2021 Jaguar F-PACE

Jaguar is a legacy brand that’s adapted and transformed numerous times in its  85-year existence, but few times have been quite like the past decade. As SUV sales have soared, the big cats have been reinvented to suit. After decades of sporting cars, Jaguar’s purposefully streamlined lineup is now mostly Crossover SUVs. The F-Pace, introduced for 2017, was joined over the next two years by the smaller E-Pace and the all-electric I-Pace. At the same time, production of the big XJ sedan ended and the smaller XE sedan was dropped from the U.S.

SUVs might once have seemed an odd fit for Jaguar despite its historical ties to Land Rover, but these machines interpret the brand’s historical mantra of “Grace, Space and Pace” just like their sedan counterparts, or at least buyers think so. The F-Pace is now Jaguar’s best seller, and the company has given it a host of improvements for 2021. With the big XJ gone and the F-Type sports car selling in relatively small numbers, it’s fair to say that the F-Pace is now the brand’s flagship vehicle.

The F-Pace is Jaguar’s jack of all trades, providing utility, performance and luxurious comfort in equal measure. For 2021 it receives a lightly updated exterior, redesigned interior, and an updated infotainment system. There’s also a new 3.0-liter turbocharged mild-hybrid inline six-cylinder engine on offer, the same one featured in some of the F-Pace’s Land Rover cousins, such as the latest Defender. 

On the outside, tweaks include redesigned front and rear bumpers for improved aerodynamics, an updated hood, LED lighting with updated daytime running lights and taillights, new wheel designs, three new colors, and an optional black exterior pack. 

Most customer-feedback-led updates are found inside the cabin, where drivers will find a sportier drive selector, a new steering wheel, and several quality improvement tweaks to the door casings and the instrument panel. There’s also aluminum and open-pore wood trimming available.

The biggest update, however, is the new screens. This includes a new standard 11.4-inch curved touchscreen, a larger 7-inch instrument display and several changes to the hardware and software. For the latter, the interface is reworked for easier use with quick-to-access settings and numerous shortcuts. Navigation updates allow the system to work more similarly to a smartphone,  and over-the-air updates remove the need for certain service center visits. 

In keeping with Jaguar’s mission to streamline for 2021, the F-Pace has trimmed the family tree, eliminating many previous offerings that spread across 12 derivatives of the same model, primarily by standardizing features that were previously options.

As a result, there are now five flavors of F-Pace, starting with the P250 standard at $51,145 including destination fees. The P250 starts customers off with the 246-horsepower naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, 3D surround camera, Meridian sound system and wireless device charging. The $54,245 P250 S adds a powered tailgate, high-quality leather upholstery, adaptive speed limiter and traffic sign recognition. 

Next up is the $60,545 P340 S, which introduces the new 335-horsepower turbocharged mild-hybrid 6-cylinder engine. It adds on the previous trim’s build with adaptive driving dynamics. The last of the “regular” F-Pace models is the $66,350 P400 R Dynamic S, which also features the 3.0-liter mild-hybrid six-cylinder engine, but squeezes 395 horsepower out of it in contrast to the 335 horsepower produced in the P340 S. Along with more power, the R Dynamic S trim adds exclusive design touches for a sportier look, 19-inch five-spoke black wheels, larger front brakes, and sport seats.

Finally, in a class of its own is the $85,750 F-Pace SVR, which targets fellow hot SUVs like the AMG GLC43 and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio. One look at the specs will tell you how performance-focused it really is. The heart is a 550-horsepower, 5.0-liter supercharged V8, but there’s also Jaguar’s adaptive surface response (automatically detects surface conditions like ice, mud, snow), an electronic locking rear differential, larger brakes and loads of SVR-specific equipment. That includes performance seats, a special steering wheel and a very fancy 12.3-inch interactive driver display in place of the 7-inch unit.

All versions feature all-wheel drive, sport an eight-speed automatic gearbox regardless of engine, and include an $1150 destination fee in the quoted price. 

Competing for the same territory as the Jaguar F-Pace are vehicles like the Audi Q5, BMW’s X3 and X4, and the lower-end Stelvio as well as Porsche’s Macan. Audi and BMW come on strong with capable driving dynamics and a suite of user-friendly tech, and the class as a whole is very competitive. The Jaguar, however, has a trump card: Space.

In terms of cargo room, the nearly midsize F-Pace reigns supreme with 33.5 cubic-feet behind the second-row seats and 69.1 cubic-feet with them folded. The has Audi Q5 has 25.1 cubic-feet behind the seats and 54 overall. The X3 comes close with 28.7 and 62.7, but the Porsche Macan offers a scant 17.6 cubic-feet behind the seats, but 52.9. The F-Pace’s ark-like interior is impressive for a brand built on style and performance, but as the saying goes, “Grace, Space, and Pace.”

Still, this premium mid-size segment’s rivals are so closely matched that victories are measured in inches rather than miles. Speaking of miles, the EPA gives the F-Pace P250  fuel economy ratings of 22 mpg city, 27 highway and 24 mpg combined; the P340 with the new six-cylinder engine 20 mpg city, 27 highway and 22 combined, the P400 giving up only single being a single mpg in highway travel. For the few who were wondering, the supercharged V8 in the SVR nets 15/22/18 mpg in the same measures, a little ahead of the AMG GLC43 but just shy of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. 

The F-Pace has enough pull to satisfy all but the most power-hungry crossover buyers. Acceleration dials on smoothly, with Jaguar quoting 5.8-seconds in the zero-60 mph run. The eight-speed transmission generally complements the situation but does get a little tripped-up when driving gets overly aggressive. It’s reasonable that the gearbox in the non-SVR F-Pace is tuned to facilitate more of the luxury aspects of the ride than aggressive shifts, though taking over gear changes manually with the chrome paddle shifters generally resolves this. 

Beyond a straight line, the F-Pace feels well balanced through bends, though it wafts through them more than it carves. It remains planted, though it does feel hefty, and it’s not hard to discover when the car’s limits are being pushed. With that said, it again favors comfort over sport, but it’s far from discouraging a playful ride. 

Jaguar and its sibling brand Land Rover have come under fire for a glaring weak spot, namely the infotainment systems in their cars. While often stylish, they’ve stood out as laggy and cumbersome in comparison to rival systems. The updated unit and interface in the F-Pace is welcome, but it isn’t the leap forward the brand—and many brand enthusiasts—were anticipating. It’s an improvement, but style is still favored over functionality, with the system being slow to boot from the start or hesitant to acknowledge an input. Here, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility swoop in to save the day.

Speaking of saving the day, Jaguar equips the F-Pace with a decent suite of standard active-safety features including automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, lane keep assist and rear cross-traffic alerts. There’s also a standard surround-view camera. Traffic sign recognition comes standard on the S, R-Dynamic and SVR but adaptive cruise control is a $1,325 add on all but the SVR.