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2018 Jaguar F-Pace S is a fun but thirsty travel companion

I love road trips. I've moved across the country twice, spending weeks living out of my car, eating granola bars and sucking down energy drinks like it was finals week all over again. I get a huge kick out of calculating fuel economy, stretching out tanks of gas or diesel until the low-fuel light begins to sear itself into my retinas. I try to take each and every one of our long-term vehicles on some such trip. Not long after our 2017 Jaguar F-Pace S arrives, my wife and I decided to see some family in Asheville, North Carolina, roughly 10 hours and 700 miles from our home in suburban Detroit. Now, I knew from the outset this was going to be a far different experience than our previous long-termer, a 2017 Jaguar XE diesel. I managed to eek out nearly 700 miles per tank, averaging 42 mpg over 2,000 miles with that car. But the 380-horsepower supercharged V6 in the F-Pace is rated at 18 city/23 highway with a combined rating of just 20 mpg. Not good, and — unlike the XE — I didn't think I could do much better without greatly altering my admittedly aggressive driving habits. Still, I wanted to take our blue bomber to the Blue Ridge Parkway, so onward I went. There were a few other things I was worried about over what was sure to be another 2,000-mile trip. The F-Pace's suspension was a bit stiff thanks to the sporty S trim. The 20-inch wheels don't help matters, though things could be worse (some people on staff wanted to get 22s). At least they look good. Still, the seats are comfortable and the radio is top-notch. LCD Soundsystem's latest album had just come out, so I put it on repeat and headed south. The first part of the trip was going to be both the most boring and the most economical. The roads in Michigan and Ohio are flat and straight. It isn't until you hit Kentucky and head into the Appalachian Mountains that things get interesting. Just set the radar cruise control and barrel down Interstate 75 with as much urgency as you dare. I forgot my Valentine One at home. The ride was firm but not as bad as I imagined it might be, at least once we got off of Michigan's pockmarked pavement. The F-Pace tracked straight and true, but I became acutely aware that the steering wheel itself was out of alignment, leaning just slightly to the left. Fuel economy was fine, but I was just meeting the EPA estimate, not beating it like I usually manage to do.

2017 Jaguar F-Pace First Drive

We know what you're thinking, and we tend to agree: The world probably doesn't need another crossover. But premium European automakers keep building them because people keep buying them. Before we even got behind the wheel of the 2017 F-Pace, we knew that it would be Jaguar's best-selling model by year's end. Now that we've driven the brand's first crossover, it's apparent that there is more to the F-Pace than future sales success. This is a real Jaguar. It would have been easy for Jaguar to borrow a platform from corporate sibling Land Rover. Instead, Jaguar's engineers decided to chart their own course, starting with the aluminum underpinnings of the XE sedan. As it turns out, that was a brilliant decision. The F-Pace looks and drives like a proper Jaguar, but it has some surprises hiding under its shapely sheetmetal that make it the most practical vehicle the brand has ever offered. The F-Pace sports a familiar face, with a voluminous chrome-ringed grille flanked by twin air intakes that are almost as large. Long horizontal headlamps flow into the fenders, and just behind the front wheels sit additional vents that are the only extraneous bit of styling flair on the entire vehicle. The overall look is smooth and taut, with lots of surface tension along the car's bodysides. Not that Jaguar would have done it, but we're glad this is not an overwrought Lexus RX clone. The F-Pace's proportions emphasize the chassis' rear-drive roots, although Jaguar will only sell the crossover with all-wheel drive in the US. By default, 90 percent of engine torque is routed to the rear wheels, and that can drop to as little as 10 percent as dictated by available traction. While the good old KISS acronym applies to the car's styling, it applies equally well to the driving dynamics with one slight modification: keep it sporty, stupid. A rigid aluminum chassis – it would be all-aluminum if the rear floor weren't steel to ensure proper 50/50 weight distribution – is derived from the same architecture as the XE sedan, rejiggered to sit higher off the ground and allow for greater suspension travel. As you'd expect, the F-Pace drives a heck of a lot like a sport sedan, only giving up the illusion if you notice how high you're sitting from the road. Jaguar has nailed the driving dynamics of the F-Pace. Steering is linear and, in Dynamic mode, perfectly damped. The ride on models equipped with adaptive suspension is firm and controlled, even with massive 22-inch wheels fitted.

Jaguar's EV future starts with three 'sports crossovers' in 2025

Who'd have thought Cadillac and Jaguar would have so much in common? Once paramount luxury brands that lost their respective ways around the same time, floundered with one not-good-enough product after another, and have several failed reboots on their resumes. Given one last chance by their parent companies to get it together, both committed to all-electric lineups. And both have made it clear they're targeting the super-luxe demo, with Bentley the marque that always comes up as the hare in the distance. Cadillac appears to have made an outstanding shot off the line, its Lyriq bringing home reviews worthy of long-ago Cadillac, the Celestiq promising everything we screamed for from Cadillac concepts like the Escala and Ciel. We have two more years to wait for what Jaguar's bringing, the English automaker not expected to show near-production concepts of it coming lineup until a "globally significant" auto show that year. Autocar calims to have a few more details out of Jaguar HQ about what's to come. The product lineup has been guesswork to now. Autocar says it's going to be "a trio of ... electric sports crossovers." If that's the case, that means the F-Type puts an end to Jaguar's run of sporty, luxurious coupes — for a spell, at least. According to the report, the new range starts with a model around the size of the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo wagon, which is an inch shorter than a Cadillac Lyriq. Two- and four-door variants will offer single- and dual-motor powertrains. Pricing is expected to begin in the GBP80,000 ($96,406 U.S.) to GBP90,000 ($108,457 U.S.) bracket, which would make this EV the highest starting price for any entry-level production Jaguar in maybe ever. Right now, the I-Pace starts at GBP66,350 ($79,957 U.S.), the F-Pace at GBP46,250. The most expensive model among the range is the F-Pace SVR at GBP81,150 ($97,792 U.S.). It's thought the upper end of the lower-end EV could "push prices to GBP120,000" ($144,610 U.S.) before getting to the SVR trims.     There's no info on the middle sibling. The flagship is anticipated to start around GBP120,000. Two motors and all-wheel-drive would be the default powertrain, prices hitting GBP200,000 ($241,016 U.S.) for SVR models.  The aim is to earn comfortable profit selling no more than 60,000 vehicles globally per year.