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Our 2018 Jaguar F-Pace has an infuriating shifter

Let me preface this by saying that I quite enjoy our long-term 2018 Jaguar F-Pace. Its quick, handsome and pretty good on a road trip. It handles well for a crossover, too. My biggest gripe with the F-Pace is the interior, and my biggest gripe with the interior is the damned rotary shifter. I've never fought a vehicle so much just to get it to shift into reverse and neutral. I have a tendency to rant, but usually offline, in the company of friends and under the influence of a few drinks. I've spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the F-Pace, and an incident this week in an automatic car wash this week prompted this post. Simply put, it took probably 10 seconds for me to get it to shift into neutral and another 10 seconds to get it back into drive. This is annoying in any situation, but when you're holding up a line of cars trying to wash off a thick layer of salt and ice, it's infuriating. The rotary shifter simply wouldn't rotate into either drive or reverse. This might be user error and it might be exclusive to our particular F-Pace, but I don't recall have the same issue in our XE (I admittedly drove it less) and I definitely have never had such problems with other shifters. Not even the BMW-style fixed rocker type or weird handle ones in the Toyota Prius. I even consulted the owner's manual to make sure I'm doing it properly. The only thing I can think of is that I'm not putting enough pressure on the brake pedal while turning the dial. Yet, even those editors who haven't experienced this problem admit that the design has lost its way. Jaguar introduced the rotary shifter in the original XF back in 2009. At the time, its housing was compact and offset, serving the functional purpose of freeing up space for center console storage (as you can see in the photo above). The same concept was later applied to the Jaguar XJ and copied in the Ram 1500. Now, compare that design to the shifter in the F-Pace (as well as the XE and current XF). It's right in the center with a bezel that takes up as much room as the shift boot on a manual transmission. There's no added storage benefit and the surrounding piano black trim collects dust and fingerprints like a forensics squad. In other words, instead of a space efficiency solution, it's a space-robbing novelty that drives me nuts at the car wash. Related Video: Image Credit: Jeremy Korzeniewski, Jaguar Design/Style Jaguar Long-Term Garage Crossover SUV Luxury Performance jaguar f-pace jaguar f-pace s

Harry bravely drives Jaguar XJ-S V12 1,000 miles to Monaco

There are a great many cars we'd like to take on a transcontinental journey – especially across Europe. And a good portion of them would probably be grand tourers with twelve-cylinder engines. We're just not sure we'd be as brave as Harry Metcalfe, who drove his 1980 Jaguar XJ-S V12 from his home in the UK all the way down to Monaco. Don't get us wrong, the XJ-S looks like a rather comfortable ride, and with the V12 is surely both smooth and powerful. It's just that Jags didn't have the best reputation for reliability back then, and we'd have been at least a little worried that we wouldn't make it all the way across France on this trip. Nor are we sure we would have wanted to without air conditioning. The model in question, as you'll find out if you watch the video, is an early 1980 example, produced just before Jaguar updated the line with the High-Efficiency versions. As such, it's got a bit more power and shorter gearing than later models. The XJS (as it would later be labeled) would undergo a number of updates over the following years, and would stay on the market until 1996 when the XK came along to relieve it. By Harry's reckoning, his early XJ-S was every bit as good as the Porsche 928 and other front-engined GTs of the era, and would have been more fondly remembered if it hadn't had to live in the shadow of the E-Type that came before. You'll want to watch the 17-minute video of the journey, undertaken for a cover story to appear in the September issue of Octane, to see for yourself. Related Video:

Jaguar I-Pace electric crossover sales are taking off

Earlier this month, it was reported that Jaguar Land Rover is due for a turnaround plan to cut costs and improve cash flow. The owner of JLR, Tata Motors, is scheduling a 18-month plan called "Project Change," worth $3.2 billion. But it seems a step in the right direction has already been taken with the introduction of Jaguar's electric I-Pace: InsideEVs is reporting that Jaguar sold 1,200 I-Pace models in October, which represents strong growth for the brand and the new model. 8.7 percent of Jaguar's total October sales consisted of the I-Pace, meaning that the total October sales volume of 13,764 units was largely boosted by the new electric crossover. Total sales were up 11.6 percent, and it was overall the best October ever for JLR. Some 2,500 I-Pace crossovers have been sold so far. The October sales figure is a noticeable rise from September's 710 cars, which itself is a strong pickup from just 140 cars sold in August. These are signs of both production and sales perking up, and it wouldn't be surprising to see monthly I-Pace sales hit 2,000 units sometime soon. It helps that the I-Pace is priced competitively with Tesla Models S and X, starting at $70,495 including destination charge, with Jaguar-like performance and looks. Last month, we reported of Jaguar possibly going electric-only in the next decade, with a portfolio consisting of an electric XJ, a full-sized EV crossover and an electric sports car in addition to the I-Pace. Brexit uncertainty and China-market woes mean Jaguar is on unstable ground, but as its owner is about to run an even tighter ship, and it first full-electric model is visibly picking up the pace, the coming decade could turn out to be a positive for Jaguar. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: InsideEVs Green Jaguar Crossover Electric Luxury jaguar i-pace i-pace