.
The Jaguar F-Pace is one of the most connected cars on the road. It features Jaguar’s latest media and infotainment system which the family will just love to use getting connected while on the road. The driver will also appreciated the real-time traffic updates that the system receives. The one downside is that it can be a bit fiddly to use when you’re on the road but it’s the kind of system that you quickly get used to and you’ll really start to appreciate how easier it makes your life.
Step outside towards the rear of the car and you’ll soon discover that you get the ever-popular powered tailgate – though a little too slow to open for our liking. However, what’s great with this is that you can waggle your foot under the rear bumper and it will automatically open so it’s a great tool when you’ve got your hand full with shopping bags. In terms of size the boot itself is pretty impressive so impressive that it could actually rival a BMW X5 which incidentally is a car from a class above. If you want even more space then the rear seats split and fold in a whole multitude of ways.
There’s a simple range of trims and engines. For the 2.0 litre diesel cars there’s the Prestige, R-Sport and Portfolio. Equipment levels are good and even the entry level Prestige comes with leather seats, 18 inch alloy wheels, sat nav, powered tailgate, WiFi hotspot as well as Bluetooth connectivity, all-round parking sensors and cruise control.
Our pick of the range is the 178 bhp 2.0 diesel in R-Sport trim. Ok, it can be a little bit noisy when you accelerate but it soon settles down to a really comfortable cruise particularly when you’re out on the motorway. Once you get behind the wheel of the F-Pace you quickly realise that it feels more like a car to drive than a big hulky 4x4. What’s great here is that Jaguar haven’t got so tied up in developing a family car. They have kept to their roots of building fantastic sporty driving cars so what you’ve got is an F-Pace that is really fun to drive. The 8-speed gearbox feels smooth and relaxing. Throughout the ranges there’s a choice of rear-wheel drive or, if you want to do some light off-roading, there’s all-wheel drive too.
So there you have it a brief insight to the F-Pace, it’s certainly a very complete car. It’s a car that manages to be desirable, practical and sporty to drive. We’ve waited years for a Jaguar SUV to come along and now that it has – it’s definitely been worth the wait!
