Snug as a bug in a Jag
Do you need an all-wheel-drive SUV for the British winter? You do not.
Faced with the threat of an icy, low-mu winter, people can take leave of their senses. Terrified of snow, my own mother swapped her R53 Mini Cooper S for a far less supercharged Rav4. I grieve still.
With 444bhp, rear-wheel drive and little more than an electronic diff, an empty boot and a very pert rear end over the back axle, the bald facts would suggest I immediately trade the F-Type for a
Toyota SUV, for fear of becoming a permanent part of the snow-bound Lincolnshire landscape.
But the truth is the Jaguar is proving itself an unlikely but formidable winter car. In an inch or two of snow the Rain/Snow/ Ice drive mode gamely summons forward motion where by rights there should be none, and life in the cockpit is peachy. The heated seats are monumentally powerful, able to roast a shoulder of lamb in the blink of an eye, and they’re warm before you’re even out of your village. The heated steering wheel, too, is a beautiful thing, particularly if, like me, you like your extremities warm but your cabin relatively cool and fresh. The F-Type also enjoys electric heating for the front and rear screens, so there’s no extended idle (love thy neighbour) or warm-water-in-akettle shenanigans required.
Then there’s the less obvious but if anything more impressive stuff. Modern Jaguars mostly enjoy a very impressive ride/handling balance that works brilliantly on UK roads. In the normal drive mode the F-Type deals with rough roads nicely, and even in angry Dynamic it stops well short of becoming a bone-stiff plank.
The advantages of this are, primarily, a very un-sports-car-like ability to shrug off rough and lumpen roads. But the same well-damped yet pliant wheel movement also plays a key role in the P450’s really impressive grip and traction, even when the tarmac’s frozen and the surface mirror-like with rainwater and filth. Couple that with the very supercharged power delivery (linear and consistently torquey) and you find yourself not pussyfooting around in poor weather but really driving – and loving every minute of it.
Mazda 3 GT Sport Skyactiv-X Month 7
The story so far
Great-looking hatch with an engine that makes big claims
Motorway refinement has to be top of the class…
…but mpg refuses to live up to its potential
Logbook
Price £26,675 (£27,465 as tested) Performance 1998cc four-cylinder, 178bhp, 8.2sec 0-62mph, 134mph Efficiency 48.7mpg (official), 31.6mpg (tested), 131g/km CO2 Energy cost 13.8p per mile Miles this
month 1467 Total miles 7380