2022 Jaguar F-Pace SVR review: The supercharged V8 SUV you need in your life

CarExpert

Jaguar is moving to selling full electric cars within the next few years. So, now's the time to get behind the wheel of a loud and proud V8 Jaguar before they all become silent. Jaguar has updated the Jaguar F-Pace to include the latest and greatest technology from the JLR fleet and that includes the 2022 Jaguar F-Pace SVR. Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to see what it's all about.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Jaguar content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/jaguar More Jaguar F-Pace content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/jaguar/f-pace  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 01:16 Interior 03:44 Infotainment 05:44 Safety Tech 08:27 Practicality 09:38 On the road 12:59 Verdict 19:48  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #jaguar #fpace #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So look, while the world is racing towards electrification, including Jag,

00:05 who's going full electric from 2025, there is still a place for V8s, and I feel that Jag,

00:11 Land Rover, they're trying to cram this 5.0-litre V8 into literally everything they can before

00:16 the world goes into that electric space. And I am, of course, talking about the new Jaguar F-PACE.

00:21 It's just had a big update, and this one right here is the F-PACE SVR. This is the one that

00:26 warms the heart with its big supercharged V8. It's priced at a little over $142,000.

00:31 It competes with things like the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio QV,

00:39 and then it's kind of in this middle ground where it sort of competes with the BMW X3M,

00:44 but it feels bigger than that, and the X3M is more expensive than this as well, despite

00:48 this having the bigger engine. So it is in a really good space in terms of its price,

00:52 but if this is too expensive, the entire updated F-PACE range kicks off from around the $75,000

00:58 mark. Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car. If you do want to skip ahead to other

01:02 parts of the review, you can use the time codes up on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, just

01:06 scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe

01:10 to our channel so you can find out every single time we film a new car review. Okay, before we

01:16 get into it, I have to call out the wind. It is extremely windy here today, so I'm going to be

01:20 yelling at you a little bit. Now in terms of exterior design, you've got seven colours to

01:24 pick from. They're all free of charge, but then you can get special SVO colours. They start from

01:28 $11,000, so there's a few different ones to pick from if you want to go all out, but the standard

01:34 palette's actually pretty good. So what has changed here? Well, they've changed a little bit of

01:38 styling, but more importantly, the styling changes are functional. So coefficient of drag has been

01:43 reduced from 0.37 to 0.36. I've been able to scoop this bonnet down a little lower, increase the air

01:49 vent, and as part of a change to the side as well, they've been able to reduce lift at the front end

01:54 by 35%. So this is all functional stuff, including the vents. They're all functional too. They all

01:59 serve a purpose, which is great. The thing I love about the SVR is just how menacing it is. Big

02:03 intakes along the sides there, big grille here. It means business, and then you've got the SVR badge

02:09 to the side. SVR is the toughest of tough in the JLR world, and that's why this gets that fire

02:15 breathing V8 that sounds absolutely incredible. Over here you have a set of LED headlights with

02:21 LED daytime running lights, and if we whip around to the side, standard you get 21-inch alloy wheels.

02:27 This car has the optional 22-inch alloy wheels, which means probably not going to ride that well

02:32 despite the fact it has adaptive damping, so we'll wait till we head out onto the road to see what

02:36 it's like. But love this wheel design. They've got this sort of brushed blade on the side, and then a

02:41 piano black look on the inner edge there, and then SVR etched into the actual wheel itself. It is an

02:46 impressive looking setup. Four piston calipers on a 395mm rotor at the front, and then you have a

02:52 396mm rotor at the rear. You also have staggered tyre width, so up the front here you get two 6.5s,

02:58 two 9.5s at the rear, and this is part of that package on the side that I mentioned reduces lift

03:04 at the front end by 35%. So they really have gone to town on these functional changes to make this

03:10 a better performance SUV. Over on your wing mirror you have an indicator built into there,

03:14 little camera there for the 360 cam, panoramic roof up the top, privacy glass, and if you come

03:20 around to the rear, get a set of LED taillights along the back here, reflector off to the side,

03:24 another SVR badge, quad exhaust pipes, again functional, they make a whole lot of noise.

03:30 Let me know what you reckon about the design of the F-PACE SVR. I think this is without doubt the

03:36 best-looking SUV in this segment. It just looks sensational, especially here in SVR trim. So,

03:41 let me know what you think down there. Is this a good-looking SUV? We're inside the F-PACE,

03:45 let's start off with the key. Here it is, so you have lock, unlock, headlight, boot, panic,

03:52 then on the back you have a Jaguar. It is a proximity-sensing key, so leave that in your

03:57 pocket, and then once you're inside you have this stop/start button. Now the F-PACE range has

04:02 received an update, and I think they've really gone above and beyond this time around in terms

04:06 of giving this a premium feel. The last time we drove the F-PACE was the old SVR, and you know,

04:12 it looked nice, but it sort of, this is just, this is something else, and the entire F-PACE

04:16 range in Australia comes with this setup, so it actually looks pretty nice. Okay, what am I

04:21 talking about there in terms of niceties? Well, this is PIVI Pro, the new infotainment system

04:26 they've debuted. It's on a curved screen, so that sits there nicely. Along the top of the dashboard

04:30 you have this suede material, and then it's sort of interspliced with leather and then stitching.

04:36 Same story on the lower part of the dashboard, leather setup. Then you have these faux vents

04:40 that run along the side of the dashboard there all the way to the end. New centre section here

04:44 with a new gear shifter, and then touch-sensitive controls along the centre. Love the seats in the

04:49 SVR as well. These are just beautiful. They hug you in nicely. Big SVR insignia along the top

04:55 there. It just feels schmick. Very impressive stuff. Now what about your touch points? So,

04:59 pretty firm, but kind of soft there in the centre, and soft and suede over on the doors.

05:04 How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

05:09 If you want to see how this car compares to others we've tested before, have a look at the link in

05:13 the description. Build quality. Every time we publish a Land Rover review or a Jag review,

05:19 you all complain about how unreliable they are in build quality and stuff. This one genuinely is

05:24 fantastic. I said this in the Range Rover review. I know a lot of companies go on about how they're

05:29 trying to improve things, but JLR has actually spent a fair bit of money on making sure there's

05:33 less quality control issues on the production line and less quality control issues when customers get

05:38 their cars, and I genuinely feel like that has been achieved inside this cabinet. Feels really

05:43 well screwed together. Let's talk infotainment. This is probably the thing that has me most

05:47 excited about this car, well, aside from the supercharged V8, and that's PIVI Pro. So,

05:52 PIVI is their new infotainment system, and we tested it previously in the Land Rover Defender,

05:57 so it's a smaller version of this. PIVI Pro is the big 11.4-inch screen. I love the fact that

06:02 it's on curved glass. It really just looks absolutely schmick. It's very quick as well.

06:08 This uses Always-On technology. It comes with the ability to do software updates over the air and

06:12 all that kind of fun stuff. So, you have satellite navigation built into the screen. Now, with 4G

06:17 connectivity, you can also have satellite maps on display as well, which is what we've got here.

06:22 Generally, it works pretty well. It's nice and fast. You can move it around and do things.

06:27 A little slow there on cold start, but generally, it's not too bad. If we jump over here to the home

06:32 screen, you have smartphone mirroring with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I'll show you what Apple

06:36 CarPlay looks like first. Check out the size of that. I don't think I've seen a CarPlay screen

06:41 bigger than that before, and the resolution is incredible. That is so sharp. It is really,

06:47 really sharp. I like that. And this is what Android Auto looks like. So, again, full-screen

06:52 integration. Yeah, nice and sharp and quick as well. So, very impressive stuff. On the radio

06:59 front, you have AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio, along with the ability to stream audio via your

07:06 phone from internet stations and that kind of thing. There's a 13-speaker Meridian-branded

07:11 sound system. Now, someone mentioned that they wanted to get our impressions on the sound system

07:16 of these cars. The reason I don't really mention anything is because I'm not an expert on sound.

07:20 I don't really have an objective way of telling you one sound system is better than the other.

07:25 I may like the sound of some more than others, but I don't know. Let me know if you think that's

07:29 useful information. I'm happy to offer that up as well. Let me know your feedback in the comments

07:33 section below. I should also mention as well that if you go over here to the menu, you have a couple

07:37 of other cool items like your weather. This will show you the weather where you are. You can also

07:40 have a look at other locations, including where you're driving to. You also have the ability to

07:45 customize the dynamic mode and what each of the different functions of the car do. In there,

07:49 you've also got a stopwatch, a lap timer and a g-meter as well. And if we dive through the rest

07:55 of these, you've got all surface information. This is part of a package that you can get that tells

07:59 you where the torque is going around the car. And then finally, you have the ability to connect this

08:04 car to your app, which gives you the option of remotely unlocking and locking and just seeing

08:09 the status of the car and keeping track of its location as well. Now, ahead of the driver as

08:14 well, you have another 12.3 inch display. This has your trip computer. It has a speedo and also

08:20 has the ability to go full screen if it needs to and display customized items down the center of

08:25 the screen as well. Moving on to safety technology, you have autonomous emergency braking that works

08:30 at low and high speeds. You have an auto dimming rear vision mirror, lane departure warning,

08:36 lane keeping assistant, radar cruise control, rear cross traffic alert, a blind spot monitor.

08:41 You have a safe exit assistance if you go to get out of the car while there's another car

08:44 or cyclist coming. It's going to prevent you from doing that. And in terms of parking, you have both

08:49 front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show you what the camera looks like. So one

08:54 push of this button brings it up. So it's interesting. You've got the view of the car

08:58 there, but what you can also do is select different views. So you can press once there or go for a

09:04 wider view. Same story from the back. You can then do side angles if you want to see the sides of the

09:09 car. Front angles as well. So not a bad setup. The quality is good, but not amazing. I mean, you can

09:16 see there the 360 is great, but actually it's not too bad once you select the actual view itself. So

09:21 not a bad setup. Now, super quickly, I mentioned earlier that Jag is moving to full electric. Are

09:28 you ready for the move to electric? Or do you still want to own one of these noisy beasts before you

09:34 jump over to electric and take it all in? Let me know what you think down there. Let's talk

09:39 practicality and charging your devices. So you have a 12-volt outlet just there. Inside the center

09:44 console, you have two USB outlets and another 12-volt outlet. One of those is a USB-C, one is a

09:50 USB-A. Wireless phone charging is randomly optional. It's been fitted here to this car, and

09:55 that's where the pad sits. In terms of storage, where are you going to put your devices? Let's

10:00 start off here with our phone. So that can easily live down there on the wireless charging pad,

10:06 or you can slot it here in the cup holders, or I love this, you can sit it there vertically. So

10:11 very impressive little setup. Coffee cup, you've got two tiers of bottle holder here. So you have

10:18 a super deep one that doesn't really sit well with the cup, and then you have a slightly less

10:23 deep one that takes your little coffee cup better. Bottle storage, same thing, slides all the way in,

10:29 and then you have these little grip teeth off to the side. Let's try bottle storage in the door.

10:34 Good for that one. I wonder if it'll take a big bottle. Yes, big bottle fits in there as well.

10:39 Center console, that's not too bad. Nice and deep. Glovebox, reasonably sized, and then you have

10:49 a sunglasses holder up the top here. Let's talk about your comfort features. So you have heated

10:54 and cooled seats for the front row. Dual zone automatic climate control. Seats themselves,

11:00 they are proper race seats. They hug you in beautifully. You have a whole subset of controls

11:06 here. You can basically pull them in tighter around your torso. Fully electrically adjustable

11:11 for driver and front passenger, including memory as well. String wheels, interesting. So it sits

11:16 great in the hand, but have a look at these perforations off to the side. Yeah, they sort

11:20 of feel nice in the hand. So yeah, impressive setup there. Reach test. Yes, good. All easy to

11:26 reach while you're driving. Second row of the F-Pace. What is room back here like? It's actually

11:32 pretty reasonable. I've got a decent amount of knee room, and that's even with my seat quite far

11:35 back. Plenty of toe room and headroom is pretty good as well. You get matte pockets in the back

11:41 of the seats. You get heated seats for the two outboard seats. Vents, you have a 12-volt outlet

11:46 here. Centre armrest with two cup holders. Fits our bottle nicely with some rubber teeth there.

11:54 Then you have enough room inside the doors for storage of a small bottle. I'll try the big one.

12:00 Doesn't really fit in there. It's a bit disappointing there's no USB outlets back

12:05 here for the kids to charge their devices. There's sort of nowhere to plug into. But you do get two

12:10 ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats, and I love the view out of this panoramic sunroof. It's a

12:16 pretty impressive setup. Okay, let's talk cargo space. So you get a powered tailgate.

12:22 In its standard form here, you have a little over 750 litres of cargo space. Beneath the cargo floor,

12:28 you get a very orange SpaceSaver spare tyre. Hooks over to the sides and a 12-volt outlet.

12:35 Now, the fascinating thing here is that if you want to get these levers here to release the second

12:41 row, they're optional. You've got to pay extra for that for some reason. But anyway, one flick of

12:46 that drops the second row there, and that expands the space to around 1800 litres. In terms of the

12:51 bags, I'll show you what it looks like with those in there. There you go. So it is a pretty functional

12:59 space. So we hit the road in the F-PACE SVR. Powering this is a slightly tinkered version of

13:09 the pre-facelift engine, and that's a 5-litre supercharged V8. This engine really just

13:14 personifies Jaguar. It's got plenty of bark, it's got plenty of poke, and it's just really fun to

13:20 drive with. Produces 405 kilowatts of power and 700 newton metres of torque, and that's all mated

13:26 to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. So no dual clutches here, just a standard gearbox,

13:32 and I think it's all the better for it because with supercharged engines, you just need to have

13:36 the torque available across that rev band, and when you're moving off a standing start with

13:41 a dual clutch, it can just be so incredibly fussy. This is just that perfect middle ground where

13:45 you're getting the snappiness. It may not be as quick as a dual clutch transmission and gear

13:50 changes, but it's near enough and you're never going to notice the difference. Jaguar claims

13:54 a combined fuel economy of 11.7 litres per 100 k's. We are currently sitting on 13.6 litres per

14:02 100 k's, which look, I think is pretty impressive when you consider the amount of oomph this thing

14:08 has. It's right where it needs to be in terms of fuel economy, but keep in mind if you do get stuck

14:12 into it, it is going to chew through a stack more fuel. As part of the facelift, Jag worked on the

14:18 steering and the brake pedal feel. If you watched our previous video of this car, I complained that

14:23 the brake pedal was just a tiny bit spongy and the steering didn't have a great deal of feel through

14:27 it. The brake pedal now is almost a little too far in the opposite direction. The second you breathe

14:32 on it, it is really, really bitey. Now look, you will eventually get used to it, so it's not that

14:37 big of a deal and I do prefer this kind of feel instead of that spongy feel where you don't

14:41 actually know whether it's doing anything. So that's a big tick. Steering wise, it's much better

14:46 as well. I don't know, that wooden feel the F-Pace had previously has been thrown out and now it's

14:51 far more communicative. You know what's going on and you really feel what's happening beneath the

14:56 car all comes in through this steering wheel. So, big tick there for steering and brakes.

15:01 Now, what about dynamic mode? I think that is the one we're all interested in here.

15:06 I'll flick this over to dynamic. Immediately all the dials go red. It stays in drive,

15:11 so we'll pop that down into sport. Exhaust is open. Oh man, that sounds so good. So, so good.

15:19 It is making an absolute racket. I love that. Okay, let's give this a punch.

15:28 Oh, that is sensational. You get plenty of supercharger whine as well,

15:34 so you can hear everything that's going on. Barks on downshift. I'll give it a punch up here.

15:40 That is so cool. So, this is the type of thing you really don't get in vehicles like the Macan.

15:51 The Macan turbo is technically a competitor to this and I can tell you right now it does

15:54 not sound anywhere near as good as that. Even stuff like the X3M, it all sounds artificial.

15:59 This is all legit. Like when you play into that, it is all happening.

16:05 You flick back through the gears. It is really good. They haven't diluted any of that noise,

16:13 so it is a big bonus there that they have kept it all the same and you get all the

16:18 improvements inside the cabin that you need. So, it's a win-win.

16:20 So, in dynamic mode, everything stiffens up. You get a little bit more weight in the steering

16:28 and it still remains dead flat. It is remarkable how they've made something the size of an SUV

16:36 just handle so beautifully. In dynamic mode as well, it can send up to 90% of torque to the rear

16:41 axle. That means when you do tuck it into a corner, you get a whole lot more rear feel instead of it

16:47 kind of just feeling like an all-wheel drive car. And I think that's what gives you that dynamic

16:54 edge behind the wheel. They've really just dialed it in perfectly so everything is communicated

16:59 through the chassis. Now, in addition to all of that, you have an electronic diff lock that's

17:04 going to ensure that you can go from fully open to fully closed, all with the smarts of the car

17:09 taking care of everything. Then above and beyond that, you have a brake-biased torque vectoring

17:13 system, so it's able to pinch the brakes on the rear axle if it needs to tuck the car in.

17:18 And look, ultimately, this, I don't know, it's a bigger SUV and that's why it's so hard to

17:23 shoehorn it in with competition because it does feel bigger than an X3 and a GLC 63,

17:28 but then it feels smaller than an X5, so it kind of sits in that little middle ground there,

17:32 but it certainly feels like it handles like the smaller cars on that scale and you're really

17:37 sort of getting that feeling behind the wheel. Jaguar claims a 0-100 time of 4 seconds flat.

17:43 This is how it went against our stopwatch.

17:52 Okay, let's talk about the other drive modes. We'll pop it back into comfort. So, in addition

17:55 to comfort, you have Eco and ADSR, which is like a sort of low-traction launch type program.

18:02 Tell you what, when you put it into comfort, you still get some of that aggression,

18:06 some of that bark out of the exhaust, but it's still nice and quiet and serene, and then always

18:13 in comfort mode, you can just press the exhaust button if you do want to make a bit more of a

18:16 racket. It kind of has that perfect balance dialed between aggression and also quietness

18:21 and subtlety when you actually need it to be quiet. Now, in terms of the ride, so adaptive

18:26 dampers, 22-inch alloy wheels, ultimately that is a big wheel and a low-profile tyre, but it doesn't

18:32 actually feel all that bad behind the wheel. In comfort mode, it's nice and pliable, it's compliant,

18:37 it is on the firmer side of comfortable, but it's not going to do your back in. Even in dynamic,

18:42 it's not that firm. It still just firms it up so you get a gauge of what's going on on the road,

18:46 but it's not going to sort of break your back or rattle your teeth out, which is great.

18:50 Let's talk road noise. It's actually not terrible. You do hear a bit coming in through the cabin,

18:55 especially on course-chip roads, but this car has active noise cancellation, so they're using

18:59 the speakers to remove some of the tyre noise that comes into the cabin. They've also improved

19:04 insulation too, so on all fronts, it actually is pretty good, but you still thankfully get

19:10 plenty of exhaust note into the cabin, plus that supercharger whine.

19:16 Now, what about visibility? Out the front there, it's good. I love that you can actually see the

19:20 edge of those bonnet scoops, that's really cool. Out the sides, you have decent-sized wing mirrors,

19:25 and you can see clearly down the side of the vehicle, there's blind spot monitors built into

19:28 those as well. Looking out the rear of the car, the envelope is super narrow, so it is a little

19:33 tricky to see out there, especially if you do have passengers in the second row. Now, you're not

19:37 going to be doing any off-road driving in this, but just so you know, 213mm of ground clearance,

19:42 and if you do any towing, 2,400kg of braked towing capacity.

19:48 Okay, so Jaguar F-Pace SVR. If you own one of these or you're looking to buy one of these,

19:53 we're automatically friends. This car has taken a big leap forward over the last one. The last one,

19:59 I don't know, if you looked at our old review, you can click up here to watch that, it was just

20:03 full of issues, like the build quality wasn't amazing, the infotainment system was terrible,

20:06 and yes, it did redeem itself with a great engine, but I don't know, the steering wasn't

20:10 great, the ride wasn't perfect. This addresses virtually all of that. The infotainment system

20:15 is excellent, it's still incredibly well-priced, they've fixed the steering, the ride's good.

20:20 I mean, it is hard to complain about this, and if you are wanting to do the leap to electric,

20:25 I think you should have one of these in your life before you do that, especially before they become

20:29 extinct. It is an absolute ripper machine, and at that price, it is really good value for money.

20:34 Now, let me know in the comments section below, have you bought one, did you order one? I'm

20:38 really keen to get your feedback and see exactly what you think of it. If you did enjoy this video,

20:42 please make sure you share it with your mates, like it, and if you haven't done so already,

20:45 subscribe to our channel, press the bell icon as well, but until next time, take it easy.

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