Jaguar F Pace
 

Got a good deal on a rental upgrade today, and it seemed like more fun to drive from Cleveland to Detroit in this rather than an Elantra.

It’s a pretty nice thing. It’s got a 296 hp 2.0L four and the ubiquitous 8 speed auto, and pretty modern telematics and features. It’s really made for high speed cruising, and will happily roll along at 80+ with little effort.

It has decent body control, but like all “sporty” SUVs it tries to disguise its mass with flinty damping. It sort of works, but the price is a ride that isn’t really that special.

It handles well for a biggish SUV, but you won’t confuse it for a sports car.

At the same time, it wouldn’t be a Jag without dodgy electrical systems. The infotainment system intermittently cuts out completely, or just loses radio functionality. Really bad for a car with 5K miles on it.

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Wow - near 300HP from a 2.0L I-4....
For the rest - Yeah - makes an boring rental more interesting.

I see these around fairly often - Seems to be a popular choice among the folks with a few $$.

Yeah - English (heritage anyway) electronics...

Have fun flinging it around for your time with it... :)

My last rental was a Toyota Avalon. Dismal.... (but I needed the trunk space).

While not quite as buttoned down as a Macan, there's a bit of fun in driving the F-Pace, it doesn't feel to heavy and definitely has a RWD feel. Fit and finish are not tops. Great rental...

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Our trip with the F Pace concluded yesterday. Overall, it's a nice vehicle. It's reasonably comfortable, has good space inside, got non-terrible mileage, and really killed it on the highway, cruising at 90+ like it was nothing.

Impressive performance for a 2 liter four. At the same time, I was reminded when I got home of a time when not all cars were 2 liter fours, and why that matters. The Ingenium four is powerful and doesn't have much lag, but it grumbles and sounds pretty pedestrian; the 3 liter six in the M3 just feels worlds more special. The F Pace with a 5.0L V8 or something unique and interesting would be really compelling.

Driving-wise, my impressions from above mostly held true. The ride is rougher than it needs to be and it feels a little like it's on stilts, but if you need an SUV this wouldn't be a bad choice, at all.

The infotainment system held it together for the rest of our trip, and worked well with carplay. I didn't like that there were no physical buttons for the seat heaters, but other than that it was a system I could live with.

Jaguar F Pace
 

Nice rental! I’ve only driven one of those with the v6. The 300hp 4 seems like a good amount of power - surprised they don’t offer it in the heavier velar.

JLR seems to be releasing quarterly OTA updates of the infotainment to fix bugs, improve performance and add new features so that’s promising. The LRs and refreshed Jags have a lower screen with 2 dials that can be used to control the heated seats. I’ve never had the screens blank out on ours but it’s glitchy for sure.

Would love to try the SVR with the 5.0 v8 as well. Not long for this world though since their agreement with ford expired this year and production has stopped. Read a few reviews that claim the ride quality is good on the SVR version but that’s likely compared to super stiff SUVs like the x3M. Good ride quality seems to be a rare commodity in general these days.


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