Would a Jaguar still feel like a Jaguar if you sat in it bent-legged and meerkat-like at the wheel – as many SUV drivers are used to doing?
For now, the question remains unanswered, because the F-Pace’s driving position is entirely unlike that.
Although the car’s hip point is quite high, you board it very conveniently rather than dropping down into the seat and your view out is good.
But you sit with arms and legs outstretched, surrounded by high-rising door cards and fascia, a relatively high transmission tunnel console, slanting A-pillars and a fairly slim glasshouse. So the F-Pace doesn’t seem like an SUV at all.
Neither has Jaguar strayed very far from its established conventions with the interior design. The sweeping arc of the dashboard and the swooping, free-form shapes of its features will be familiar to anyone transferring from an XE or current XF saloon.
Everything looks and feels appealing enough. Material quality is good rather than outstanding, just as we found with the XE and XF. Fit and finish standards are likewise, with some trim pieces feeling just a little bit wobbly when subjected to scrutiny.
You get useful convenience features: big door bins, a sizeable centre cubby, good-sized twin cupholders and upright storage cubbies in the sides of the centre console that are designed especially to take your smartphone.
The farther rearwards your attention turns, the more the car resembles a conventional SUV in terms of space and versatility. The rear seats are wide enough for three smallish occupants and comfortable for two large adults, and there’s more leg room than in a Mercedes-Benz GLC.
At the back you’ll find seatbacks that fold 40/20/40 for maximum through-loading flexibility, a storage bay that’s wide and deep, a reversible floor with a wipe-clean, non-slip coating on the flip side, and space under the floor to stow the load bay cover when you need to take it out.
Although the Jaguar’s cabin can’t match the integrity and material largesse of some German rivals, it’s certainly the most versatile and well thought out of any of its cars.
There is four trim levels to choose from including Prestige, Portfolio, R-Sport and S editions. The entry-level trim comes with leather seats, 8in infotainment complete with sat nav, a powered tailgate and in-car wi-fi, while the range-topping S trim is anointed with a sportier bodykit, xenon headlights, 20in alloys, leather sport seats and a reversing camera.
The F-Pace’s optional InControl Touch Pro infotainment system is the headline feature here. It has a quad-core processor, 60GB of solid-state storage and a 10.2in touchscreen and it works through a fast-transmitting ethernet network. We know it’s excellent because we’ve tried it on other F-Pace test cars, although it’s fairly pricey at £1710.
Our road test car didn’t have it but instead used the standard 8.0in touchscreen system — and it felt all the poorer for the omission.
The screen is slow to react to fingertip prompts and renders navigation mapping with the graphical sophistication of an aftermarket system.
The Bluetooth phone connection is reliable enough and call audio quality decent. Audio quality from the standard-fit 80-watt audio system, meanwhile, isn’t much to write home about.
The upgraded Meridian hi-fi systems start at £600 and probably improve on the standard audio system’s range and clarity by more than enough to justify that outlay. source by autocar.co.uk
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