This week, we attended the Irish press launch of the brand-new Jaguar F-Pace. To be honest, we’ve been waiting for this car for some time now. I mean, isn’t it past time that Jaguar went in the direction of the market and started putting some focus on the Crossover segment, like their competition in Audi, BMW and Mercedes? Well, they’ve done it now and from what we saw today… it’s a case of “good things come to those who wait”.
A couple of things before I continue. Jaguar have been on a bit of a model offensive over the last year or so. We’ve seen a new XE and a new XF. Along with those, we’ve also seen a more competitive and more reachable pricing structure. Which is something that can certainly be said about this car.
We’ve been told that the starting price for one of these is €44,100, which is slightly undercutting the X3 from BMW. Which means they were certainly keeping an eye on rival figures. The other thing about the F-Pace is that it’s deceptively big and you would be forgiven for thinking that it should be in competition with the X5 and not the X3. Looks are deceiving in this case though.
On the road, this is an agile machine thanks to lighter weight materials. Our test drive was brief, but from what could be gathered over the thirty or so kilometres that we drove it, it seems refined. Road noise on the motorway was minimal, and the new front suspension is well-suited to the body size of the vehicle.
We tested the R-Sport model, which was fitted with an Ingenium 2.0 litre diesel engine. This offered 180 PS and 0-100km/h in 8.2 seconds. Top speed is 208km/h. Our model had the automatic gearbox, and for this package you are looking at €59,490). There is a manual option – but why would you opt for that if you’re about to buy a Jaguar? I suppose this one’s down to personal taste! Unfortunately, there were no 3.0 litre TDV6 engines at the launch (0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds) – we really wanted to test that.
The good news is that all models are four-wheel drive – which seems to be more and more of a rarity these days! A nice touch about the 4X4 system is that you can see how everything is working through the infotainment system.
The dash layout in the car is very like the new XE and XF. The finish within our test car was excellent and we particularly liked how there was no automatic gearstick as such. It uses the same type of circular control unit as you’d find in the latest Land Rover Discovery Sport.
So, all-in. This is possibly the best looking of its luxury segment, which in a way surprises me, after all, the competition has had a lot more experience in this field. We are very much looking for a full test drive in the new F-Pace.
The books for the new F-Pace are now open!
Range summary
The all-new F-PACE range will consist of: F-PACE Pure, F-PACE Prestige, F-PACE Portfolio, F-PACE R-Sport, F-PACE S, F-PACE First Edition.
The powertrain range will consist of: 180PS 2.0-litre diesel manual RWD/ AWD and automatic AWD; 240PS 2.0-litre petrol automatic RWD; 300PS 3.0-litre diesel automatic AWD; 340PS and 380PS 3.0 litre petrol automatic AWD.
Read all of our Jaguar reviews here.
See all used Jaguar cars for sale on Car Buyers Guide here.
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