Backing off
Goodbye Jaguar F-Pace £44,615 OTR/ £61,590 as tested
This isn’t the first time I’ve run a big 4WD, pulled along by a highly turbocharged 2.0-litre 4cyl diesel engine running through an 8spd auto. The first was an estate, not a crossover, though – a Volvo V90, and it did 37.5mpg versus the F-Pace’s 32.3mpg. Same driver, same roads, same driving. That’s the rational case against using tall ‘off-roaders’ on the road.
The rational case in favour is that an SUV can carry more, provided you’re prepared to load it to the roof. How often do you?
These long-term tests aren’t only about reliability; they’re also about how your view changes over time. Small things: settling into the initially uncomfortable seats, and coming to enjoy the subtle sound of the hi-fi where other cars have blaring treble.
Big things: every time I drove another crossover this year, I was struck by what a good job the F-Pace chassis engineers have done, in both ride and steering. The powertrain people, less so. It was noisy and the auto gearshifts were rough and oddly timed. I can still see the impressions of the override paddles on my fingertips. Neither the Dynamic or Eco modes helped.
I did occasionally use Dynamic mode for its tauter damper settings. It also turned the instruments from blue to red, which is OK, and, get this, swapped the positions of the speedo and rev-counter… confusing me at the exact time I needed to be clear. Ridiculous. At least it had the optional HUD for the speedo.
Proving that Jag is basically Skoda to Range Rover’s Audi, the F-Pace’s infotainment is an aeon behind the Velar’s. Months of practice didn’t ease its baffling and sluggish workings, nor the flakiness of the traffic and routing that came via its onboard SIM.
It was also ropey in working via cable to draw music or charge my iPhone. Then on the day after the Jaguar departed I discovered the phone’s socket was full of fluff, so let’s not hold that as a Jaguar fault.