Jaguar F-Pace News

Luxury car buyers will again be spoiled for choice this year, with a new arrival to suit every budget.

The days of bargain-basement XF Jaguars are over.

Luxury brands vie for attention with opulence and drop-tops.

Imagine someone turning up for a New Year's Eve celebration on January 30th, 10 years later, and it will give you some idea of just how late Jaguar is in coming to the sporty SUV party.

Jaguar has given us our best look yet at its first ever SUV, confirming the F-Pace will be used as the Sky Team support vehicle at the 2015 Tour de France that starts this weekend.While the F-Pace SUV won’t be officially revealed until later this year, the support car wears minimal camouflage and gives us our best indication yet as to the model’s styling direction.These latest F-Pace images clearly show that the styling of the original C-X17 concept shown at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show has been kept intact for the production model.The F-Pace features the familiar Jaguar grille with slim headlights and smooth lines, while the rear is heavily influenced by the F-Type sports car.Jaguar’s first ever SUV is currently in its final stages of development and the British brand claims its duty as the Sky Team support car will be a great real-world test of the high-rider’s durability, performance and packaging. Jag is clearly confident in the F-Pace’s abilities, as a malfunction of any kind at such a public event would prove damaging to the brand.The F-Pace will be used during the Tour de France to carry a crew of up to four people including the team director, doctor, mechanic and another senior Sky Team member.Jag is clearly confident in the F-Pace’s abilities, as a malfunction of any kind at such a public event would prove damaging to the brand.Jaguar’s first SUV will adopt an all aluminium chassis architecture derived from the new XE and XF sedans with similar proportions to the Audi Q5.The F-Pace is expected to be powered by a range of petrol and diesel engines including a 250kW 3.0-litre supercharged V6, 202kW turbodiesel and possibly even a 404kW 5.0-litre supercharged V8 in a performance ‘R’ variant.Rear and all-wheel drive will likely be available with an eight-speed auto shifting gears.The production F-Pace will go on sale internationally in 2016.  

Just as Porsche used the original Cayenne to save the company, and continue the success of its classic 911 sports car, the British brand is confident of future growth with the car originally previewed as the C-X17 concept.The newcomer is called the F-Pace and will be ready for showrooms in 2016. The inevitable arrival of a high-performance version is likely to see the creation of an F-Pace R.The F-Pace is the latest stretch for the Jaguar Land Rover group and comes in the final countdown to the make-or-break XE compact car, but chief designer Ian Callum does not see any conflict with the four-wheel drive Range Rovers at the other half of the company.It's a crossover with an on-road focus"Our car will be very different," Callum reveals to CarsGuide at the Detroit motor show. "It won't be an off-road four-wheel drive. It's a crossover with an on-road focus. That's the major difference."It also helps that the SUV is based on the F-Type sports car, which helps explain its name.Jaguar sprang a carefully-set ambush on the day before Detroit, revealing the name and details of the production C-X17 before another of the rival brands could unveil their concept cars.It also trumped Bentley, which confirmed at the show it's heavyweight SUV would go into production as the Bentayga. It combines the names of the Roque Bentayga, a rugged peak in the Canary Islands, and the Taiga snow forest.At Jaguar, the F-Pace name is also a nod to the original Jaguar boss, Sir William Lions, who said his cars had "Grace, pace and space".It has to be sexyThat could point to an F-Space and an F-Grace, although that's extremely unlikely."I don't think so," says Callum.He reveals the conflict in designing an SUV after working so hard to reinvent a Jaguar style direction for the 21st century."It has to be sexy. It has been difficult because it goes against every muscle of your body in some ways," he says."Once I realised that a crossover makes good business sense and that, for a lot of young people, they don't know anything else other than crossovers, I said to our team ‘We've got to embrace this car'."We will push back on this obsession of getting the biggest volume inside, the biggest capacity and the largest tailgate opening. I wasn't going to buy into that."

Jaguar has today confirmed that its upcoming BMW X5-rivalling premium SUV will wear 'F-Pace’ badging when it hits showrooms next year. Previewed by the CX-17 SUV concept in 2013, the new model will be Jaguar’s first production high-rider but the British brand claims the model will be clearly linked to the F-Type sports car.Jaguar design boss Ian Callum said the F-Pace offers a unique combination of Jaguar sports car inspired exterior design, fused with a practical and spacious luxury interior.“The F-Pace is our family sports car,” he said.The key design link between the two F-badged models will be sleek rear light design and bold exterior surfacing to give a distinctively sporty look. The ‘F’ part of the SUV’s name could also be a reference to the car’s physical size being similar to the mid-size XF range.The F-Pace will employ a lightweight all-alloy body structure derived from the all-wheel drive architecture which underpins the current Range Rover Sport – though the Jaguar is expected to be slightly smaller and will only have seating for five rather than the seven offered in the Range Rover. Engine options are expected to include the 250kW supercharged 3.0-litre V6 from the new XE S sedan and F-Type models, and 3.0-litre 202kW V6 diesel with the big 404kW 5.0-litre supercharged V8 possibly destined for an F-Pace R high performance variant.  Jaguar’s first SUV will go on sale in 2016, and could be revealed in production form as early as this year’s Geneva motor show in March.

It's Jaguar's first SUV and, despite the clunky look of this cobbled-together test mule, it promises to be a game-changer for the Indian-owned British brand.It needs to be super special so it does not steal sales from its sister brand, Range Rover, but it gets a head start by sharing its base with the all-new Jaguar XE. It should be ready next year.What is it? Jaguar SUVWhy the fuss? It's Jaguar's first.When is it here? 2015How much? About $80,000This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover 

Jaguar has booked into the world's most expensive ad programming, the annual US Super Bowl -- which sees more interest in its ads than in the football final being played out on the field.

Despite tasty hero cars led by the F-Type Jaguar and Aston Martin One-77, it's the real world cars that are of most interest.The return of the Nissan Pulsar, the unveiling of the Toyota Corolla and the first Sydney appearance of the Mazda6 and Mitsubishi Mirage are all proof that ordinary customers now rule the roost. As car sales track strongly towards an all-time record, it's real people spending their own money who are the real target for carmakers."If you get the product right, everything else follows," the top Aussie at Toyota Australia, Dave Buttner, tells Carsguide. "All the growth in sales this year is with private buyers, as government departments have been winding back and fleet sales are also down. Private buyers are confident and they are spending on the second-biggest purchase after their house."Nissan confirmed its commitment to the new-age PUlsar with a $19,990 starting price and a SSS under lights. "Pulsar is back and we have big plans," Bill Peffer, managing director of Nissan Australia, tells Carsguide.For Mazda, the new 6 is its first all-new arrival since the GFC and a pointer to the replacement for the top selling Mazda3. "You can see now where we're going," Doug Dickson, MD of Mazda Australia, says. And the baby Mirage? "It's something new for us, and it's going to bring a lot of people to the brand. I reckon we'll sell heaps," Mitsubishi marketing chief Paul Unerkov laughs.