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There are plenty of very good luxury SUVs out there, but line any of them up alongside the 2021 Jaguar F-Pace, and Britain's stylish alternative should be one of the clear-cut favorites in looks alone. With its name and design inspired by the F-Type sports car, the F-Pace is still one of the best-looking SUVs in the class, and for 2021, slight tweaks to the exterior only help its cause.
Beyond fresh visuals, though, the F-Pace improves its cabin experience in a number of ways. It features better materials, more tech, and some niche touches that could only come from Jaguar. And as always, the F-Pace is a dynamic choice, with a powerful inline-six engine option that lends further credence to its sporty credentials.
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Gallery: 2022 Jaguar F-Pace S Review
- Exterior Color: Eiger Grey
- Interior Color: Caraway
- Wheel Size: 21 Inches
Like we said, the Jaguar F-Pace is still one of the prettiest luxury SUVs out there, even though it hasn't changed all that much for this year. The Jag's clean lines, perfect proportions, and simple but stunning characteristics make it appealing from every angle. For 2021, the F-Pace gains sleeker side vents (a la SVR) and new headlights, plus some additional detailing in the rear. An available black pack adds an especially sinister touch. The updated exterior is subtle, and that's not a bad thing.
Our car sports a $650 Eiger Grey paint that, at a minimum, is inoffensive. But if you're paying that much for color, brighter hues like Firenze Red and Bluefire Blue are better options. The standard shoes on the S model are 19 inches, but our tester gets the 21-inch option ($1,600) for a sportier look. There are even 22-inch wheels available, with the most expensive set costing up to $3,700.
Jaguar implemented its most meaningful visual changes inside; the dash is basically brand-new. There's less clutter in the center console, more high-end leather on the dash and armest, and additional aluminum fixtures throughout, replacing some of the hard black plastics of the previous generation.
The addition of the brand's Pivi Pro infotainment system helps with that newfound stunning simplicity, as well. The sleek 11.4-inch curved screen, housed within an ultra-thin display, eliminates the ugly bezels found on the previous setup and makes for a really modern look. And just below that center screen is a plaque that reads: Est. 1936 Jaguar Coventry. It’s a subtle addition that makes the interior all that much better.
- Seating Capacity: 5
- Seating Configuration: 2 / 3
- Cargo Capacity: 31.5 / 69.1 Cubic Feet
Thanks in part to the new 16-way front seats with perforated Windsor leather ($2,325), the 2021 F-Pace feels properly comfortable. Beyond the seats, this SUV is easygoing around town, smooth and refined on the highway, and quiet until you get up to higher speeds. There is some road noise at high speeds, but not enough to meet the mark of “offensive.”
The 37.8 inches of headroom and 40.3 inches of legroom in the front compartment aren't the best figures in the class – the BMW X3 (41.1 / 40.3) and Mercedes-Benz GLC (39.6 / 40.8) are both better. But the Jag is barely more compact than its rivals from the driver's seat; the slimming down of elements on the center stack makes the cabin feel airy. On top of that, Jaguar added extra storage in the door compartments, as well as a totally new center console with more space.
The second row is tighter, in part due to the Jag's sloped roofline and smaller greenhouse, and the 37.5 inches of headroom and 37.2 inches of legroom are again on the lower-end of the class. But that’s not to say that the second row is cramped; there’s still enough head- and legroom for your six-foot-tall author, with ample butt and back support from the Windsor leather bench.
- Center Display: 11.4-Inch Touchscreen
- Instrument Cluster: 12.3-Inch Display
- Wireless Apple CarPlay Or Android Auto: No / No
We love the new 11.4-inch curved display inside of the F-Pace – both for the way it looks and for the improved user interface. The external housing is thin, the graphics are well-designed and crisp, and the menu is easy to decipher. The new Pivi Pro interface arranges each option within a row of vertically oriented boxes, with quick-access touch options on the left-hand side of the screen for features like home, audio, navigation, and more. This is one of the better infotainment layouts in the class, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto also standard – although both are wired connections.
Unfortunately, the Jaguar loses some points for usability; the company still hasn't fully worked out last year's bugs. Touch responsiveness is poor and trying to select an option is hit or miss – it sometimes takes more than one finger push to get the desired menu item to open. And the slight lag when loading makes it that much more frustrating to use.
The F-Pace's steering wheel borrows the haptic feedback controls from the I-Pace, located on the spokes at 9 and 3 o’clock, which are meant to control the digital cluster. But the layout is cluttered, and with so many options set so close to one another, accidental inputs are a common occurrence.
The digital instrument cluster – also known as the $550 Interactive Driver Display – at least mimics the central touchscreen in its cleanliness and overall appeal. A digital tachometer sits dead in the middle of the 12.3-inch display in the standard layout, with two highly configurable screens flanking it on either side – but you can reconfigure those options as you please.
For an extra $800, this car also boasts an intuitive head-up display with things like nav baked-in, and for $500, you can add Wi-Fi connectivity. The 14-speaker Meridian sound system is another $800 option, but one that we recommend given its impressive clarity. Bottom line: there's a lot of tech inside of the new F-Pace, even if some of it is imperfect.
Check Out The F-Pace
- Engine: Twin-Charged 3.0L Mild-Hybrid I6
- Output: 335 Horsepower / 354 Pound-Feet
- Transmission: 8-Speed Automatic
The 2021 F-Pace comes with your choice of two engines (not including the SVR's raucous 5.0-liter V8). The base F-Pace P250 gets a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four good for 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet, while the P340 model tested here uses a turbocharged and supercharged 3.0-liter inline-six mild-hybrid with 335 horsepower and 354 pound-feet. If you opt for the R-Dynamic P400 model, that power figure jumps to 395.
Even without that top-end oomph, though, our P340 tester is still plenty powerful. The setup combines a turbocharger with mild-hybrid assist (via a supercharger-like compressor), which gives the inline-six tons of energy off the line, propelling it to 60 miles per hour in just 5.8 seconds. The engine is also silky-smooth at highway speeds – and sounds phenomenal – without sacrificing the ability to still deliver gobs of power at a moment's notice. The standard transmission is a ZF eight-speed automatic that's quick to shift and eager to hold gears, particularly in the most aggressive Dynamic driving mode.
Speaking of dynamic, the F-Pace is as good as ever in the corners. Jaguar engineers didn't make any serious tweaks to the already taut suspension for 2021 – not that they needed to. The steering is still scalpel-sharp, body movements are fluid and direct, while the feedback from the pavement remains phenomenal. As with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Porsche Macan, the F-Pace is one of the most fun-to-drive crossovers in the class.
- Driver Assistance Level: SAE Level 2 (Hands-On)
- NHTSA Rating: Not Rated
- IIHS Rating: Not Rated
All F-Pace models feature standard automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, and traffic-sign recognition. For comparison, BMW offers all of the same standard equipment in the X3, while Mercedes-Benz bundles things like automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist in a $1,700 option on the GLC.
Adaptive cruise control is the only added driver-assist feature in our tester, and it costs $1,010. That's a relatively small price to pay for this nicety; the F-Pace keeps a steady pace to the vehicle in front of it and brakes smoothly all the way down to zero. The lane-keep assist feature, though, can be finicky – it doesn't immediately recognize lane markers as well as some other systems we've tested.
- City: 20 MPG
- Highway: 27 MPG
- Combined: 22 MPG
The Jaguar F-Pace is actually one of the more efficient six-cylinder options in the class, returning 20 miles per gallon city, 27 highway, and 22 combined. And like most other options, the Jag drinks premium fuel. Only the BMW X3 with its similarly turbocharged, mild-hybrid straight-six is more efficient than the F-Pace in this respect, returning 23 combined.
The Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 and Porsche Macan S (both with twin-turbo V6 engines) get 21 mpg. The Stelvio achieves up to 24 mpg with its 280-hp turbo four – the only V6 in the Alfa Romeo SUV lineup belongs to the much more expensive, much more powerful Quadrifoglio, which returns just 19 mpg.
- Base Price: $50,900 + $1,150
- Trim Base Price: $59,395
- As-Tested Price: $73,420
The 2021 F-Pace starts at $52,050 including destination fees ($1,150), while the more powerful P340 asks $60,750. The BMW X3 M40i and Audi SQ5 both undercut the F-Pace by a few thousand dollars, asking $58,795 and $55,275 respectively. But at least the F-Pace costs less than the comparable Porsche Macan S, which asks $66,750 to start.
Our F-Pace tester gets a hefty set of options, which brings the cost to $73,420 out the door. The most expensive add-on is the 16-way massage-seat feature, which costs $2,325. Behind that are the 21-inch wheels ($1,600), adaptive cruise control ($1,325), and the head-up display ($1,010). Other options, like the upgraded sound system, Windsor leather, and paint, hike the price even further.
You could probably ditch the 21-inch wheels for a cheaper 19- or 20-inch set, but otherwise, all of the options on our tester feel like necessary inclusions for a luxury SUV. Jaguar does ask a premium for most of these features, but that's true of nearly every alternative in the class; comparable X3 and GLC models would cost just as much as equipped.
For as pricey as it is, though, the 2021 Jaguar F-Pace at least stands out from the competitive set with a few distinct features. The updated exterior is sleek, and still some of the best styling in the class, while the interior is tech-focused and pretty, and as always, the F-Pace is fun to fling around.
F-Pace Competitor Reviews:
Gallery: 2022 Jaguar F-Pace S Review
2021 Jaguar F-Pace S