2015 Jaguar F-Pace Would Be A Rose By Any Other Name

FOR A long time, sports cars and SUVs were incompatible: this is now irrelevant. The question is how to mate them successfully. Yet the potentially awkward marriage of two opposites has been enough to delay Jaguar’s entry into the market for a decade. Such is the restraint often forced by mindset. Yet it is hard to see how Jaguar could have made a convincing SUV using pre-XF styling cues: Jaguar needed a chunkier design language in order to accommodate niche models, which despite leaving the sedans open to criticism at last manages to bend enough for an SUV.

The Jaguar F-Pace uses the bodyside theme and rear lights from the F-Type with the face introduced by the XF. The result is a pleasingly voluminous design that though simple, is well-resolved and well-planted. Welcome, too, is the absence of an undercut shoulder which leaves German rivals feeling mainstream. One crucial way in which Jaguar is successfully building up its identity is through the super-high belt-line: it could barely get any closer to the glasshouse. This theme was introduced by the XF and has been successfully applied to every Jag since, lending a solid, quality impression, if not exactly as light and lithe as they once were.

The carry-over of F-Type cues is pure Porsche philosophy, but the F-Pace name is less agreeable. It reflects a horizontal model strategy as Jag grows out as well as up, but sounds as if rational marketing thinking has missed the character of the car: it is a little nouveau. And while there is still some debate whether the F-Type is rival to the Boxster or 911, there is no doubting that the F-Pace has the Cayenne firmly in its sights. Yet step from the Jaguar to the Porsche, and there is a richness to the bodyside of the Cayenne that leaves even the Jaguar F-Pace feeling a little flat. This impression continues inside, where the investment differences between Porsche and Jaguar are far more apparent. Given the theme laid out by this show car, there seems to be a strong chance that the interior of the production SUV will borrow from the heavily-revised XF. The five seat layout of the concept also falls two short of rivals from Mercedes-Benz and BMW. But with a delete-badge option (including JAGUAR on the tailgate) all will be forgiven: Jag has given us another stunner.