INEOS Grenadier: what the experts say

As soon as we turned off the road onto the ethereally beautiful Ardverikie Estate, the Grenadier felt at home, stable, its wheels dug into the light snowy surface and never less than a stout place to be. That initially soft suspension response keeps things calm but not tippy. Excellent wheel articulation keeps the tyres in contact through the most cross-axling terrain and the lugged tyres grip like a speed climber’s fingers.  In either petrol or diesel form there’s plenty of low-down power and superb accelerator response and the whole car “walks” along a rough track with the best. 

As you’d expect, it’s hugely capable off-road, whether it’s rock crawling (though we didn’t do much of that), wading (up to a depth of 800mm), or crossing undulating terrain. Once in off-road mode, the seat belt reminders, parking sensors and the engine start/stop are all switched off. There’s a Downhill Assist and an Uphill Assist function.

Heading off the beaten track, the Grenadier’s progressive-rate Eibach spring and Bilstein damper set-up is compliant over large bumps. Coupled with impressive wheel articulation from the live axles, it really gives you the sense that the car is maximizing grip from all four tires. It was hard to find terrain tricky enough to stop the Grenadier in its tracks, as it continually seems to find remarkable traction over even the most challenging sections. Ok, there was the odd steep slope that slowed us down, but with a touch more commitment, it managed to scramble up the trickiest of inclines. Heading downhill didn’t seem to phase it much either. Shifting the manual gearbox control, selecting first gear, and using engine braking with both feet off the pedals, the car crawled along pretty safely without losing grip. Thanks to approach and departure angles of 35.5 and 36.1 degrees respectively, the bodywork doesn’t catch the when it meets flat ground, too.

All the bits that could get easily scuffed or knocked off - mirrors, bumper corners, stuff like that  -  they're not expensive, they're not made of expensive materials. I like that about it. It has been well thought through. This is a car that's born for adventure. It is sort of utility first, whereas modern Land Rovers, I think have gone too deep into the luxe and the aesthetics.

Off tarmac, the Grenadier is a bonny, boxy billy goat. With the transfer case in low range, with axles locked, it can crawl up, over and down damn near anything at an ant’s pace, just over 1 mph. The short, skid plate-protected overhangs and close-coupled wheelbase give Grenadier superheroic powers of up-and-over.

"This is a twin ride axel car, just like the Jeep Wrangler or the previous Defender, but it absolutely does not ride like one. That's partly thanks to coil springs all-round, but clearly the INEOS engineering team have put a lot of effort into making sure that this thing rides properly when you get back on the road, and it is absolutely staggering."

The BMW engines can cope well enough though; 282 horsepower and 450 Nm of torque from the petrol, or 245 hp and 550 Nm from the diesel, equates to 0-60 mph times of 8.6 and 9.6 seconds respectively.

Given its rudimentary construction, it grips without excessive roll and understeers benignly if you do go in too fast, all the while soaking up whatever road craters have emerged this winter. Don’t read that as a suggestion that there is any depth of dynamic poise – we’re talking a ladder frame and 2.8 tonnes here – but a smooth hurry along an A-road is the sort of challenge that leaves you satisfied that you tried. The depth of sophistication is highlighted in more mundane areas, too, in particular for how little wind noise is whipped off the boxy shape. All you really hear is the transfer box’s constant if distant whine. This is all complemented by the silky smoothness of both of the BMW-sourced six-cylinder engines, one petrol, one diesel. Linked to the eight-speed ZF gearbox, the petrol makes 332lb ft and the diesel 406lb ft. They are a joy, and while common sense is likely to point you at the diesel’s still mildly alarming real-world 22mpg and better low-down pull, both engines deliver lavish, controllable propulsion across the revs. There is, however, something quite alluring about the petrol, providing you can live with 15mpg as an everyday metric.

The slow, low-geared steering tempers your ambitions on the road but once you settle into it the Grenadier has refinement sufficient that you might feel willing to cruise from London to that remote Scottish estate for a straightforward shooting weekend, and enjoy the fact you could then drive onto the moor without having to swap your kit into the gamekeeper’s smelly old Hilux.

The buzz among the scribblers as we gather for dinner is the steering, which many think is too vague on the road. I know what they mean, but as a hardened driver of old Land Rovers I suppose it's something I'm used to. On-road compromise is what you get when you go for off-road perfection.

"...the wipers make a noise, but they also leave a massive blindspot. As if the problem with A-pillars wasn't bad enough these days, you get a really big blindspot,  which isn't great on the road; you're sort of peering around it at roundabouts."

 Having driven it off road already and now on the road, my left knee sits higher than my right knee, or at least it feels like it because there's a really large intrusion into the trans-tunnel, and I believe that's for the exhaust manifold... I can't get my left foot very comfortable... some of the ergonomics of how you sit and drive it, I think, aren't quite right.

Disguised as the world’s widest footrest it may be, and surely big enough for a pair of size 16s, but as a result, the brake pedal doesn’t start until beyond the centre point of the steering wheel. On first acquaintance, you half- wonder if you need to make use of that dashboard compass to send an expedition out east to discover the accelerator.

On the inside Ineos has taken full advantage of not being chained to legacy design and delivered an interior that is both characterful and usable in equal measure. Chunky, rubberised switchgear configured like the control panel for some sort of heavy industrial or agricultural implement shouts a deliberate focus on functionality, major controls grouped together logically with off-road selectors and switches for the pre-wired accessory outputs in an aircraft style roof panel. Given the controls all look the same it takes some muscle memory to remember which is which, but that will likely come with more time at the wheel. There are some nice, playful touches as well, like a ‘Toot’ button with a less aggressive secondary horn to alert horse riders and cyclists (inspired by Ineos’s sponsorship of the latter) and port and starboard flashes to the panels in a reference to its sailing connections.

The quality of the interior is also really surprising. It wouldn't be the first time for a fledgeling startup car company to release a product to market and for it to have some serious shortcomings in build quality. But I've spent two days in this car now, on and off road, and there isn't a single squeak or rattle from its interior. The fit out is amazing, the quality of the materials is surprisingly good... This car gets a straight 10 for build quality.

Ineos set out to build an imperious off-roader with character, and for the most part it has done just that. That in itself is an enormous triumph. Today’s Grenadier is certainly good enough to stand on its own merits and sit on any shortlist against even the best of its competition. Given the timescales and challenges, it’s an incredible achievement.

I love the concept of this, not being a looker, but being born fit for purpose, and giving the 'vees' to built in obsolescense, and amen to that. I'd love to buy a car that I know is going to last 15, 20 years and go into the Bush and come back, like so many Land Rovers don't.

The Grenadier is exceptionally well-engineered and does exactly what it sets out to do: go places most cars can’t without falling apart, and do it with some imagination and a dose of British idiosyncrasy. It’s also more accomplished on-road than its rivals, and almost as good as the Mercedes G-Wagen, a vehicle made by the company that invented the car in the first place. Only rather less expensive.

It’s as pleasing to spend the day in as any premium SUV – but when you point it at the terrain, it’s a fully fledged superhero. Like the old Defender, it has its foibles – we’re very much looking forward to spending enough time in one to see if we can get used to its steering, for instance – but over the piece, as we sat aboard the Grenadier during Expedition 1.0, one conclusion kept on forming itself in our heads. Which is that much as we love the new Defender, this is the vehicle it should have been. INEOS has done it.