Jaguar F-Pace: Better late than never

The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) combine is not a marriage of convenience. Two extremely iconic brands each with its own strong design and engineering character and heritage. Both of them have stuck it out with the niche of vehicle type that they became identified with; and the only common thread connecting the two being pure British luxury.

Land Rover continues to stay the course, firmly stuck to its niche of delivering the most luxurious sports utility vehicles (SUVs) across genres and sizes, even after it came under Tata ownership. But, Jaguar has been more experimentative, trying to revive and extend its sports car roots to branch out into other categories, including, last year, the SUV segment. Who would have thought that this British marquee would one day have a ‘sports-ute’ in its portfolio. But, the F-Pace looks like a perfect fit with the rest of the Jags in the stable.

The F-Pace is not really a SUV, its design is more crossover, derived from the C-X17 concept. Buyers may be willing to accept an upright SUV body style from the likes of Bentley (Bentayga), the upcoming Project Cullinan from Roll-Royce, and of course the Range Rover from Land Rover. But coming from Jaguar, the design had to still mark its sporty DNA. The F-Pace then bears the stamp of two brands – that of Jaguar and its chief designer Ian Callum.

Strikingly similar to the recent additions to Jaguar’s model portfolio, the F-Pace borrows heavily from the design of the XE sedan and the new XJ. The familiar three-dimensional oval bonnet grille with its mesh and chrome lining, the headlamps with the J-shaped signature LED daytime running lights (DRLs) and the long bonnet have Ian Callum written all over them. In keeping with the F-Pace’s SUV flavour, the vehicle has slab-sided panels with subtle design lines. But its crossover features give it a stronger character especially the curved bonnet slab with the power bulge in the middle, and the sharply sloping roof line. If you didn’t take the design cues (and didn’t read the F-Pace brochure) that the new vehicle is inspired by the F-Type’s design, you will surely come to that conclusion when you see the tail-lamps in the crossover. The sleek, wraparound tail-lights in the F-Pace almost look like they have been lifted from the sports car.

With a compact tailgate, the rear of the crossover features a simpler design. The F-Pace’s crossover attributes get a boost from the 19-inch wheels, the strong rear haunches and the large air scoops at the front. The F-Pace has the ideal proportions for a crossover that needs to compete with rivals that are already well entrenched in the market. It is slightly larger than the Audi Q5’s and Porsche Macan’s dimensions, and smaller than the Cayenne and the Q7. With the brand's, by now, trademarked use of aluminium architecture extending to the F-Pace too, this new vehicle is quite light. As much as 80 per cent of the F-Pace is made out of aluminium.

The F-Pace shares its platform and many of its parts with the XE and the XF, and no where is it more obvious than in the cabin. Numerous features inside the cabin look like they have been picked out of the XE’s parts bin. Even the dashboard design and layout seems to be straight out of Jag’s smallest sedan. The new design for the top of the dashboard with its continuous arch style line that curves around the edge of the dash and extends onto the door panels has been carried into the F-Pace too. Jag designers call this the Riva Loop. This also leads to the door panels featuring a three-layered construction just like in the XE and there are also similar issues with some of the features like the unintuitive position for the power window buttons.

The cabin felt spacious and well-lit, especially in our test mule which was the top trim R-Sport version with a panoramic sunroof, and the grey and red leather interior theme. Legroom in the cabin and the storage space in the boot also seemed to be more than some of the compact SUVs in the same class. The F-Pace sports all the regular luxury bits from the other Jag sedans including features like the Meridian audio and the InControl multimedia system, Heads-up display and even a front fender mounted camera, which we first saw in the Range Rover Evoque. The tall centre console and easy to reach controls add some SUV-ness to the F-Pace’s cabin.

Our test mule F-Pace was the 30d AWD featuring the 3-litre, V6 turbocharged diesel engine and all-wheel drive. The 2,993cc engine is offered in two trim variants — R-Sport and First Edition. This is a super refined engine with none of the usual diesel characteristics in terms of noise and vibration levels. It also delivers very healthy power (297hp) and torque (700Nm) levels. With all of the torque available from 2,000rpm, drivability is excellent across a range of conditions. The engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox. Toggling the square switches below the trademark gear knob also enables one to choose between different Jaguar DriveControl modes - dynamic, eco, and rain, ice, snow mode. Depending on the mode chosen shifts are quicker or delayed to offer more dynamic performance or save fuel respectively. This powertrain is a sensible choice rather than being one which is over the top, in terms of usability in everyday conditions.

The other engine on offer is the all-new 2-litre, four-cylinder Ingenium diesel burner. This turbocharged engine is rated to offer 132kW of peak power (177hp) and 430Nm of torque. The India-spec variants with this engine (Pure and Prestige trim) are offered with the same 8-speed auto transmission.

The F-Pace handles really well. Thanks to its 50:50 weight distribution and all-wheel drive, it feels nearly like a sporty sedan. We said nearly because there is still mild body roll that reminds you of its crossover build. But, the F-Pace takes on corners with gusto and any possibility of under steer is promptly taken care of by the torque vectoring system. The steering feel is great, it is perfectly weighted and offers decent feedback. The ride quality is neither too harsh nor too pliant. In addition to the F-Type derived suspension, the part of the credit must also go to the 225/55 profile tyres.

The F-Pace’s best attributes have to be the purity of its design and its sporty handling. Yeah, it looks too much like the other Jags, but that is desirable, and it is still a tough task for a designer to come up with a design that stays true to its lineage. Starting from ₹68.4 lakh, Jaguar has chosen not go with an aggressive pricing strategy, making the F-Pace more expensive than some of the German competitors in the same size class. The top-end First Edition variant is priced at ₹1.12 crore.

Jaguar is a late comer to the SUV/ crossover party, and there are probably a few Jag fans shaking their heads disapprovingly about the F-Pace. But who expected Porsche’s SUVs to be doing so well when the German sports carmaker launched its first such vehicle in the Cayenne.