2022 Jaguar F-Pace offers catlike control and beauty

2022 Jaguar F-Pace S AWD: Cat-like handling and comfort?

Price: $73,420. Hot Climate Pack adds $2,110; head-up display, $1,010; gray paint, $550. Lots more options, some noted throughout.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver likes the “inspired handling for an SUV, refined engines, roomy cargo bay,” but not that the “infotainment system needs some kinks worked out, ride is stiff on larger wheels, cabin’s storage cubbies are dinky.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Luxury performance SUV offering practicality and efficiency.”

Reality: An F-Pacesetter.

What’s new: Redesigned for 2021, the F-Pace small luxury SUV receives new exterior touches and an interior defined by attention to design detail, according to Jaguar marketing.

Driver’s Seat: Getting into the F-Pace feels like a step above most cars. Even the Lovely Mrs. Passenger Seat commented on the beauty and comfort.

The tan leather Caraway seats ($760) sport a nifty diamond pattern, and the seats are comfortable and supportive. Of special note, the headrest sits forward and has a unique squishy padding that will soothe any aches at the base of the brain. Further, the seats move 16, count ‘em, 16 ways, are heated and cooled, and offer massages, all for the bargain price of $2,325.

So that’s $3,000 for seats. Of course, those massages come with five settings and five different intensities. OK, then. I guess they are worth more than that used Silverado I bought in 2009.

The rest of the interior is beautiful, as well, of course. Dashboard, black ebony, silver trim — very Jaguar.

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Up to speed: The midsize SUV tested was motivated by a 335-horsepower inline 6. You’ll arrive at 60 mph in 6.9 seconds, according to Jaguar, but it felt way faster. The F-Pace does everything super well, and track mode does it super well-er.

A 246-horsepower turbo 4 and a 395-horsepower turbo 6 are also available, the latter cutting that time to 60 mph by almost a second and a half, according to Car and Driver.

Shifty: The 8-speed automatic transmission works nicely whether shifting yourself or allowing the F-Pace to run the show. There was a bit of hesitation now and again, but only infrequently.

On the road: The F-Pace handles slaloms beautifully, like a Jaguar should, and highway trips are also comfortable and smooth.

Friends and stuff: The rear seats offer comfort equal to the front — plenty of support, soft seats, nice headrests.

The corner seats offer snug legroom, but headroom and foot room are generous.

The middle seat, of course, offers none of that, plus a console that devours anything that might have been foot room or legroom.

Cargo space is 69.1 cubic feet with the seats folded, while the long and generous cavern behind the rear seats offers a still-roomy 31.5.

Play some tunes: The Meridian Surround Sound system ($800) has an on-off feature to give the stereo a full boost, but the sound with it off is so pathetic that the company must have worked hard to make it sound that bad.

It’s an A-plus with the feature turned on, but it makes me wonder why there’s an off button at all. “I know — I’ll turn it on for my awesome music and turn it off for Sturgis Kid 4.0′s hiphop jams. Then I can lure him over to my side!”

Everything about the infotainment system is inside the baffling touchscreen save for a hard-to-notice volume roller on the console.

Keeping warm and cool: Dials control the temperature, and when you push them in, they heat and ventilate the seats, as well. Buttons in an ebony touchpad control the rest, and they require a bit of leverage to get what you want. I keep recalling George Jetson’s “push-button finger” ailment.

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Fuel economy: I averaged 23 mpg in a round of country and highway driving. Feed the F-Pace only the best, of course.

Night shift: The automatic high beams come on with a flourish, like a curtain rising on the night for drivers. The low beams can be quite dim, though, so don’t be distracted by the drama.

Set speed: Automakers from the north of Europe — Jaguar, Volvo come to mind — tend to have unusual ways to set the cruise control, with a top and a bottom set. And automakers seem to vary on how close they’ll allow the vehicle to follow another when the adaptive cruise is on.

Jaguar is like Nissan, in what I call the “Schuylkill Expressway” following distance. I was actually getting a little nervous that it didn’t, in fact, feature adaptive cruise control at all until the radar kicked in — but there it is, all $1,325 of it. Usually I’m turning the adaptive cruise off because there’s too much space between me and the car in front.

Where it’s built: Solihull, England

How it’s built: Consumer Reports expects the F-Pace to have a reliability rating of 2 out of 5.

In the end: It’s hard to compete in a category with the Mercedes GLC and BMW X3, but the F-Pace does a fair job of it.

Look for a new competitor, the Genesis GV70, slated for review in the spring.