I’M a fickle person and if I had been given a Jaguar E-Pace to review before becoming a dad for the first time, I’d have scoffed and probably moaned about its lofty driving position and failed to see its point.
As someone who loves driving, preferably with a manual gearbox, an automatic SUV never really floated my boat until a little bundle of joy came into my life. Your preferences change in the blink of an eye and low-slung sports cars, what with their speed, poor visibility and practicality immediately take a back seat and cars like the E-Pace suddenly become plausible.
You can also get versions like this ‘R Dynamic’ option which, at £42,000, is not cheap but comes with a huge list of standard equipment and, most importantly, a 250bhp 2.0-litre turbo which no-one can really moan about.
It’s a handsome car, the E-Pace, and although looks are completely subjective I think it’s more handsome than the bigger F-Pace. It’s been lavished with a few must-have and pointless options, granted, but the £360 black exterior pack is essential, as is the £335 privacy glass which just looks better.
This car’s paint, Firenze Red, costs £615 which is a large amount for a pretty uninspiring hue and I’d do without the £930 head-up display, too, and the £820 adaptive suspension set-up.
Open the door and it’s typical Jaguar fare so you can masses of leather, which covers most surfaces, and a familiar model-wide design ethos which looks classy, elegant and well-made.
The switchgear feels premium, although the steering wheel-mounted paddles for its nine-speed semi-automatic gearbox are made from a cheap plastic, which does let the side down a little.
Despite its considerable bulk, the E-Pace drives nothing like you’d expect. It’s quite hard-riding in all of its switchable settings, even in ‘Comfort’, and feels rather taut. Dial up the damping to its harshest setting and it belies its weight.
Perhaps ‘lesser’ models feel softer - which many people would want in this sector - but in R Dynamic guise it offers a much more sportier experience than I was expecting and an undeniably impressive turn of space. I’m unsure if those traits fit in with its sat-up SUV character, but there’s a multitude of versions on offer.
The 2.0-litre, used in most Jaguar Land Rover products these days, may sound a little uninspiring as most breathed-on, small-capacity engines do but its power is good enough for a sub-seven-second sprint to 60mph and a 143mph top speed. Rewind back ten years ago and that was hot hatch speed.
It’s competing with the likes of Audi’s popular Q3, the rather vile BMW X1 and Volvo’s impressive XC40, which the Chronicle tested in 240bhp petrol form - the like-for-like rival for this particular E-Pace and although the XC40 was good, the E-Pace is better.
I like Jaguars. Perhaps it’s a bit of badge snobbery rearing its head, but I like their looks, their interiors and although the E-Pace is not perfect, it’s unquestionably better than its rivals.
