RE: Jaguar F-Pace: Review
Discussion
AutoPrive said:
Think this is the car that Pistonheads were due to have, it arrived with us today and looks superb in Italian Racing Red I have to say.
Looks brilliant in that colour.....would have been the colour I would have ordered one in as well, had I liked it enough....or rather had I liked the interior as much as the exterior.jack_86 said:
I like the f pace but I would never own one or any land rover product simply because I live near Gaydon and it would annoy me immensely spending that much on a car to then see every tom dick and harry who works at jlr driving round in the same model for free and usually driven poorly.
Likewise at Nissan in Sunderland , loads of company Jukes and QQ's getting thrashed around the local roads in an aggressive manner.Don't think they're free mind.
One year old Range Rover Sport or new(ish) F-pace?? I am at this moment contemplating such a purchase. I haven't driven an F-ace yet but a quick butchers at the interior makes me agree with the comments in the review. Wonky stitching on a £60k car isn't good. £60k to spec it to RRs levels. I would gringe every time I looked at it. Now if it was £40k you could understand it. Red a nice colour. OV reg car above an ex-JLR management car. Looked at one today that was decsribed as'just off lease'. Dealer failed to say it was off a Thrifty rent a car lease. They hadn't removed the sticker. Shocking.
Edited by topaz on Wednesday 31st August 20:17
jamieduff1981 said:
Maldini35 said:
jamieduff1981 said:
Maldini35 said:
From the article and the thread it seems the F-pace is another over- priced Jag which looks ok but falls short on build quality and interior.
Shame.
If such things matter (this is Pistonheads afterall), it also sounds like Jaguar is still the premium brand choice for people who want a nice interior but want rewarding driving dynamics more.Shame.
If you're not interested in the dynamics then fine, but some people are. Jaguar have been building cars that are better to drive than the competition on a like-for-like model basis for years now. Their development effort is bias towards steering and suspension set up. The Germans are bias towards soft touch plastics and infotainment screens.
I personally think it's mental to spend the same amount of money on a similar product that drives worse on the basis that it has more buttons inside but hey, that's my personal buying criteria talking.
As you say Jag should be praised for focusing on dynamics over interior finish and infotainment but a great handling SUV is like sporty stilts in my eyes - a bit pointless. It could be argued that if you really valued dynamics you probably wouldn't choose an SUV (or stilts).
And at the prices Jag is asking should we have to put up with slightly duff interiors and outdated infotainment in order to get a nice handling car? It's just a shame we can't have it all.
I should also state for the record that I'm not a fan of the Q5 or Macan either so no bias.
It's no different to a relatively young father (i.e. me) choosing a Sunday car by trying to identify the fastest, loudest, sexiest and most visceral car I happen to be able to fit my daughters in to, and ending up with a 2+2 seater Cerbera. One could somewhat dimly argue that if I really cared about driving I would look for a 2 seater as there are many more good cars that fill the rest of the brief well. Unfortunately they all fall down as being of limited use to my particular application.
Too many Pistonheaders have cross-wired brains which consider that fun and family cannot go together. If it has to tick some practical boxes, it can't be fun or if you want any fun at all, you can't have practically etc etc. If you think about it, that blows the entire raison d'être of the ubiquitous BMW M3 out of the water. If you really cared about driving, you won't start with a mass-produced BMW sales rep car...
I guess my point is that an SUV is not the only choice a family has.
In fact your comment about the M3 kind of reinforces my argument - there are serious alternatives to an SUV if you want driving fun and family practicality.
You say "If it's accepted that the Smith family are going to buy an SUV..." well, why should we accept that?
The deal's been done, no other options are being considered, Mr Smith has already made it clear that he doesn't prioritize driving dynamics. He wants an SUV (or his missus wants an SUV). Nothing wrong with that but that is his choice. It's not the only choice.
At this point I can understand if Mr Smith then wants to find something that has a modicum of driver engagement within the SUV segment but it will always be a dynamic compromise.
If Mr Smith REALLY valued driving dynamics he might look at one of the sporty estates: a nice AMG, XF V6 estate etc.
If he wants a more fashionable SUV, that's ok but it is not mandatory. We all coped without SUV's when growing up and families still manged to get about.
Just taken one of these out for a test drive as currently considering getting out of the XKR.
After seeing one in black a few weeks back I was blown away with how nice it appeared, on looks alone its a very handsome car. The salesman wanted to show me a 3.0 R-Sport first edition (basically all the toys) but I wanted to sample the 2.0 engine to see what it was like as it was more likely where I would end up.
They gave me the keys to a 2.0 Portfolio, first impressions were very favourable. The engine is bloody good, the gearbox too but 8 gears is really too many. It doesn't need 8 gears, it doesn't allow the car to use the available torque as it will change down a gear and not seemingly go any faster for a result, reminded me of a Grand Cherokee we had over in the states last year, 8 gears where they just made more noise not progress. In manual the car shows the available torque, switching back from S(port) to D (normal) improved things too, the car certainly is not short on power.
The ride is excellent, no crashing, no thumping, this is backed up by very nice feeling steering which is surprisingly sharp and responsive for such a car. Road noise was minimal. To drive, it isn't electrifying but it isn't meant to be, it is however quiet, very comfy and very good on the road.
Some niggles crept in though. First the replacement infotainment system, its certainly nicer than the one in my XKR but why cant we go back to a few touch buttons for the essentials? Sound system was the Meridion 2 whatever that is, its very good but despite being told its the new version of the B&W in mine, it isn't a patch sound wise. Then there was a horrid door panel or some trim vibration, tapping the door card area leaves a very cheap sounding response, this clearly could be improved by some additional sound deadening but it shouldn't be needed, it should thud rather than tink upon a tap.
Next niggle for me is the drivers arm rest, or lack of. You can use the door arm rest but you have to drop your arm to an unnatural position, or you can keep it on the door card/window lip but that's too high. I like to rest the right arm and hold the wheel, not possible for me in this car.
I left impressed at the new engine but overall underwhelmed with the car. Its not a top of the range so hopefully in the JLR world the RR Sport has no such rattles, but even in this level it is unacceptable to have vibrations/rattles from trim.
Then I spotted an XF Sportbrake S and am now considering that :O
After seeing one in black a few weeks back I was blown away with how nice it appeared, on looks alone its a very handsome car. The salesman wanted to show me a 3.0 R-Sport first edition (basically all the toys) but I wanted to sample the 2.0 engine to see what it was like as it was more likely where I would end up.
They gave me the keys to a 2.0 Portfolio, first impressions were very favourable. The engine is bloody good, the gearbox too but 8 gears is really too many. It doesn't need 8 gears, it doesn't allow the car to use the available torque as it will change down a gear and not seemingly go any faster for a result, reminded me of a Grand Cherokee we had over in the states last year, 8 gears where they just made more noise not progress. In manual the car shows the available torque, switching back from S(port) to D (normal) improved things too, the car certainly is not short on power.
The ride is excellent, no crashing, no thumping, this is backed up by very nice feeling steering which is surprisingly sharp and responsive for such a car. Road noise was minimal. To drive, it isn't electrifying but it isn't meant to be, it is however quiet, very comfy and very good on the road.
Some niggles crept in though. First the replacement infotainment system, its certainly nicer than the one in my XKR but why cant we go back to a few touch buttons for the essentials? Sound system was the Meridion 2 whatever that is, its very good but despite being told its the new version of the B&W in mine, it isn't a patch sound wise. Then there was a horrid door panel or some trim vibration, tapping the door card area leaves a very cheap sounding response, this clearly could be improved by some additional sound deadening but it shouldn't be needed, it should thud rather than tink upon a tap.
Next niggle for me is the drivers arm rest, or lack of. You can use the door arm rest but you have to drop your arm to an unnatural position, or you can keep it on the door card/window lip but that's too high. I like to rest the right arm and hold the wheel, not possible for me in this car.
I left impressed at the new engine but overall underwhelmed with the car. Its not a top of the range so hopefully in the JLR world the RR Sport has no such rattles, but even in this level it is unacceptable to have vibrations/rattles from trim.
Then I spotted an XF Sportbrake S and am now considering that :O
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