Ineos Grenadier Review 2024

Like so many farmers, rescue workers and explorer types, Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was unhappy about the demise of the Land Rover Defender after a production run of 67 years, not regarding its pricey replacement as anything of a replacement at all. So he added an automotive string to the bow of his firm Ineos, the world’s third largest chemical company, and delivered the Ineos Grenadier. Does it fill the boots of the legendary 4x4? Our Ineos Grenadier review reveals all.

Like so many fine things, the Ineos Grenadier first saw the light of day on a scrap of paper in a pub – in this case it was a five pound note, and the pub was called The Grenadier.

Those may look like Land Rover parts department door panels and headlamp housings, but they’re not. This is simply what happens if you arm yourself with phrases such as ‘no-nonsense’, ‘stripped back’ and ‘workhorse’ when first sketching your idea of what the next Land Rover Defender should have been.

As a result – and perched on a simple, strong, full box-section ladder frame chassis – the Ineos Grenadier is unapologetically boxy to both maximise interior space and locate a wheel at each corner to reduce overhangs, a must for uncompromised off-roading ability.

In that vein, the wheelarches are shaped to allow for maximum axle articulation, the front bumper can house a winch with 5.5-tonne capability, and the front wings are flat so you can unfold an Ordnance Survey map and rest a mug of tea on them.

With connection points to the roof, exterior wiring allows for the rigging of auxiliary lighting, There’s an optional utility rail with a universal fixing system on the doors, and the tailgate has been split 30:70 the keep the hinge size on the moderate side of massive.

On board, it’s a pleasant surprise to find that the Ineos Grenadier favours analogue over digital wherever possible, with clearly labelled, well-spaced buttons and chunky rotary knobs both on the monolithic centre console and on the rather cool, aircraft-inspired overhead panel. You can operate all the main switchgear whilst wearing gloves.

That funky overhead panel houses all the off-road switchgear, including buttons for the optional axle differential locks and a wading mode, and the pre-wired auxiliary switches for winches, light bars or anything else you’ve a mind to plug into the exterior bodywork.

There is still a touchscreen, though – a 12.3-inch ‘Central Control System’ perched atop the centre console. As well as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay multimedia connectivity, Bluetooth and voice control, this system boasts vehicle information displays for speed, revs, gear, fuel and tyre pressures. Switch to the off-road display and you’ll find information on steering angle, vehicle attitude and bearing, as well as access to Ineos’s bespoke, Pathfinder off-road navigation system.

What there isn’t, however, is a driver’s instrument binnacle. Instead, a small panel set into the top of dash and read through the wheel spokes gives you an array of emergency lights. For all else, you must look left, which is not always ideal.

The Ineos Grenadier is powered by a choice of BMW 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line, six-cylinder 286PS petrol or 249PS diesel engines married to an eight-speed automatic transmission and a manually-operated two-speed transfer case with a built-in centre differential, which is lockable in both high and low ranges. 

Driven on-road the Ineos Grenadier is infinitely superior to the old Land Rover Defender; not least because you don’t have to open the window to make room for your right elbow when driving.

Both the Recaro seats and the ride quality are pleasingly comfortable, noise levels are well suppressed with either engine choice and the Brembo brakes deliver admirable stopping power. But the steering’s not a strong point, proving vague and less than eager to self-centre.

That’s because it’s an old-fashioned recirculating-ball set-up, deliberately chosen for its extra toughness and durability when off-roading, and that’s where the Ineos Grenadier really comes into its own.

In the end, of course, off-roading ability comes down to ground clearance and tyre choice. But the sheer breadth of mechanical engineering and electronic assistance available gives this car every possible chance of keeping going where most posh SUVs will fear to tread.

With a range priced from £64,500 to £76,000, the Ineos Grenadier is available in a choice of three body styles – Utility Wagon, Station Wagon and Quartermaster.

Rivals? The Toyota Land Cruiser, redoubtable Jeep Wrangler and instantly recognisable Mercedes G-Class all aspire to parity in off-roading abilities.

But, ironically, given that the Ineos Grenadier only exists because of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s disdain for it, it’s the new Land Rover Defender that presents the biggest threat – it’s £10,000 cheaper like-for-like, and infinitely better to drive on road.

Our first experience of the Ineos Grenadier was actually off-road, which, on reflection, is probably doing justice to a car designed to offer all the farmyard workhorse abilities of the old Land Rover Defender, but with a considerably thicker veneer of comfort and civility on top.

In truth, the most taxing element of the off-road route we tackled involved slopes clad in mud more slippery than a freshly buttered banister.

But with the transfer case satisfyingly clunked into low range via a proper lever rather than an anodyne button and off-road mode engaged via the overhead panel, the car benefited from the added weapons of locking front- and rear-axle differentials to effortless negotiate the slurry.

The worst thing about driving in deep mud is that you can lose all sense of steering angle, making life far harder for yourself when unwittingly ploughing straight ahead with one whole turn of lock on the helm.

Even a brightly coloured strip woven into the top of wheel rim won’t tell you if you have exact turns of lock on, so the steering angle indicator on the centre console screen is a real bonus – or would be if it was large enough to read at a glance.

Approach, breakover and departure angles of 35.4, 28.2 and 36.1 degrees respectively are on a par with those of a coil sprung Land Rover Defender 110 and a maximum ground clearance of 264mm is better.

Multi-link coil sprung suspension gives the Ineos Grenadier all the wheel articulation you could hope for on desperately uneven surfaces, and a wading depth of 800mm is more than enough for all but the seriously foolish. And happily, unlike in an old Land Rover Defender, the water stays firmly on the other side of the bodywork.

The Recaro front seats really come into their own on the most badly folded surfaces, holding you comfortably in place whilst those in the back are relentlessly reminded of why they need door-top grabs.

You can readily take manual control of the gearbox via BMW’s ugly gear selector, but at no point did this seem like a more practical solution to overcoming any obstacle than that offered by the auto box.

There were a couple of occasions when the car rather jumped at the throttle when smooth power delivery was key to progress, but we’d put that down to a learning curve rather than aggressive throttle mapping.

On Tarmac, the Ineos Grenadier feels old-fashioned. The combination of ladder chassis and separate bodywork gangs up with tall tyre walls to give a unique ride quality that melds the instant comfort of isolation from the road surface with the jostle of a dated engineering solution. In all, progress is largely extremely comfortable.

Less wholesome is the steering. The car’s recirculating ball system is a must for serious off-roading; tougher and better able to withstand knocks than a rack and pinion set-up, it’s also far less likely to transfer shocks back to the helm.

On the road, however, the steering is ponderous, quite heavy and reluctant to self-centre when pulling out of a junction. And it is particularly vague at top dead centre.

Those have lived with an old Land Rover Defender will not care about this, and those driving a new one will be horrified. Off-road the Ineos Grenadier can show the new Land Rover Defender a thing or two, and sustain far less bodywork damage whilst doing so. On-road the Defender simply disappears over the horizon.

The Ineos Grenadier is powered by a choice of BMW 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line, six-cylinder petrol or diesel engines married to an eight-speed automatic transmission and a manually-operated two-speed transfer case with a built-in centre differential which is lockable in both high and low ranges. 

The 2998cc straight-six petrol engine develops 286PS at 4750rpm and 450Nm of torque from 1750-4000rpm. The 2993cc diesel is a fraction less powerful, generating 249PS from 3250-4200rpm, but offers considerably more torque from lower in the rev band – 550Nm from 1250-3000rpm – which is a real asset when off-roading.

The petrol engine will crunch all 2.7 tonnes of car to 62mph in 8.6 seconds, the diesel requiring 9.9 seconds. Top speed is 100mph for both engine options. You’ll pay the same price for your car whichever engine you choose.

A gear selector lever may be used to override the automatic transmission and grant the driver manual control of the gearbox. But wielding the ugly BMW-sourced stick is no pleasure, and at no point gave us the feeling we were doing a better job than the powertrain when left to its own devices.

The Ineos Grenadier has yet to be tested by Euro NCAP, but it is equipped with a good range of modern integrated Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technologies as standard. 

The following are included on all models: two front airbags, two curtain airbags, two side airbags for driver and front passenger, Isofix/iSize child seat anchor points for each of the two outboard rear seats on five-seat models, Anti-lock Brakes (ABS), Electronic Traction Control (ETC), Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Automatic Hazard Warning,

There’s also Intelligent Speed Assistance, Lane Departure Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking, Driver Drowsiness Detection, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Seatbelt Reminder System, SOS Emergency Call, Uphill Assist and Downhill Assist, Cruise Control, Trailer Stability Assist and an Advanced Anti-Theft Alarm and Immobiliser.

Offering a braked 3.5-tonne towing capacity and 5.5 tonnes of winching power for recovering itself or others, the Ineos Grenadier is among the class leaders when it comes to payload.

Payload ranges from 689kg for a fully optioned diesel Trialmaster Station Wagon, 760kg for the Quartermaster, through to 871kg for a base two-seat petrol Utility Wagon. 

Although reasonably compact at 4896mm long and 1930mm wide, the Ineos Grenadier’s height of 2036mm will cause problems in the surprising number of multi-storey car parks with a height limit of only two metres.

A 2922mm wheelbase proves just about enough to allow you to sit behind yourself in the back with adequate legroom, but a tall driver will be backing into your knees.

The rear bench seat splits 60:40 and has a dry under-seat storage compartment. Accessed by that 30:70 split tailgate which makes the driver’s rear view largely guesswork, there’s 1152 litres of loadspace, which will hold a standard Euro-pallet. Fold the rear bench (almost) flat and that rises to a massive 2035 litres.

The Recaro seats are snug and comfortable, and the driving position gives no cause for complaint. The seats are manually adjustable only, which is not an issue, and offer terrific support when you’re bouncing around off-road.

The standard trim is a cloth and vinyl material that’s stain- dirt- and water-resistant. Indeed, all key cabin components are water- and dust-resistant, which means the interior can be hosed out and then drained via five floor valves.

Largely, the Ineos Grenadier remains analogue and mechanical, centrally-located controls feature both clearly labelled and well-spaced buttons and chunky dials that can be used while wearing gloves. 

All driving information is located in one place on the Central Control System. The system’s 12.3-inch touchscreen can be operated using either buttons on the multifunction steering wheel, the rotary controller located on the centre console, the menu buttons on the central control interface or through the touchscreen itself.

The overhead control panel houses all off-road switchgear and functions such as the Off-Road and Wading Modes, the optional axle differential lock buttons, Downhill Assist, as well as both standard and optional pre-wired auxiliary switches which can be used for options or accessories such as winches or light bars.

Removing the typical instrument cluster from behind the steering wheel may have decluttered the dashboard and improved forward visibility, but having to peer a long way left to find, for instance, the diminutive steering angle indicator while tackling a tricky off-road section is far from ideal.

We’ve become so used to the minimalist look that digitalisation has brought to today’s car interiors that, at first glance, the Ineos Grenadier interior comes as something of a shock. Even the ceiling is peppered with knobs and knockers.

Although everything may appear somewhat bitty as a result, the quality of the switchgear itself seems well up to par, as does the finish of the various panels in which it is located. Dabs of red and green colour here and there pay homage to Britain’s latest Ineos-sponsored America’s Cup efforts.

The 12.3-inch touchscreen looks, frankly, a tad drab. And some of the displays, such as the steering angle graphic, are really too small for at-a-glance reading from behind the wheel.

Upholstery may be upgraded to leather, and the floor finish can be clad with carpet. But neither of these treatments do justice to the true spirit of the car.

There’s a whiff of BMW iDrive about the rotary knob control of the infotainment system, but the gear selector makes no bones about its German heritage. This is a pity; it looks dreadfully out of place here, especially perched next to the wonderfully tactile, no-nonsense lever that operates the transfer box.

The Ineos Grenadier offers a pretty comprehensive suite of infotainment and navigational features. The powerful audio system features four 24W coaxial speakers – two mounted in the front doors, two in the rear doors, with a frequency range of 50 to 18,000Hz.

DAB+ radio, Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay are fitted as standard to handle navigation duties using Waze, Google Maps or whatever compatible app the driver chooses. Ineos’ Pathfinder navigation system is also fitted as standard to all models, while Bluetooth connectivity and voice control allow for hands-free calls. 

The Grenadier’s Central Control System displays all required information via an easy-to-control 12.3-inch touchscreen, which can also be accessed using the buttons on the multifunction steering wheel or the rotary controller on the centre console. 

This means everything the driver needs to know – including road speed, gear selection and fuel level, through to tyre pressures, maps, media, phonebook, current bearing, coordinates, steering angle and vehicle attitude – is centrally located.

An optional compass with altimeter is included on Trialmaster and Fieldmaster Editions, integrated into the centre console.

At the time of writing, the Ineos Grenadier range is priced from £64,500 to £76,000, and you’ll pay the same for each model whichever engine option you plump for.

It is available in a choice of three body styles: Utility Wagon, with a van body at the rear, from £64,500, the Station Wagon from £76,000 and the Quartermaster, with a double-cab pick-up format, from £66,215. 

Although differently kitted out for extra opulence and extreme off-roading respectively, the Fieldmaster and Trialmaster Belstaff special edition models are identically priced – £72,500 for Utility Wagon models, £73,715 for Quartermaster variants and £76,000 for the Station Wagon.

Priced from £60,785, the Jeep Wrangler is not a bad match for the Ineos Grenadier. It’s revered in the United States for its off-road prowess, and hardly the last word in driver engagement on road. But it can’t match the latter’s equipment specification and remains a pretty primitive proposition to live with.

At the other end of the scale, Mercedes’ G-Class pricing, which starts from a whopping £131,335, feels even more brazen than an attempt to link the old Land Rover Defender to the new model. The legend of the G-Wagon clearly still lives on in some wallets…

Interestingly, then, with a range priced from £51,745 to £73,850, it’s the new Land Rover Defender that gives the Ineos Grenadier a serious run for the money. Not only is it cheaper model-for-model across the cars’ respective ranges, but it’s also dangerously good to drive on road.

Neither engine is notably economical: the petrol version averages between 18.9mpg and 19.6mpg, the diesel 23.1mpg to 26.9mpg. The same is true of emissions, with the petrol engine generating CO2 at the rate of 325-336g/km, the diesel 286-317g/km.

Retailers will form the backbone of the service network, providing maintenance, repair and parts. Additional coverage will be provided by Ineos-accredited Bosch Car Service and independent 4x4 specialist workshops.

Ineos is aiming for all owners to be within 50km (31 miles) of an accredited workshop. For owners who want to carry out work on their Grenadier themselves, Ineos will provide online 3D interactive manuals with support from the technical team at HQ.

But it’s unclear how this approach tallies with Ineos’s five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty. 

‘Flying Spanner’ technicians from Ineos are on-call if the service network needs additional support. Roadside assistance will also be included as standard with every Ineos Grenadier.

A regular 12-month servicing interval for the car is recommended, or six-month servicing for continuous tough environments.

The Ineos Grenadier is available in a choice of three body styles – two-or five-seat Utility Wagon, five-seat Station Wagon and five-seat Quartermaster.

The Ineos Grenadier Utility Wagon has a van body at the rear, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster a double-cab pick-up format. 

Two special editions are named after rugged off-road motorcycle jackets made by Belstaff, a company owned by Ineos.

The Ineos Grenadier Fieldmaster version includes pop-up ‘safari’ sunroofs above driver and front passenger, heated front seats and leather upholstery.

The Ineos Grenadier Trialmaster version is for extreme off-roading, with a snorkel, 17-inch alloy wheels, front and rear diff locks and a rear-mounted ladder for easy roof access.

All Ineos Grenadier models benefit from the following standard features: BMW 3.0-litre straight-six engine, eight-speed automatic transmission with manual override, permanent four-wheel drive, full box-sectioned ladder frame, galvanised steel body, Carraro beam axles front and rear, heavy duty coil suspension, two-speed transfer case and centre differential lock.

To that you can add front and rear skid plates, LED headlights, LED auxiliary high beam lights, 30/70 split rear doors, full-size spare wheel, towing eyes front and rear, roof rails and roof protection strips, Recaro seats, Central Control System, overhead control panel, off-road and wading modes and Pathfinder off-road navigation.

Both the Trialmaster and Fieldmaster Editions come fitted with the Smooth Pack as standard. It includes rear-view camera, Park Assist Front, power heated exterior mirrors, heated windscreen washer jets, lockable  central stowage box, puddle lamps and ambient door lighting auxiliary charge points.

As well as the Smooth Pack, Trialmaster editions are kitted out with the Rough Pack as standard, further enhancing its off-road capabilities. This includes differential locks front and rear and BF Goodrich All-Terrain KO2 tyres.