I've had my car nearly three months and 1300 miles. A few niggles and things I don't understand (user error mostly) and may yet have to have some issues (ICTPro) resolved but in the last week or so the car has "changed". The engine (2.0 diesel) sounded a tad rough at first, a lot rougher than the 2.2L 200bhp in my previous XF. But last Saturday I had to do a reasonable journey 25 miles mixed motorway and country lanes in nasty wind and rain!
I only occurred to me on the return journey that the noisy engine wasn't as noisy and the general drive line refinement had hugely improved. The car is now almost silent (which I like, I'm not an engine noise aficionado - I could listen to a 60's US V8 muscle car but only for a few minutes and never on a journey) and the delivery of power was really smooth. There used to be a little bit of harshness. It may not be same as a bigger 6 cyl engine but its pretty damn good for a 4 pot oil burner!
Along with Adaptive Drive mode and gearbox in sport mode the car was really good to drive, responsive and handled well. It also dealt with the wet lanes superbly. Not 100% that the Xenon headlights are as good as the XF Xenon headlights but thinking back now this may be from the different relative driver seating position to headlights, in the XF you sit lower in line with the light from them, in the F-Pace you look down into the headlight illuminate area, it means you don't get the feel of reflections straight back in your face.
If ordering now I'd love to see the LED lights in action before spending the money on them. I'm running standard Portfolio 19 inch rims and they're fine for the car, bigger wheels might improve overall cornering limits but I doubt I'd ever get anywhere near these on public roads anyway, the 19in are fine for my use. I have opening Panoramic roof, some say this might generate creaking noises when there is ice on the car... for the 10 days in next 5 years this may occur, I'll take my chances! I dislike sun roofs normally but this one seems to work and no loss of head room.
The journey was fun and I felt really secure with the whole package. My wife even fell asleep while I was "giving it some welly!" which really means the ride was brilliant! So for those people who are looking at buying/getting an F-Pace, they are fun, extremely practical but just don't expect perfection and really talk to several dealers, see if you can find one that has a clue! I am concerned my nearest dealer isn't good enough but the choices I have are few and far between in that respect.
Note, newly fitted mud flaps /splash guards did a reasonable job of limiting muck on the sides from the wheels but not perfect, they could do better but then they'd look like LR defender offerings, so perhaps not, stock F-Pace items are fine!
PS had a Loan XE last week... anyone 6'2" tall, forget it, I had chronic neck ache after about 10 minutes, really pleased to give it back!
I only occurred to me on the return journey that the noisy engine wasn't as noisy and the general drive line refinement had hugely improved. The car is now almost silent (which I like, I'm not an engine noise aficionado - I could listen to a 60's US V8 muscle car but only for a few minutes and never on a journey) and the delivery of power was really smooth. There used to be a little bit of harshness. It may not be same as a bigger 6 cyl engine but its pretty damn good for a 4 pot oil burner!
Along with Adaptive Drive mode and gearbox in sport mode the car was really good to drive, responsive and handled well. It also dealt with the wet lanes superbly. Not 100% that the Xenon headlights are as good as the XF Xenon headlights but thinking back now this may be from the different relative driver seating position to headlights, in the XF you sit lower in line with the light from them, in the F-Pace you look down into the headlight illuminate area, it means you don't get the feel of reflections straight back in your face.
If ordering now I'd love to see the LED lights in action before spending the money on them. I'm running standard Portfolio 19 inch rims and they're fine for the car, bigger wheels might improve overall cornering limits but I doubt I'd ever get anywhere near these on public roads anyway, the 19in are fine for my use. I have opening Panoramic roof, some say this might generate creaking noises when there is ice on the car... for the 10 days in next 5 years this may occur, I'll take my chances! I dislike sun roofs normally but this one seems to work and no loss of head room.
The journey was fun and I felt really secure with the whole package. My wife even fell asleep while I was "giving it some welly!" which really means the ride was brilliant! So for those people who are looking at buying/getting an F-Pace, they are fun, extremely practical but just don't expect perfection and really talk to several dealers, see if you can find one that has a clue! I am concerned my nearest dealer isn't good enough but the choices I have are few and far between in that respect.
Note, newly fitted mud flaps /splash guards did a reasonable job of limiting muck on the sides from the wheels but not perfect, they could do better but then they'd look like LR defender offerings, so perhaps not, stock F-Pace items are fine!
PS had a Loan XE last week... anyone 6'2" tall, forget it, I had chronic neck ache after about 10 minutes, really pleased to give it back!
I think bonker's comments might have been laced with a sight amount of sarcasm
