Top-of-the-range Jaguar E-PACE lives up to its big brand name

WHEN a neighbour takes the trouble to knock on my door and rather cheekily ask for a closer look at the car on my driveway, it must be something a little bit special.

That’s exactly what happened when I took delivery of a Jaguar E-PACE.

It’s a scaled down version of the mighty F-PACE SUV and it’s big on performance, thrills, styling and technology. And with the likes of the Porsche Mecan and Audi Q5 in its sights, it needed to tick all the right boxes – it does.

From any approach, the E-PACE looks muscular and athletic in its styling. Our car was supplied with Pearl Black premium metallic paintwork and together with the tinted windows, 20-inch black alloys and red brake calipers it looked pretty menacing too.

Move inside and there’s a wealth of state-of-the-art technology to explore. Creature comforts include the likes of Oyster Windsor leather upholstery with suede headlining, 18-way electric heated front seats with memory functions, a head-up display, a surround camera system, pitch perfect Meridian sound system, sat nav, a 12.3-inch interactive driver display, a 10-inch Touch Pro infotainment system and plenty more besides. In fact, the list of features was so long it extended to a second page of A4 in miniscule print size.

Our car in range-topping HSE R-Dynamic trim was powered by a 300ps 2.0-litre petrol engine and could complete the 0-62mph dash in a very rapid 6.4 seconds. It topped out at 151mph and, according to official figures, delivered combined fuel economy of 35.3mpg with carbon emissions of 181g/ km.

The E-PACE was not cheap. Our car began life at £50,710 but the optional extras saw that cost rise to £57,015.

But it’s worth remembering that this was a range-topper; the E-PACE range starts from £27,770 which is pretty reasonable for an SUV carrying the big cat Jaguar badging. Comfort levels within the car are excellent and there is ample space for four adults to travel in comfort. And when it comes to storage space, its well equipped to cope with the demands of an active family’s lifestyle.