There’s been a party going on in the SUV market over the last decade; the car industry’s fastest-growing and most profitable sector. So anyone arriving late is understandably keen to get in before dawn breaks, the music stops and the cops arrive. Jaguar is one of these latecomers but then it does have a pretty good excuse — the small matter of rebuilding its entire product range and identity from the ground up — and barely putting a foot wrong throughout the process.
To use sporting parlance, Jaguar is a brand on form and this car, the marque’s first-ever SUV, feels like a big moment. Could it be the model that gets the word out far and wide, that gives them the scale to become a serious global player, and access to the VIP room?
First up, it’s rare that you call an SUV out for its good looks, but this car has the kind of menacing grille and aggro stature you want in a big and bulky car, yet it still manages to strike an attractive family resemblance to its distant cousin the F-Type. These days, you expect a Jag to look the part, and the F-Pace is no exception.
Engine: 3.0-litre V6 supercharged petrol
Power: 375bhp
0–100kph: 5.1 secs
Top speed: 250kph (limited)
Economy: 8.9L per km (combined)
Price: Approx Dhs250,000
It has some pretty strong off-road credentials too, not surprising given its sister brand is Land Rover, but it’s on the road that Jaguar wants the F-Pace to stand out from the rest, as an SUV to rival the Porsche Macan.
This is where Jaguar’s engineers put in the hardest yards and its flagship model, with a supercharged 3.0-litre petrol engine, definitely delivers on that brief. With 375bhp, it has power to burn, precise handling and is as comfortable around B-road corners as it is eating up motorway miles — where its fully teched-up cabin and luxe interior delivers the kind of experience its waiting list of customers signed up for without ever having driven it.
Jaguar might be arriving fashionably late to the SUV party, but it’s making one hell of an entrance.