I admit, when I first heard that Jaguar was going to build a crossover, I cringed. Throughout its long history, the British automaker had manufactured nothing but gorgeous, sexy sports cars and sedans. A Jaguar crossover? Really?
Well, after a week behind the wheel of the all-new Jaguar F-Pace, it’s obvious that this sensational vehicle is first and foremost a Jaguar, with the fundamental values of grace, space and pace still very much intact. If you like the comfort and performance Jaguars historically have offered, you’ll love the F-Pace. It’s that good.
To put it bluntly, it’s like a sports car that can haul a lot.
Our test car carried the standard 340-horsepower supercharged V-6 engine. A 380-horse version of this powerplant is optional, as is a 180-horsepower diesel engine. No matter which engine is chosen, it will come mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and on-demand all-wheel drive.
Opt for the 380-horse motor and the F-Pace will rocket from 0-60 miles per hour in just 5.1 seconds with the top speed electronically limited to 155 mph. The base engine in our test vehicle was certainly plenty powerful, with rapid and smooth acceleration.
On the inside, our tester was equipped with gorgeous and comfortable seats in Jet/Light Oyster and Pistachio stitching — basically a lot of white with some contrast — which certainly provided the level of opulence one would expect in a Jaguar.
A particularly welcome option on the test car was the laser heads-up display, which projects vehicle speed, turn-by-turn navigation instructions, speed limits and other pertinent data right on the windshield. This system was clear, legible and very easy to use.
The infotainment system is often a bugaboo on high-end European cars because they sometimes are too complicated. Not so, with the F-Pace, which comes with Jaguar’s InControl Touch system, which was simple, intuitive and easy to operate. In it’s class, this clearly is one of the best such systems.
Naturally, the F-Pace is chocked to the gills with all manner of high-tech safety, performance and connectivity features.
And in truth, the F-Pace’s crossover body is a benefit in a lot of real-world, practical ways. There’s plenty of headroom, outward visibility is excellent and there is a large, 33.5-cubic-foot trunk. The four doors and high roofline make ingress and egress easy, and the handling and ride quality are everything you would expect everything in a Jaguar.
Value is good, too. The base price on our F-Pace was a very reasonable $50,000 and even heavily optioned it was $61,235, which really isn’t a stiff price to pay these days.
The bottom line here?
Jaguar didn’t build a crossover.
Jaguar built a new Jaguar model that just happens to be a crossover, but is first and foremost a Jaguar, and we think that’s a very good thing indeed.
