Should you buy one?

The F-Pace is, regrettably, a car you buy with your heart rather than your head. All the ingredients are there – a spacious interior, great engines and a fantastic driving experience. However, the allure of rivals with lower running costs and more impressive reliability records has somewhat put the F-Pace into a corner.

If you fall in love with the way it looks or drives, though, we won’t judge you for choosing a Jaguar F-Pace. Like the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, it may not be objectively as good as some of its rivals, but as an emotional purchase it wipes the floor with them.

Our pick of the engine range is the D300 diesel, though there’s honestly not a bad apple in the engine range. We just think the D300 provides the perfect blend of power, performance, prestige, and fuel economy.

The F-Pace SVR, which feels more like a standalone model than just an engine choice, is a spectacular fast SUV – one of the best. If your pockets are deep enough to buy and run it, it’s a thoroughly viable alternative to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio or BMW X3 M.

What we like

The F-Pace drives like a seriously well-sorted sports saloon, and that’s good enough for us to recommend it. Excellent practicality and a comfortable interior are just bonuses.

What we don’t like

Many of the engines, particularly the petrols, have high running costs. When rivals can return great economy from a turbocharged petrol it’s disappointing that none of the F-Pace’s options will reliably deliver over 30mpg.