2018 Jaguar F Pace S Review Audi Sq5
2018 Audi SQ5 TFSI v Jaguar F-Step Southward 35t comparison
For effectually $100K, buyers tin opt to leverage the 'sport' in sport utility vehicle in a large way. Merely can Jaguar's F-Stride S 35t overcome a heavy cost-options handicap to nab victory from Audi'due south SQ5 in the battle for become-faster, petrol-6-powered, Euro-badged family haulers?
Detractors may debate that the whole 'sport SUV' concept is incongruent enough to lack even a sensible name. Does such a description infer 'sport-sport utility vehicle'? Or perhaps 'double-sport utility vehicle'? How about, every bit some might advise, just obviously 'featherbrained'?
Still, many buyers are drawn to role with good cash for plus-sized family-friendly vehicles with a definite skew towards driving enjoyment, flagship variants described in marketing material as 'sporty' and 'dynamic' and then ofttimes you lot'd presume the spin doctors get paid by each give-and-take.
Conceptually, there's aplenty entreatment, be it in the motoring duality of combining fun and practicality for the single-auto garage space on High Street, or every bit an antidote against Soccer Mum stigma. And a skillful dose of sportiness and a kick of dynamism volition do, even if the overall bundle mightn't pack the outright heat of what might be considered a proper 'high-performance SUV'.
Add some parameters – a circa-$100K budget, some Euro badge snobbery – and you go far at the mid-sized, luxo-dipped, petrol-powered 'sport SUV' range-toppers from Audi and Jaguar in the SQ5 and F-Footstep South 35t, both of which having been recently updated.
Price and features
At $99,611 list, the SQ5 landed in Oz midyear to sit atop the all-new, second-generation Q5 range that arrived a couple of months earlier. And the headline news was that the range-topper had ditched its superb 'high-power' three.0-litre bi-turbo half-dozen diesel fuel – 230kW/650Nm in regular course, 250kW/700Nm in Plus guise – for turbocharged petrol motivation in this new version.
While today'southward SQ5 TFSI has the aforementioned cylinder count and engine chapters every bit the erstwhile TDI, the shift to petrol sees more than power (260kW) and less torque (500Nm) on the form guide.
For the record, the petrol SQ5 is, at 5.4 seconds for the 0–100km/h sprint, 3-tenths slower than the former more-affordable 'regular' SQ5 ($92,600) and the pricier SQ5 Plus ($108,900) versions, both of which featured different tunes of the rather first-class 'loftier-power' diesel-powered 3.0-litre bi-turbo V6. This new petrol version has scored an eight out of ten rating at launch.
The F-Pace Southward 35t, at $104,827 list, isn't merely five-thousand pricier than the Audi, it's likewise a formidable $12,620 pricier than the second-from-top Portfolio petrol AWD variant. And, thus, information technology'southward the most expensive F-Pace out of a dizzying 18 dissimilar variations offering the option of petrol and diesel fours and sixes, rear- and all-wheel drive, combinations of which can be had in Portfolio, R-Sport or Prestige trim levels. For the record, you can accept your S as a diesel for $101,795 list.
We've not driven this make-spanking MY18 F-Pace thus far, its update focusing on Ingenium engines in lower variants, a dual-view infotainment system and a nip and constrict to the interior. The 'S' is the only version available with the three.0-litre supercharged petrol V6 boasting 280kW and 450Nm, so 20kW up if 50Nm downwardly on the Audi. Its 5.5sec 0–100km/h dart claim is a scant i-tenth slower than its German rival here.
So far, so close. Then cost-optional niceties weigh in…
Our Audi test car jumps from $99,611 to $114,237 earlier on-roads thanks to the addition of a Technik package ($5600) adding LED Matrix headlights, LED tail-lights and dynamic indicators, B&O surround sound and head-up display, a quattro sport differential ($2950), and spruce-ups such equally a Titanium Blackness appearance pack ($1430), carbon-type mirror caps ($1300) and interior inlays ($1500), a 'black pack' ($1650) and blackness metallic paintwork ($1846).
Over to the Jaguar, and it'south time to hang on to your hats and your wallets, because it'south something of a wild ride…
Outside, our F-Pace S'due south cost options include 22-inch wheels ($3160), privacy drinking glass ($950), gloss blackness roof rails ($640), a sliding panoramic roof ($4420) and premium grey paint ($3790). Moving inside, at that place'southward a digital instrumentation/ten.2-inch touchscreen/Height surround sound package ($5280), DAB radio ($990), surround photographic camera and parking assist pack ($3630), caput-up brandish ($2650), 18-fashion electric forepart sport seats ($1470), rear seat comfort pack ($4470), configurable mood lighting ($990) and – why not? – illuminated Jaguar script treadplates ($1060)…
Merely wait, at that place's more...
There's a further charge for the smart primal with keyless entry ($1890), bullheaded-spot monitoring and contrary traffic detection ($1180), which is separate from the lane-keep aid system ($1120) and the adaptive prowl control ($3370).
And while yous wager that adding the Connect Pro pack ($1790) and Adaptive Surface Response smarts ($310) should merely about have every believable extra covered, pry another $120 out of your back pocket for rear-seat remote release levers. Yes, really.
Grand total: $149,717 before on-roads. Or nearly a l per cent hike in toll simply in options alone.
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Whether you lot compare how many of the Jaguar's options – smart key, blind-spot monitoring, digital dash – are standard on the Audi, or itemising simply how much stuff y'all don't get with F-Footstep's highest of four 'Southward' trim levels, the value pitch appears, frankly, preposterous.
Let's pull few punches. This pricey leaping cat will take to pole-vault the hurdle called 'value' to shell its Audi rival to a win here with an impressive – dare we say dominant – display every bit measured by 'Sport SUV' goodness.
Engines and functioning
Both SUVs ply iii.0-litre forcefulness-induced goodness via eight-speed automatic transmissions and all-wheel drive. The Jag does claw back a piffling in the value stakes with its chassis smarts – torque vectoring is a standard part on the F-Footstep S, whereas you'll need to splurge nearly iii-k extra to add information technology to the SQ5 via that optional 'quattro sport' differential.
Each car offers selectable drive modes covering off Dynamic, Normal and Eco suites to arrange throttle, manual, steering and handling calibrations, besides as user-selectable individual modes.
At that place's besides a dedicated 'sport' option for each motorcar's manual. Only the Audi, though, gets a 'loud' exhaust mode attainable via mode fiddling or a dedicated button on the panel.
Burn them up and information technology's the Audi that has the brassier, meatier soundtrack that's present in milder drive modes, near raucous with the exhaust's 'loudness' activated.
In that location'south a real rumble to it: not quite V8-like, even so not much like most V6s either. The Jag, however, has a smoother, quieter, more polite tune that's not nearly as characterful as the Audi, peculiarly from inside the cabin. Nor does it really amp the vibes up much, either, once you engage Dynamic.
Neither SUV makes irresolute and tweaking driving grapheme easy on the fly, each requiring button pushing and sequential scrolling through modes, and submenu excavation for finer tuning.
At the to the lowest degree, the Audi's tap-for-Sport transmission controller is slicker and quicker to activate than the Jag's rotary-type manual selector, though information technology still does the marque's signature party play tricks of dropping flush into the centre console at shutdown only to glide back into service, in a robotic manner, on outset-upwards.
Mid-v-second dispatch times isn't hanging near, and it's easy to presume the Audi's one-10th reward lies, in part, in a more lightweight grade. And however the SQ5 clocks in at 1945kg against the F-Step South at 1861kg unoptioned, though past the seat of the pants, y'all swear the Jag is the heavier of the two. Or perhaps much of the differences felt have more to practise with their respective choices of powerplant.
The F-Pace's throttle response is a trivial more than immediate, a typical trait of its supercharged format, while the single turbocharger located in the SQ5 V6's valley is a little more rubberband and less direct off the marker and at depression speed, at to the lowest degree in Normal style.
In Dynamic, the Audi is noticeably sharper on initial accept-up and equally all 500Nm get in at only 1370rpm, simply off idle, it feels to launch harder out of the hole, grabbing the German SUV's scruff and throwing it at the horizon with more gusto and vigour.
With plain less tractive try in the low rpm, the Jaguar is less hasty to get a move on and its lower 450Nm peak shove doesn't get in until 4500rpm, which and so happens to exist the rev point where the Audi's torque starts to drop off.
The F-Stride compensates a petty with rather urgent throttle response – it gives the engine's all in the few centimetres of throttle travel – which provides short-lived satisfaction as information technology leaves the engine'south mid-range, once y'all dig in farther, feeling a little lacklustre.
Add the bolder-if-slightly-bogus sonics to the Audi's depression-end gutsiness and more linear and controllable engine character, and the steed from Ingolstadt is simply noticeably more satisfying on the march. And regardless of what the stopwatch says.
Worth mentioning is that both SUVs subscribe to the growing trend of moving away from dual-clutch-blazon automatic manuals towards the conventional automatic, which is fast becoming the 'new old' absurd in prestige performance transmission selection. That said, the Jag's auto is smoother if lazier, while the Audi's calibration is punchier if a picayune gruffer, specially at low speed. Which brings u.s.a. neatly to on-road manners and impressions…
In the corners
Allow's be clear when carmakers trumpet the 'sport' in SUV: I've non driven a family hauler yet that drives similar a sports car. For a grippy, rapid, engaging facsimile of a sports machine experience in a practical packet, Porsche's Macan Turbo, in my experience, comes reasonably close if far from bang on. One-betoken-nine tonnes of inertia basically guarantees that neither SUV hither will replicate the driver-centric joys of, say, an F-Type or an RS5…
That'south not to say that they can't be downright fun to punt with vigour nor emphatically sporting-like in nature.
That the Jag feels a half-segment larger than the Audi and quiet wieldy on the road doesn't help its campaign. Nor does its relatively leaden steering.
Both SUVs get adaptive steering smarts, but it's the F-Pace that's heavier around town where excessive steering weight makes for a chore, and doesn't load up with resistance or deliver as much communication every bit the Audi does when pushed through a corner.
The SQ5 is no colonnade of steering greatness, but across the residuum of driving it's friendlier and imparts a more 18-carat sense of connectedness with the road surface.
Not that the F-Pace can't signal and runway through a corner with aplomb. Indeed, the sheer footprint of those massive 265mm-wide tyres generates impressive road-holding ability, peculiarly on smooth hotmix.
Throw in mid-corner lumps and bumps and the Jag's interruption and myriad treatment smarts work hard to handle the sheer mass of those optional 22-inch wheels.
The big cat errs towards a flat and neutral cornering stance, leveraging that grip for safe, predictable if not overly engaging passage. It errs towards generating pace rather than playfulness, only can certainly muster up a head of steam betoken to point across a twisty road.
That said, the Jag's suspension is very effective, if deceptively so: instead of offer a conspicuously softer and firmer setting the driver can turn on or off, it constantly varies damping, tempering the ride, controlling the bumps and harnessing grip in unison in quite a transparent manner.
The Audi has similar continuously variable suspension smarts, just does feel to flex its chassis musculus more and so when shuffling through drive modes. The graphic symbol change is more conspicuous. It feels a flake livelier, a touch smaller, and despite having lower-slung seating than the Jag is easier to more accurately identify on the road where you lot want it.
The SQ5's smaller (if hardly small) standard issue 21-inch wheels take slightly narrower 255mm safe, though Ingolstadt's handling package works the rubber its given impressively well.
Play effectually with the steering and throttle through a corner and the Audi is more adjustable, if merely because information technology seems to transfer weight to the tyre where and when it's needed most.
Playful? Sort of. Engaging and co-operative? Reasonably. The SQ5 is better sorted as a corner carver than its underachieving RSQ3 stablemate, but non quite in league, you sense, with the all-time of Porsche'southward Macan brood.
Of course, the inevitable counter to all of this is the charge that an SUV has no place existence wrung ragged on a backroad, allow alone on a racetrack, and that owners don't nor won't punt them like they're sports cars. But when buyers are asked to fork out actress for sport differentials (Audi) or boast digital lap-timers and thousand-force meters (Jag), they'd better walk the walk.
Rounding out the dynamic packages are the brakes. Of the two, the Audi fits larger anchors, just while the hardware does add together some confidence during extended punts, the consistency and pedal feel aren't really much different between the pair.
Around town
Both SUVs are quite pleasant when tooling around the 'burbs hauling loved ones, where perhaps the Jag hides its sporty stripes a fiddling ameliorate. Audi seems to constantly wearable its go-faster vibe on its sleeves, though it does demonstrate more shine in its around-town polish in its behaviour.
Each is susceptible to thudding across expansion joints as nearly all large, low-profile bike and tyre combinations do, though the Jag is sharper and the hits penetrate the cabin more conspicuously. Add together the heavier steering and those trips across boondocks for the Ikea run are a fleck more than of a task.
Either SUV suppresses tyre roar impressively well, isolates its cabin from ambience noise with aplomb, and maybe bar the ever-present rumble from the Audi's engine – albeit merely under acceleration – they're both quiet and polite when need be. Neither should the kids awake in the dorsum during those long weekend away trips.
Neither, though, are fuel misers. It takes gentle correct pes and a lot of highway kays to get close to their claimed combined bests – Audi at 8.7L/100km, the Jag at viii.9L – and around town, even exterior of peak traffic times, both regularly render sobering 12–13L/100km figures. The sometime diesel SQ5 was never that thirsty.
If there'due south a real badgerer with the SQ5 it's the sailing mode that idles the engine at prowl. It works fine at doing its fuel-saving business on flat ground, but on downhill runs the SQ5 will sometimes add up to 10km/h of road speed, while at other times information technology'll engine brake. Riding the brakes to save licence points and fines is, frankly, a hurting in the arse.
The larger perception of size with the Jag demands the driver to exist a little more circumspect in tight parking spaces, though each gets handy 360-degree photographic camera systems, parking sensors and agile assistance. As mentioned, though, information technology'south only the F-Pace that commands a premium ($3630) for it. Ditto the ($3370) adaptive cruise, likewise standard on the Audi.
Interiors
The Jag's stylised if reasonably unfussy motel space looks very highly-seasoned, and yous're greeted by prissy course-hugging sports seats trimmed in a combination of grained leather and 'suedecloth', the latter used to upmarket effect across the headlining and window pillars.
It's a little cosier for ambience space than the Audi, too, with a lower headlining and thicker, more than vision obscuring A-pillars.
The driving position is excellent, though the seat bolstering is quite firm. That suits the forepart row quite well, but leaves the second-row seating, with its unshapely contour, feeling a chip uncomfortable, especially for adults during the long haul.
At that place's a mixed handbag of materials inside the F-Pace – nice and convincing in quality in some areas such as the steering wheel, just at that place are peradventure more hard plastics than should be fitting this toll betoken or its flagship variant status.
The stylised design, with very neat mood lighting, does bring with information technology upmarket joy but it's let downward in the details, such as goofy button placement: it'due south too easy to inadvertently nudge the retentiveness switches to throw your seat out of whack, and those tiptop-sill mounted window switches seem really misplaced.
The Audi isn't as stylised yet general cabin presentation is fancier, unsurprisingly more than Germanic and pushes the 'techy' pattern barrow harder.
Whether it'south the 'foursquare'-themed steering cycle, the choice of material combination or the diamond quilt stitched, total-leather bucket seats, it yells 'sport' and driving purpose a little louder, for better or worse. That said, there's also a college-class ambience than within the Jag.
The seats themselves are superb, with good seating position and more pliant 'give' in the padding than its rival for nicer long-haul comfort.
Another SQ5 potent conform is the natural commuter ergonomics, while switchgear, controls and material choices are a little slicker than the Jag, imparting a sense of higher quality.
Whether or not Audi'southward techier and busier approach to the driver display and infotainment screen design is more appealing than Jaguar's simpler approach is downward to buyer preference.
That said, the German hardware is more comprehensive and quicker in performance and the software is both more than fulsome and more than intuitive to apply.
The F-Pace'due south touchscreen-only infotainment is more distracting to use and lacks a handy console controller interface as fitted to the SQ5, is wearisome in response, the graphics look cheap and the navigation and radio screens are initially quite confusing.
While the Audi's all-singing and dancing approach might seem gimmicky at first, the touchpad with audible character confirmation is very handy for imputing sat-nav addresses without diverting your eyes from the road.
The dual navigation screens, while mostly useless around town, are handy for route improvisation in unfamiliar territory by keeping the driver's map zoomed and leaving the infotainment screen in a broad view.
Neither car offers quick and easy drive-mode admission. You can switch between modes swiftly enough in the F-Pace, but the Dynamic personalisation screen is very fiddly.
The SQ5, for its part, demands laborious shuffling through modes sequentially to arrive at the right i.
With its short rear doors, climbing into and out of the Jag'south second row is more cumbersome than doing the same in the Audi.
Both SUVs are comparable for rear passenger roominess – two adults or three younger kids – until y'all position the SQ5's standard-fit slide aligning to its rearmost position.
Seating thus set, the Audi offers superior rear leg room, though it does touch kicking space past reducing information technology from 610 litres to 550 litres, neither of which tin peak the Jaguar's 650L luggage space… If y'all don't opt for a spacesaver spare wheel.
With spacesavers fitted under their floors, the Jag loses on usable luggage volume with just 508L.
Each competitor offers 40:xx:40 splitfold flexibility and remote latches in the cargo surface area, though the Jag'due south are cost optional ($120).
The SQ5 is the only one of the pair with a handy elasticised net in the floor to proceed your payload such every bit groceries secure.
Buying
Both SUVs are covered by a fairly rudimentary three-yr warranty, though the Audi comes with superior unlimited-kilometre surety against the Jaguar's 100,000km cap. Complimentary roadside assistance is offered on both vehicles for warranty elapsing.
The Audi has a slightly pricier capped price of $1870 for three years/45,000km, or yearly/15,000km intervals. Meanwhile, the Jaguar's $1800 covers a more fulsome five years/130,000km capped-cost program.
VERDICT
Did the F-Pace counteract its huge, 'as-tested' value handicap with dominant displays in all-round Sport SUV goodness? No it didn't. In fact, pricing notwithstanding across the residual of the above criteria, the SQ5 proved the fitter device meant to represent solid family unit-friendly foundations forced through 'sport' and 'dynamic' filtration.
In isolation, the petrol-powered SQ5 is hardly flawless. Information technology's slower, thirstier and pricier than the former diesel fuel SQ5, and fence rages – in the CarAdvice office at least – as to whether this new TFSI even sounds better than the TDI. Losing the oiler format, likewise, makes today's SQ5 that picayune less, well, special besides…
This new TFSI version does ride, handle and steer better than older examples of its breed, and is certainly the more engaging sporting/dynamic feel in the company of the Top True cat from Jaguar.
That it also piles on the feelgood grapheme heavier and offers superior comfort and convenience levels, all at a friendlier price, seals the deal handsomely for Audi in this test of the improve double-sport utility vehicle.
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Source: https://www.drive.com.au/reviews/2018-audi-sq5-tfsi-v-jaguar-f-pace-s-35t-comparison/
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