Review: Jaguar F-Pace – Redefining The SUV?

The big question on F-Pace is, however, is it any good? We had to go to Montenegro to find out.

That's where Jaguar has decided to launch its 4.73-metre-long, five-door SUV that goes on sale this month at prices beginning at £34,170. Why? It's a good question and perhaps a measure of the ubiquity of modern SUVs that car makers feel they have to go to the far ends of the earth to capture the imagination of the press and public. So off we trogged to the tiny mountainous state that's only been an independent republic since 2006 and was formerly part of wider Serbia, but whose tiny but hard-as-nails population saw off the entire Ottoman empire on several occasions. You wouldn't want to be upsetting them too much, then.

As is the way of the modern motor industry, there've been several pre-launch drives of F-Pace prototypes, but our first proper look at the actual cars which will be on dealer forecourts was on the Lepetane-to-Kamenari ferry specially chartered for the occasion. These were the electric-blue £65,000 First Edition cars, loaded with every conceivable extra and running on 22-inch wheels and tyres, of which more later.

It certainly looks the part, with clever, understated coachwork, assured proportions and quite lovely detailing apart from the horrid plastic panel underneath the Jaguar badge on the grille, apparently there to aid the stereo camera and radar system. Ian Callum, Jaguar's design head is predictably modest when asked about the design, but even he admits that achieving such restrained elegance isn't easy.

It's based on the same chassis as the XE and XF saloons, with mainly aluminium frame materials and longer suspension travel, and different rear coachwork and framing, although Jaguar says that over 90 per cent of the components are unique to F-Pace.

The big Jag's main competitors are Audi's Q5, BMW's X3 and Porsche's Macan, yet it's slightly bigger than all of those but smaller than the larger SUVs such as the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 or BMW X5. This segment-busting positioning hasn't done Jaguar many favours with cars like the F-Type sports car, but there's reason to believe that it might pay dividends with the F-Pace. The cabin is larger and more spacious than the competition and the rear seats will accommodate three adults across the 40/20/40 per cent folding seat back, with head and leg room to spare. The front seats are pushed apart by the huge transmission tunnel and storage space up front in door pockets, glove box and centre console doesn't amount to much more than that required as a minimum for a pair of nesting sparrows. The boot, however, is really big at 650 litres with the rear seat up and 1,740 litres with it folded; this car is built to carry a family and its luggage if not its odds and sods.

The facia is a mix of simple displays and tasteful leathers, although some of the wood trim is of questionable taste. Standard InControl Touch 8-inch touchscreen and sat nav software is augmented by standard WiFi and the ability to download apps and remotely access the car from a mobile phone, although you don't get Android Auto or Apple's CarPlay. Starting at £1,200 the Pro version of the same, gives 10.2-inch screen, head-up display, virtual instruments and is much faster. As well as all the latest camera and radar-based safety braking systems, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection and parking assistance options, there's also a fit-band wrist communicator, which can be programmed  to open the car when you've been out getting wet. Off the road, the driveline control is handled with a touch slider, which optimises the driveline and controls speed up and down dale. Jaguar calls it All Surface Progress Control but it looks exactly like sister company Land Rover's Terrain Response.

Engines at launch will be the 374bhp (380PS) 3.0-litre blown V6 petrol, the 295bhp (300PS) 3.0-litre Lion V6 turbodiesel and the most popular UK choice, the 177bhp (180PS) 2.0-litre Wolverhampton built four-pot turbodiesel. Most will come with the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, but there is a six-speed manual for the two-litre and you can even specify two-wheel-drive, even though 80 per cent of the 2,000 orders received so far are for 4x4 models.

We pulled off the ferry and skirted the 1.749-metre Mount Lovćen on roads that, it has to be said, had seen better days. Those 22-inch Pirelli tyres will cost you £3,200 above the cost of the standard 18-inch rims on the Prestige, base-spec car. You should save your money. The F-Pace clambered along, noisily rearing and bucking like an electric-blue mustang (horse not car) over the least bump and providing an unpleasantly isolated feel at the steering wheel. Twenty-inch rims are the maximum you would want for this car and so shod, all the cars rode stiffly, but acceptably well on the launch.

The big petrol engine is nicely worked. Downturned from its peaky, raucous state in the F-Type sports car, it still has a good growl and makes scintillating performance (top speed 155mph, 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds, 31.7mpg combined), though the eight-speed auto can be slow to respond if you haven't slotted it into sport mode or flip the steering-wheel paddles like a pin-ball machine. The 'Lion' V6 diesel can trace its history back to the Peugeot/Citroën/Ford unit, but these days is made solely for JLR. It's a lovely, but heavy, unit giving creamy torque at low revs and a top speed of 150mph, 0-60mph in 5.8 seconds and 47.1mpg if you light on the throttle. But the entire installation weighs almost 1.9 tonnes and that affects the handling, particular the ride at the front and the way it turns into corners.

Actually it turned out that the most popular model is also the nicest to drive. With four-wheel-drive and the eight-speed auto, the 1,775kg two-litre diesel mode delivers a top speed of 129mph, 0-60mph in 8.2sec and 53.3mpg with Band E CO2 emissions of 139g/km. It feels faster than that, but also more agile and wieldy than the bigger engined cars. Turn in to corners is sharper, it dives less under braking, and doesn't pitch over the bumps like its more powerful and heavy sisters. The body feels better controlled and it feels more fun to drive. Even the steering, accurate and well weighted, has a bit more feedback. There's a price to pay for having just four cylinders in such a relatively big car and that's in the extra noise and vibration from the diesel engine, but its installation in F-Pace is a great deal more refined than in last year's XE saloon.

And the more you drive it, the better it gets, until by the time I had to hand the keys back, I was genuinely sorry to say goodbye to Jaguar's first (and rather long awaited) SUV. It strikes a nice balance between the more staid opposition and the Porsche, while being more practical, providing at least all-weather capability if not the real mud-plugging abilities of its Land Rover and Range Rover sisters, and being, well fun to drive.

People are talking about a resurgence of confidence at Jaguar as it prepares to repair its poor sales and launch a fistful of new cars and drivelines. F-Pace rather bears all that out.