Ben Hardy’s Review is a Love Affair With the Jaguar F-Pace SVR
“So much better than the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk,” says the one-time Jeep salesman. “Floor it, and the world will be a better place!”
Back in 2016, Jaguar debuted the F-Pace compact luxury crossover, a model which would quickly become its top seller both in the US market and beyond. The F-Pace has gone on to receive countless great reviews and industry plaudits since then, including the much-coveted World Car of the Year award for 2017. And last year, the F-Pace SVR arrived upon the scene, with its new five-liter supercharged V8 engine bringing a huge step forwards in performance — and another round of reviews which, again, seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
The latest of these appeared on YouTube last week from Ben Hardy, a 22-year old automotive vlogger, powerlifter and former car salesman. While working at a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership in his native Utah, Hardy started an eponymously-named car review channel on YouTube, and in the past 18 months, he’s taken it from a mere 500 subscribers to almost 44,000. (You can also find him on Facebook and Instagram, if those are more your speed.)
For his latest review, Hardy road-tested a 2020 Jaguar F-Pace SVR in Santorini Black metallic, as loaned by his local Land Rover Jaguar dealership. With a base cost of $81,625 including destination fees, Hardy’s tester also includes both the Drive ($1,700) and Luxury Interior ($1,165) packages, as well as anther $7,583 of options. That’s a little north of $10,000 in upgrades, and the Monroney for his vehicle — which Hardy shows in detail during the clip — shows a final cost of US$92,073.
In his title, Hardy bills the video as a comparison with the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, which he reviewed last year. And given his background at a Jeep dealer, you’d perhaps expect an affinity with the American brand’s vehicles — yet he’s clearly rather taken by the Jag, which he says “feels so much better than the Trackhawk in so many ways”.
Starting off with the exterior, Hardy thinks the Ian Callum-designed body “definitely looks like an F-Pace, but it’s a lot more aggressive.” And once he steps inside — “the step-in height [makes it] pretty easy to get in” — he’s an even bigger fan of the Ebony and Pimento Red interior of his tester. Visibility is good, and the paddle shifters behind the wheel “feel really nice to the touch.”
The lozenge-quilted Windsor leather seats are “bolstered very nicely”, and “look absolutely amazing”, and he’s clearly thrilled by the fact that heated and cooled seats and individual climate control zones are available not just in the front, but for back-seat passengers as well. This is “super luxury”, says Hardy, who notes that at 5’10” tall, he fits back there “pretty comfortably, even with the panoramic sunroof option.”
And once he gets out on the road, his excitement at sitting behind the wheel of the F-Pace SVR is obvious. “I’m extremely excited to drive this,” he tells his viewers, “because I’ve been told this is supposed to sound similar to an F-Type — and that is one of the best-sounding cars on the planet, with the pops and the crackles.”
And while he struggles a bit to get those pops and crackles to arrive on demand, he’s clearly still thrilled with the SVR driving experience. It’s “a very luxurious, comfortable [and] smooth” to drive, and “handles so well”, he reveals. And once he switches the SVR into its Dynamic driving mode, his smile reaches almost from ear to ear. “Wow! This thing sounds crazy!” he grins. “It sounds really good [under] acceleration, and it’s got so much torque and power, it’s ridiculous!”
So how does Hardy think the 2020 F-Pace SVR compares with its Jeep Grand Cherokee rival? “Everyone idolizes the Trackhawk,” he notes, but “this feels so much better … in so many ways. I love Jeeps, but this sounds better in my opinion — that exhaust is just crazy — but [it’s] more than that. This weighs 1,000 pounds less than a Trackhawk, so it just handles better, [and] it feels sportier. Everything about the F-Pace just feels so much better!”
“I like this a lot more than I thought I would,” he continues. “As a total package, you could daily-drive this super easily. The fuel economy … isn’t the greatest, but it’s better than what I’m getting in my truck, to be completely honest. And it has that sporty feeling, the practicality, it looks really good from the outside. If you want a fun, aggressive SUV and you’ve got … about $90,000, then this F-Pace SVR is such a solid offering.”
It sounds to us like Jag has another winner on its hands, and Hardy clearly agrees. “You will not have any regrets[if you buy one]!” he exclaims. “You’ll floor it, you’ll be happy, and the world will be a better place!”