Ineos Automotive has managed to generate quite a buzz by creating its own vision of a rough-and-tumble 4×4 in the last few years, stepping into the niche opened up when that famous-British-off-roader-you’re-all-well-aware-of went off sale, replaced by something fancier.
That gap has now fully closed as Ineos opens order books for its Grenadier in all launch markets, including Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Interested parties can now also make a deposit to secure a build slot.
Dreamers can have a go too, since Ineos has also launched its configurator, every car enthusiast’s favourite online time-waster, letting you select between the handful of body styles currently offered (the two-seat Utility Wagon, five-seat Station Wagon and slightly posher Belstaff version), and all the usual paint colours, wheel options and interior bits and pieces.
It’s a reminder too that the Grenadier isn’t badly priced for a car of this type, the Utility Wagon starting at £49,000 before you tick any boxes, and the Station Wagon three grand more than that. BMW-sourced six-pot petrol and diesel engines are both available (and at the same price), while an eight-speed automatic gearbox is standard.
Hagerty drove a pre-production Grenadier earlier in the year, and aside from uncommunicative steering – something Ineos was aware of, and should be fixed for production models – found it capable in the rough and promising as a prospect.
Grenadiers will begin to filter out of the company’s Hambach facility in France (formerly the home of Smart, a contrast on-par with Volkswagen once building the Phaeton at the Sachsenring plant from which Trabants used to emerge) in July.
Read more
The inside story of the new Ineos Grenadier
9 classic 4x4s that aren’t Land Rovers
Mud Wrestling: At some point in the 1993 Camel Trophy, we began naming the leeches
This is, indeed, “what we wanted JLR to build” (as motoring reviewers have said). I love the interior, and like the exterior, and immediately paid my £500 ‘interest’ deposit.
But a fortnight ago INEOS published the online brochure, and there in very small letters were the expected fuel consumption figures. Bearing in mind that NO car manufacturer is pessimistic about such figures, 18.9 – 21.4mpg for the petrol, and 23.9 – 27.4 for the diesel are a big shock in this day and age. I know that such vehicles have the aerodynamics of a brick, but I was hoping for something a bit more in keeping with the environmental concerns of 2022.
I am now seriously considering getting my P38 Range Rover re-engined and refurbished instead… I’d been looking forward very much to my first NEW car in 4 decades, but my conscience would be very unhappy.