Haven’t driven consistently in over 10 years because I’ve lived in big city

Upcoming life changes… Wife wants SUV, I want a Jaguar

My Priorities- don’t need to drive super fast. Safety, I like good speakers, nice interior, drive well, look nice, pleasant driving experience. Love the exterior look of the black SVR but doubt I value all the features for the price.

1) Open to pre-owned but what should I know about going that route vs buying new?

2) What about about the different years and what I’d be gaining or missing out on in key features between 2022, 2021, 2020 models?
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3) What about warranty advice/handling maintenance issues.

4) General ownership costs to anticipate? Assume I’m a total newbie, because I am.

Thanks for any help!

 

I've always loved driving a vehicle since 1984, and I feel I do it well, but it wasn't until my very first ownership of a JAGUAR, that I began really APPRECIATING that each car "drives" differently, and mates to you more intuitively than another car, or responds to you better than others---all from very real awareness and operation standpoints.
My first Jaguar was an 2017 XE, and....(shocker) have to say I am NOT an SUV fan--their weight, sluggishness, playful bounciness in the suspension--to me are all counter to what's needed in a city arena, and counter to what's needed in an ecologically-resourceful future.

But the first F-Pace's (2018 to 2020) were a near-perfect duplication of the 2017/18 XE, in the cabin controls, dashboard, and RESPONSIVENESS. When you nudge your foot down just a little in a 2019 F-Pace, the damned vehicle leaped forward with a superb lightweight feeling that is just not expected from an SUV---it moves like a non-SUV beast, and I was blown away. To this day, a 2018 F-Pace is the only SUV I'll gladly climb into with a smile.
The 2018 model also had the earliest introduction of LED in its headlamps at that time, which I suspect soon after inherited SOME of the famous "Matrix" LED headlamp projector design that Land Rover introduced in their Velar. I had driven the 2018 F-Pace, as well as the 2019 Range Rover Velar, both in nasty highway rain and in snow-covered night drives, and both the early LED and the Matrix LED equipped on these early versions are SUPERB for visibility and for identifying objects around you as you drive.
The rear windscreen of the 2018/20 F-Pace also felt easy for the driver to see out, when looking in his rearview mirror (...YES, I'm one of these queer drivers who values a rear-camera but STILL relies PRIMARILY on rear mirror and side mirrors to confidently handle backing up).

The front grille, front cowlings, and the kicker panel {that bottom trim that stretches where the front wheel ends to where the back wheel begins)... all gave a leaner lighter look to the F-Pace's body, like muscle fiber stretching between wheels. A really super looking athletic body unlike any typical SUV at its time.


Now just last month, I finished 7 weeks of driving in the new 2023 F-Pace version. And unfortunately, all the cool items I mentioned above, are gone. The 2023 version cabin-wise is no longer an XE copycat. It is decked out to be a more luxurious, stately, place of privilege. More deserving of a Range Rover, very elegance-oriented with soft paneling everywhere instead of hard plastic... but not a serious driver-purposed interior like the early versions had, and I miss that "serious driver" feeling. Great for wrapping your lady in a good sense of comfort and refinement.
The 2023 machine NO LONGER moves like an enthusiastic XE or XF. It now moves, well,... like a stately SUV. It has a nice growl in there somewhere when you nudge the accelerator, but is delayed and slightly hesitant to giddy up when you need to get out the way of danger. Its steering response still turns on a dime beautifully. But the earlier model F-Pace's could also ACCELERATE on a dime, and I'm sad to see that breathtaking feature has gone away.
This isn't saying something seriously bad about the 2023---it's just saying that the 2023 F-Pace doesn't want to be agile anymore, and has settled in with the pack of typical heavy SUVs.

But what does say bad for me, is the headlamp performance. The 2023 no longer has the LEDs of four years ago (understandably, that's progress), NOR does it have the Matrix projector LED engineering from 2019 era Land Rovers. I'm told the one I drove has something called a new "Pixel-projector" design. Its whiteness of light and distance of view is great in dry weather. But the moment rain is pelting down, or the grey tarmac in the city gets shiny wet, it's as though someone just turned your headlamp illumination down by 50%. The wet tarmac becomes glossy black with most of the lane markers obscured, and there's suddenly very little brightness coming off the objects to help you see where you're going. I've read this explained by one lighting designer as "the wrong Kelvin+projector combination", allowing rain or wet surfaces to ABSORB most of the brightness from your headlamps, leaving less light to carry information back to your eyes. I don't know if any of that scientific-noodle goop is valid, but I can clearly tell the amount of brightness you see with the 2023 model's lamps gets considerably dim in poor weather---while the earlier Matrix lamps or even my XE's ecologically-unfriendly Xenon lamps don't seem weakened at all by rainy conditions.

The 2023 body overall is a bit heavy to look at, compared with that arching muscular look I mentioned in the first models, but that's not a big issue.
The rear windscreen seems really small now for you to see through with your rearview mirror---but that seems to be a problem that worsens with each company's new SUV as the years progress.
Owners of both early or late model F-Pace's have warned "don't buy one with the heated-front windscreen option", and I agree. The distortion in the glass can become a big annoyance for anyone accustomed to sharp clear windscreens in their cars.
Regardless of the year, I say stay away from "tinted rear windows" if you can. The tint Jaguar uses is just a tad TOO dark from the driver's interior perspective, and gives me the feeling of looking over my shoulder into the back of a gloomy small school bus, rather than an airy, refined SUV.

If I'm forced to have an SUV, and I truly love my wife to infinity and beyond, I'll get the 2023 F-Pace for her interior enjoyments (and I won't complain to her about the driver-shortfalls).
If my wife loves ME to infinity and beyond, she'll tell me to get a 2019 F-Pace model and glide through the city streets like a angel in ballet, "because you deserve the driving pleasure, sweetie!".

 

Wow thanks for sharing your experiences! Very helpful