Four Seasons: Jaguar F-Pace S

SCOFF IF YOU must at the notion of a Jaguar crossover, but keep in mind that without one—as with certain other onceniche luxury or sports-car marques—the storied British brand might have been on its way to a permanent cat nap. The F-Pace hit the market in May 2016 and sold north of 10,000 vehicles by year’s end. Indeed, in only eight months the F-Pace helped Jaguar more than double its sales compared with 2015.

- Conner Golden

So demand existed out of the gate, but there are those who wonder how much identity Jaguar is sacrificing in the name of sales targets. (There were similar reactions in 2002 when Porsche launched the Cayenne SUV, and that worked out just fine.) But these are crossover-crazed times, and Jaguar insists the F-Pace contains numerous strains of legitimate Jag-ness. To find out firsthand and see how well the company’s first SUV can withstand 12 months of hard and fun miles, we nabbed one for a Four Seasons test.

From the moment it arrived, the F-Pace didn’t exactly darken our parking lot. It’s a handsome brute of a ute, thanks to the efforts of lead designer Ian Callum and his team who have worked since 2006 to sculpt Jaguar into a thoroughly modern, design-forward brand that also incorporates clever, heritage-themed cues. Clean-sheet models such as the F-Type and F-Pace have shown Callum to be one of the best in the business, and the Jaguar design squad did a top-notch job of differentiating its crossover from those of its Land Rover and Range Rover cousins.

The F-Pace’s stance is taut and athletic, sleek but not too rakish. Stylistically it’s more in line with the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe and BMW X6 than the Lexus RX but doesn’t necessarily ape any of them. Sometimes the available color palette significantly impacts a car’s design, so we were quite pleased with our choice of vibrant Italian Racing Red ($550). We also added the aptly named Black Design package ($350), which darkens several exterior trim pieces.