2016 Jaguar F-Pace diesel India review, test drive

What’s it like to drive?

We drove the 3.0-litre diesel and to summarise this engine in one word is – impressive. It is fairly silent at idle and there aren’t noticeable vibrations to speak of. As the revs begin to climb, this motor gets vocal but not in a clattery, diesel-like manner. It’s more of a deep, bassy growl which gives this engine a very sporty note.

Driving around in city traffic, this SUV does the job without throwing a tantrum. With a light foot, the engine upshifts early and there’s ample torque lower down the rev range to potter around. It will build speeds in a relaxed manner while the passengers are cocooned from the outside world, inside the F-Pace’s cabin. Demand for aggressive acceleration in Sport and there’s a lusty gush of torque that makes it lunge forward riding a wave of boost. Once past 2,000rpm power delivery is smooth yet punchy all the way till 4,500rpm, after which progress is slow. The meat of the engine is its mid-range performance. Due to the 700Nm of torque available from 2,000rpm, overtaking fast-moving vehicles out on the open road is simply effortless and the engine doesn’t warrant a downshift too often either. For most scenarios the eight-speed gearbox does the job really well without the need for a manual intervention. However, use the paddles and the shifts aren’t as quick as the double clutch units or even the BMW’s ZF transmission. But in manual mode, you can hold on to a gear.

There are four driving modes to choose from – Dynamic, Normal, Eco and Rain Ice Snow which change the throttle response, steering weight and gearshift pattern to suit different conditions. In versions equipped with adaptive dampers (First Edition), their stiffness is electrically controlled too. To extract the best out of the engine and gearbox, engage the Dynamic driving mode and the gearbox in Sport mode and watch the performance liven up even more with the speedo needle going past high speeds with a blink of an eye.

Another outstanding feature is this SUV’s ride and handling. It’s a performance SUV but there’s no hint of underlying stiffness to the suspension and it irons out the rough stuff in a very mature manner and the faster you go, it gets better. This is also the ideal SUV in which you’d attack a good set of corners and you are assured of a wide grin at the end of it. Out on a twisty section of road is where this SUV shines. Grip levels are great thanks to the stiff springs, all-wheel drive system and the fat 255 section tyres, which encourage the driver to drive fast around corners. The car is capable of carrying incredibly high speeds through bends. If the speed of the vehicle is too high while tackling curves, the torque vectoring system will independently apply the brakes to either or both the inside wheels to reduce understeer and hold the line better. There is some body roll but for an SUV this tall, but it’s actually very well controlled and the sharp and precise steering only adds to the brilliant driving dynamics of this car.