Jaguar F-Pace 300 Sport 2019 UK first drive

Imagine one of those ‘greatest hits’ albums you get around this time of year, only in car form. Its listing includes everything you loved before, plus one or two new tracks to stave off whatever X-Factor darling is attempting a run on the charts.

That’s the 300 Sport - an Jaguar F-Pace packed with a comprehensive kit list as standard, which arrives as part of a wider refresh to keep Jaguar’s sporting SUV firmly in buyers' minds when shopping for a luxury high-rider. 

It can be had in four-cylinder petrol or six-cylinder diesel forms, each promising 298bhp, but it’s the oil-burner that’s driven here, for the first time on UK roads. The twin-turbocharged diesel promises a significant 516lb ft of torque, sent to all four wheels through an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox and Jaguar’s rear-biased all-wheel drive.

At almost £55,000, customers can be expected to cross-shop with the more powerful Audi SQ5, which also drinks from the black pump, but the F-Pace promises better value, with a standard specification that Jaguar says includes £8430 of extras.

That list includes a Touch Pro Navigation infotainment system that gains Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for the first time, along with a fully digital instrument cluster, electrically adjustable heated seats, a Meridian sound system and a panoramic sunroof. 

It also gets bespoke exterior trim, along with 22in alloy wheels (20s are an option, but weren’t fitted to our test car). They are wrapped in new ultra low-rolling resistance rubber for 2019 - a move made to improve CO2 emissions without modifying the engine line-up. 

The car is not short on ‘300 Sport’ branding. If the badges on the front grille and rear bumper weren’t enough, there are also logos etched into the door sill plates and embossed on the front seat headrests. Contrasting stitching on the seats and dashboard continue the yellow theme.

Otherwise, the interior remains unchanged from the pre-facelift car. Smartphone integration is a welcome improvement as JLR’s navigation system isn’t particularly intuitive, nor is it especially accurate - it thought the launch venue was on a motorway central reservation, for example. The cabin is on par for the premium end of the family SUV spectrum, but still slightly behind the likes of Mercedes and BMW for the quality of its materials.