Few cars were launched with more fanfare in 2016 than the all-new, first generation Jaguar F-Pace.
The five-door, seven seat large SUV prioritises stunning good looks over genuine off road chops, but a direct relationship with Land Rover does help it when the going gets gravelly. Its primary domain, though, really is the urban jungle. It's offered for sale in Australia in a bewilderingly wide array of models that include 2.0- and 3.0-litre petrol engines with and without superchargers, as well as 2.0- and 3.0-litre turbocharged diesels, ranging from $91,915 for the F-Pace P250 R-Dynamic Se (184Kw) to $155,296 for the F-Pace Svr 575 Edition. All are all-wheel drive and all use a regular eight-speed automatic transmission as standard.
Paint colours? Narvik Black and Fuji White are standard at no extra cost for the S, SE and HSE. The SVR has its own standard palette and includes Santorini Black, Yulonhg White, Firenze Red, Bluefire Blue and Hakuba Silver. If you don’t have the SVR but want these colours it’ll be $1890, thank you.
Inside, the cabin has been made over with a giant landscape screen, new chunky climate control dials, a new steering wheel and the rotary shifter has been replaced by a regular upright one which is still small and compact, with cricket ball stitching. Watch our video review to see the transformation for yourself.
The temptation is to assume that the car is simply low on AdBlue (an additive that is sprayed into the exhaust of diesel engines to clean up their tailpipe emissions and make them less toxic). When this is depleted, the engine is programmed to warn the driver that the level is low, and then not to restart until the AdBlue has been topped up. This is possibly what the dealership did to remove the warning.
But there’s a chance that the AdBlue injecting system has a fault somewhere and the problem is not as simple as low AdBlue fluid. That’s why the error message has returned. Or, you may simply have a dud sensor that continues to think the AdBlue tank is empty.
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The F-Pace is a five seater with leather upholstery.
Coming standard from the base grade up is the new 11.4-inch touchscreen, sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, there’s keyless entry, push button start, dual-zone climate, power adjustable front seats, leather upholstery, the LED headlights and tail lights and an auto tailgate.
The entry S and the SE above it come with a six-speaker stereo, but as you step higher into the HSE and SVR more standard features appear such as a 13-speaker Meridian sound system, plus heated and ventilated front seats. A fully digital instrument cluster is standard on all grades apart from the entry S.
The options list is extensive and includes a head-up display ($1960), wireless charging ($455), and Activity Key ($403) which looks like an iWatch that locks and unlocks the F-Pace.
The F-Paces 0-100km/h time ranges from 7.3 seconds to as quick a 4.0 seconds. Yikes!