Maybe it’s down to your correspondent being a simple coffin-dodging old romantic, but a scintilla of me dies every time a motor manufacturer announces yet another SUV crossover. Most have been at it for years, responding to the demands of the marketplace. They’re also a nifty way of making platforms and engines go further. A tweak here, a tinker there, perhaps add four-wheel-drive, jack up the old suspenders, raise the bodywork and kerchiiing! - Tristram and Hermione can hold their heads high during the automotive bragging rights outside the school gates. For the first time ever, new car sales figures in Europe (remember that?) show that SUVs have outsold the once more traditional genres like estates, hatchbacks and saloons.

So, they’re all at it. Even Porsche jumped on the bandwagon 13 years ago with rather less than lovely Cayenne. Now, in an executive showroom near you, lurks the Bentayga, Bentley’s hideous solution to crossing over. And, Lord save us - Maserati, Italy’s most historical brand and bearer of my favourite car badge, has joined the fray also. Check out the Levante, if you must. Just the ticket if there’s a landslide in Chelsea…or Cheshire. What next, do you suppose? A Ferrari people carrier?

Fashionably late to the party, and well after the usual suspects from Germany put their towels down, Jaguar, left with no choice, recently introduced their slant on the proceedings. The F-Pace is already proving to be a big hit, recording huge sales here and, most importantly, across the Herring Pond.

I can see why, in a slightly cynical if-you-like-that-sort-of-thing way. For starters, as these contraptions go, this is quite a handsome thing.

For £35,020.00 you’ll get into the boggo 2.0 litre diesel with rear wheel drive only (what is the point?) and a six speed manual ’box. The 2.0 litre auto with four-wheel-drive is expected to be far and away the best seller over here in the UK. Few of you, I’m figuring, will bother with riotous 3.0 litre supercharged V6 petrol which also propels the F-Type sports car. This lobs in at a basic price of £65,275.00 before you add all the must-have fruit.

Luckily for me, Jaguar delivered the model that I would choose - the F-Pace S 3.0d 300PS AWD. Here the price starts at £51,540.00. S is for Sport, so it’s the toppest spec job.

I’m an aficionado of the brand in general, but I was prepared to dislike the F-Pace, due to my SUV prejudice, alluded to earlier.

A week and many miles of mixed motoring have rather turned my head. Daily I grew fonder. This conveyance handles like a proper car. Bends may be dispatched at a fair old clip no ore more than a weeny hint of understeer: body lean is negligible for a car of this size. The V6 diesel is sublime, powerful and muted, even with the taps wide open. 300PS is a lot, but it’s the twist at any revolutions that make it. 60 from standstill is rattled off in 5.8 seconds and you’ll see 150mph on the dial before this cat runs out of legs. Top tip, however. "My" car was fitted with 22 inch rims, which look the cat’s whiskers, but do little for the ride, on account of rubber that is seemingly painted on. They also add numbness to the steering. Be gone with your inner footballist and go for smaller wheels and taller rubber. Oh, and whilst I’m top tipping…Colour. This matters more with SUVs than other segments, I feel. I think this Jaguar looks best in black, or that nice blue they do. The burgundy reddish colour in the pictures here doesn’t do the
car any favours.

Inside, all’s fine and dandy and recognisably contemporary Jag-ish. Whistles and bells abound but I miss the Britishness of Jags of yore. The leather doesn’t smell like it does in my Morgan and walnut trees have probably run out, so we must settle for brushed alloy and premium plastics in an otherwise fine cabin with oodles of space for five big peeps and their luggage.

When I were a lad, and God wasn’t even middle-aged, Jaguar’s advertising always bore the strap line Grace, Space and Pace. It boasts the latter two in spades but does any SUV show grace?