I saw a parked iPace so went to a dealership
Discussion
I keep thinking about the future of being on the road and whether I could be tempted into electric. We've bought a couple of new Macans over the last few years and didn't think at the time, that as a family, we were ready for a EV. Now times are a changing. Today, I saw a parked iPace that looked great and caught my eye, so off I went to the local JLR dealer to find out what they're all about. I even went for a drive in one. As a true petrol head with a V10 R8, Macan and vintage Rolls, I just didn't know what to expect but actually found it surprisingly 'normal'. Apart from the silent crawl from carpark to road, I found the tyre noise and even depth of motor sound on the go, much the same as the Macan. In fact there was absolutely nothing about it that made me view it differently from an ICE car. I really liked it. Then I spied a black HSE with red leather and found myself requesting a quote. Oops.
Oh, did I say I'd be selling the R8 to finance it?
Oh, did I say I'd be selling the R8 to finance it?
TheDeuce said:
Lord Flashheart said:
I'm reading good things here, which is encouraging. The downside is you're pushing me towards spending more than I'd hoped! Black pack HSE with 22s and red sports seats would be the ultimate.
Ahem... And air suspension and active damping please.oop north said:
My iPace just went back a couple of weeks ago after 29,000 mile in three years.
If I didn't need something bigger (now got an XC90 to cart the children to and from university at 185 miles (Edinburgh) and 150 miles away (Aberystwyth) - though got a Volvo C40 for my wife) and wasn't going to travel more than say 100 miles from home (at least until there is a better spread of chargers with a lot more than 50kW charging speeds - almost none on the uni runs meaning 2 hours charging on Edinburgh return trip and 1.5 hours charging on a run to Aberystwyth - which adds horribly to length of a day return trip) I would have very happily had another iPace, or kept the original for longer. Nothing looked or felt worn after three years, I enjoyed driving it (I have never in all my life had the inclination to race a Golf GTi above 100mph...) and if there were decent chargers en route it was perfectly possible to do big distances without stops an awful lot longer than you would want to stop - eg, we did Preston to Essex coast (320 miles each way) in March for the weekend without difficulty
There are a couple of areas where Jaguar are behind the curve though - the charge curve and max charging speed are both pretty poor, efficiency is also poor (driving gently doesn't help the iPace all that much but on the C40 you can really stretch the battery if you try hard), and the infotainment software is buggy (the pivi pro more so according to the owner forums). The infotainment was OK on mine (no point getting over excited about slow loading of the satnav - my 2015 BMW i3 was no better - but occasional blank screens were a bit of an irritation) but I have never been bothered about setting up profiles which many people had problems with.
Some of he promises made by Jaguar at launch were never fulfilled - I was told the space saver spare wheel would fit under the boot floor if I didn't have air suspension but that was a downright lie (though I can't think of any EV where a spare can be kept without losing a huge chunk of the boot). The nav was touted as directing you to a charger when navigating with all sorts of info about whether or not it was available but there is no such thing
The Jaguar app was vastly better than the rubbish the Volvo C40 has - the iPace app showed journey and consumption history and location and ability to lock and unlock and pre-heat / cool remotely, but the Volvo is missing most of that.
[I hope that a software update will fix but the C40 doesn't have any odometer reading of total distance traveled which is barking mad - and may even be illegal? But my wife prefers to the C40 to the Jag - and I like it still having 400bhp
]
A good summary. I guess all makes have their issues and I'm pleased to read that none of the above would stop you owning an iPace in particular again. If I didn't need something bigger (now got an XC90 to cart the children to and from university at 185 miles (Edinburgh) and 150 miles away (Aberystwyth) - though got a Volvo C40 for my wife) and wasn't going to travel more than say 100 miles from home (at least until there is a better spread of chargers with a lot more than 50kW charging speeds - almost none on the uni runs meaning 2 hours charging on Edinburgh return trip and 1.5 hours charging on a run to Aberystwyth - which adds horribly to length of a day return trip) I would have very happily had another iPace, or kept the original for longer. Nothing looked or felt worn after three years, I enjoyed driving it (I have never in all my life had the inclination to race a Golf GTi above 100mph...) and if there were decent chargers en route it was perfectly possible to do big distances without stops an awful lot longer than you would want to stop - eg, we did Preston to Essex coast (320 miles each way) in March for the weekend without difficulty
There are a couple of areas where Jaguar are behind the curve though - the charge curve and max charging speed are both pretty poor, efficiency is also poor (driving gently doesn't help the iPace all that much but on the C40 you can really stretch the battery if you try hard), and the infotainment software is buggy (the pivi pro more so according to the owner forums). The infotainment was OK on mine (no point getting over excited about slow loading of the satnav - my 2015 BMW i3 was no better - but occasional blank screens were a bit of an irritation) but I have never been bothered about setting up profiles which many people had problems with.
Some of he promises made by Jaguar at launch were never fulfilled - I was told the space saver spare wheel would fit under the boot floor if I didn't have air suspension but that was a downright lie (though I can't think of any EV where a spare can be kept without losing a huge chunk of the boot). The nav was touted as directing you to a charger when navigating with all sorts of info about whether or not it was available but there is no such thing
The Jaguar app was vastly better than the rubbish the Volvo C40 has - the iPace app showed journey and consumption history and location and ability to lock and unlock and pre-heat / cool remotely, but the Volvo is missing most of that.
[I hope that a software update will fix but the C40 doesn't have any odometer reading of total distance traveled which is barking mad - and may even be illegal? But my wife prefers to the C40 to the Jag - and I like it still having 400bhp
]TheDeuce said:
Julian Thompson said:
Ask young people what their favourite supercar is and plenty of them will reply “R8”. Fabulous, amazing car.
Don’t do it. It’s like selling the Rolex you wear a few times a year so you can wear an Apple Watch daily.
If you asked most young people now if they thought their Dad should get an ICE or electric car though... They've all spent years in school learning about how we broke the planet, they like electric cars, it's modern and on trend. Actually, they really like a car with endless USB ports and strong wifi Don’t do it. It’s like selling the Rolex you wear a few times a year so you can wear an Apple Watch daily.
Or I suppose most would say a powerful Tesla or something unobtainable like a Rimac.
The R8 is a lovely car but for a car to keep for future values.. I can think of better. And if it's not to be kept as a cherished car, then naturally it has to go to make way the next car. A lot of people's next car is now going to be electric.
On the flip side, I can see supercar club popularity increasing as more people get their day to day speed kicks in EV but also want something more hardcore and fun a handful of times a year.
Edited by TheDeuce on Monday 16th May 22:23
My greatest concern with the R8 currently is which way values are going to go in the next 5 years say. With the onslaught of electric, they could be sought after and go up in price, or the government might just turn around and say gas guzzlers are going to cost you £5k a year to tax. Then no one will want it.
The iPace will be the dipping of my toe in the electric waters. For me it's the best looking EV currently. It looks so different externally to all others, with a very cool interior too.
Sadly I can't put an iPace down to business, so it would be a big personal expense.
Edited by Lord Flashheart on Wednesday 18th May 06:19
JonnyVTEC said:
Zcd1 said:
I-Pace’s Achilles’ Heel remains its DC charging speed, which simply isn’t competitive. If you don’t do much road tripping or don’t care about the much longer stops that would be required by an I-Pace, it’s a nice car.
Good in a few years though second hand, Atleast you know the battery won’t have been thrashed.
Having watched the Autocar Youtube review of iPace vs Merc vs Audi, I'm even more convinced. It is simply more of a driver's car than the others, and that's what I'm after as a priority over how practical it is etc.
OP here. As with all marques and models, there will always be those in favour and those who aren't. The charging/distance/curve thing for me is irrelevant. I currently drive a 5.2l V10. All electric cars will knock the efficiency of that into a cocked hat!
My life consists of driving a Transit van five days a week. My wife's car is a Macan. She drives 50 miles a day, mostly urban, and spends £100 per week on petrol. My 'classic' car is a 1933 Rolls, which might as well have a hole in the bottom of the petrol tank! Saturdays and Sundays consist mainly of a little local driving, and sometimes we might go to our bolt hole at the coast which is around 70 miles away with off street parking. In a nutshell, anything around 200 miles to a full charge is likely to be 3x as much as I need in my world, and if on the very rare occasion I need to do some serious mileage, it'll need planning or there's the Macan.
Of all the EVs, the Jag is the best looking for me by miles. The car I might buy is a stunning new HSE with best part of £8k worth of extras. I 'think' it will make me very happy.
My life consists of driving a Transit van five days a week. My wife's car is a Macan. She drives 50 miles a day, mostly urban, and spends £100 per week on petrol. My 'classic' car is a 1933 Rolls, which might as well have a hole in the bottom of the petrol tank! Saturdays and Sundays consist mainly of a little local driving, and sometimes we might go to our bolt hole at the coast which is around 70 miles away with off street parking. In a nutshell, anything around 200 miles to a full charge is likely to be 3x as much as I need in my world, and if on the very rare occasion I need to do some serious mileage, it'll need planning or there's the Macan.
Of all the EVs, the Jag is the best looking for me by miles. The car I might buy is a stunning new HSE with best part of £8k worth of extras. I 'think' it will make me very happy.
Witchfinder said:
Lord Flashheart said:
OP here. New iPace could be on my drive in a week and it'll look identical to this one! The interior probably isn't to everyone's liking, but for me it's the dogs danglies.
Damn! That looks good! Hope you have a great time owning and driving it. I think the IPace is very sensitive to what wheels are on it. The basic "S" wheels look s
te, but those ones look just right.TheDeuce said:
Lord Flashheart said:
Well I brought my new iPace home on Tuesday in piss poor weather, so waited until Wednesday for a bit of sunshine for a photograph.
So far I'm loving the car and really impressed with the explosive acceleration. It feels every bit as quick as my R8 did!
When you've got used to it enough to push it, you'll find it changes direction faster than any SUV has the right to as well as the straight line mentalism of the car So far I'm loving the car and really impressed with the explosive acceleration. It feels every bit as quick as my R8 did!
As you bought a pre-buolt car, did you get the spec/options you wanted? I hope it's on the air springs with those big wheels!
As I'm a petrol head by nature, I've mostly driven it in dynamic mode and have tried a bit of slalom too. I'm loving it.
TheDeuce said:
Lord Flashheart said:
The spec is great, albeit I don't know what an HSE comes with as standard. This car has air lift on 22s, sports seats which are heated and cooled, red leather including the dash, some fancy headlining material, mood lighting that looks awesome at night (I'll take pics for you), matrix headlights and some gadget that shuts the tailgate if you wave your foot under the bumper.
As I'm a petrol head by nature, I've mostly driven it in dynamic mode and have tried a bit of slalom too. I'm loving it.
The tech stuff and heated/cooled seats, boot opener are all HSE, apart from the configurable ambient lighting which is an option I also have As I'm a petrol head by nature, I've mostly driven it in dynamic mode and have tried a bit of slalom too. I'm loving it.
But the performance seats, extended leather and alcantara headlining are all options - you have a fantastic spec interior and I'm sure you'll do well one day when you come to sell it.
Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff