2016 Jaguar F-Pace diesel India review, test drive

The F-Pace has made its India debut. We get behind the wheel to see whether the beefed-up SUV offers the Jag-like quality and driving thrills.

Published on Oct 24, 2016 02:50:00 PM

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2016 Jaguar F-Pace diesel India review, test drive

What’s it like inside?

The interiors of the F-Pace are well-crafted and are similar to the XE and XF due to the high percentage of parts shared between them. The dashboard is near identical to the XE sedan in terms of design and layout. It also features the signature ‘Riva Loop’ which is a single piece of trim that connects the door pads, running along the farther edge of the dashboard. While the overall quality of materials is good, there are still some areas on the dashboard and door pads that have hard plastics. The front seats are nice, supportive are comfy for even those with larger frames. They do a good job of holding the passengers in place. Even the steering wheel is great to hold, but feels cluttered with too many buttons for the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and the simply superb Meridian sound system which sounds great.

Thanks to the expansive glass area and the massive panoramic sunroof, the cabin is flooded with light and feels bright and airy. Rearward visibility is decent and the driver also has the vehicle’s reversing aids – sensors and camera. The R-Sport variant is equipped with a frontal camera which is handy while driving off-road, especially when obstacles like big stones or logs are hidden away from the driver’s field of vision. What’s awkward are the window controls located on the window sill like in the Land Rover’s, rather than near the door armrest. These take some time to get used to.

The rear seats can be reclined electrically and this adds an extra dimension to rear-seat comfort, but there’s no fore-aft seat adjustment. Still, there’s plenty of kneeroom, much more than in a Porsche Macan and ample under-thigh support on offer. Add to that, rear passengers can individually set their preferred air-con temperature.

The F-Pace comes loaded with a lot of standard equipment including all-wheel drive and a host of safety features. What’s unique is that the F-Pace is one of the rare premium SUVs currently in the market to be equipped with a full-size spare wheel. It also gets the very fancy park-assist feature which not only lets the driver steer the car into a parallel or perpendicular parking spot, it also steers the driver out of a parallel parked slot.