Ineos Grenadier review

For music fans, tribute bands can be a great way to experience their favourite artist's music live, long after the original act has retired. At first glance, you might think the Ineos Grenadier is playing that role with the original Land Rover Defender in mind – and we don't blame you.

After all, this SUV was originally conceived in a pub called the Grenadier, and its very existence pays homage to that legendary off-roader. In fact, for many people, it’s what the latest Land Rover Defender 110 should be.

That’s an ambitious goal for a new car company to start out with, but Ineos is very aware of that fact. As such, the team formed to work on the Grenadier included designers and engineers with the Mercedes G-Class at the top of their CVs.

It has also sourced the Grenadier's engines from BMW in a bid to ensure plenty of power and (hopefully) reliability, while permanent all-wheel drive, a locking centre differential and the ability to wade in depths up to 800mm means it has the tools needed to hit the ground running. 

It won’t be plain sailing, because it needs to keep up with the Defender and G-Class, while proving more accomplished than the likes of the Jeep Wrangler, Land Rover Discovery and even the new Toyota Land Cruiser. You can choose between a wagon with two or five seats or a five-seat Quartermaster pick-up.

So, does the Ineos Grenadier really have what it takes to be the pick of the off-road oriented SUVs? Read on to find out...

Regardless of whether you want your Ineos Grenadier to run on petrol or diesel, you’ll find a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight six-cylinder engine under the bonnet.

Both engines offer loads of power and torque across the rev range. The 282bhp petrol is refined and smoother than the diesel, although its rather spiky power delivery can make it tricky to set off smoothly. Officially, that version can sprint from 0-62mph in 8.6 second, which is a second slower than the equivalent Jeep Wrangler.

The 246bhp twin-turbocharged diesel offers more torque at low-revs – 406lb ft compared with 332lb ft for the petrol – making it more effortless to take on just about any obstacle. It's the one to go for if you plan to spend a lot of time on unforgiving trails. The 0-62mph sprint time of 9.9 seconds feels slow when you compare it to the Land Rover Defender D250, which does the sprint two seconds more quickly.

Both engines are attached to an eight-speed automatic gearbox that changes gears smoothly, but a tendency to flick between the two top gears when you’re on a motorway means it doesn’t cruise as calmly as its rivals over longer journeys. The gearbox is better adapted for off-road use, holding on to lower gears when you need to maintain momentum, for example.

Speaking of which, the Grenadier is brilliant off road. In fact, even when faced with a very steep icy ascent, it won’t show signs of struggle. That’s especially true when you opt for the Trialmaster trim or if you add the optional Rough Pack, because they include front and rear locking differentials and beefier BFGoodrich All-terrain KO2 tyres.

Even without those extras, the Grenadier’s coil suspension proves superb. Over sharp rock shelves, it takes the sting away and helps you to maintain control, easily matching the Defender and Mercedes G-Class for off-road ability.

It's a different story on a Tarmac road. You’ll wish you were in a current Defender with air suspension rather than the more compromised Grenadier. The ride matches that of the G-Class, but there’s plenty of lean through faster corners and the suspension transmits most lumps and bumps you drive over.

The steering is very light and has loads of lock, which is great when you want gentle inputs during off-roading but means you have to constantly move the wheel to stay on course on roads.

If you want a high-up SUV driving position, you'll like the commanding seat height of the Ineos Grenadier. Indeed – as with the Jeep Wrangler – you have to climb your way in using handles and are greeted by a great view of all four corners of the car.

What isn’t so great is the fact that, while the steering wheel lines up with your body, the pedals are set really far out to the right. That takes some getting used to and can mean you struggle to find the perfect position, even though the seats offer plenty of adjustment. It’s also a shame that there’s no adjustable lumbar support, even as an optional extra.

The seats are comfortable, and most trims come with easy-clean cloth seats and exposed rubber floors. The exception is Fieldmaster trim, which is aimed more at lifestyle customers and gets heated leather seats. All versions have several drainage plugs in the floor so you can hose out the interior and boot.

There are lots of sturdy buttons and dials, with an overhead panel with controls for the locking differentials and off-road modes, and breakers for the power outlets. The sheer number of buttons seems a little overwhelming at first, but they're easy to use when you're wearing gloves.

Every Grenadier has a 12.3in infotainment touchscreen on top of the dashboard, with a physical dial controller. It works well, responding quickly to your inputs and there are lots of functions to help with your adventures, including an off-road specific sat-nav app.

On top of that, you get ordinary built-in sat-nav and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring. The only slight distraction is that you have to look across at the touchscreen to see the speedometer because it's not shown in the driver's display.

You don't get the luxurious materials you’ll find in the Mercedes G-Class but the Grenadier's interior is fine. There are, of course, rugged and scratchy materials in places, but you’ll also find soft-touch materials on top of the dashboard and in other key places. Everything feels well constructed and solidly built.

One of the advantages of the Ineos Grenadier sharing the boxy shape of the Land Rover Defender is that there’s no shortage of space for those sitting up front. In fact, even with the removable skylights, which come with Fieldmaster trim, there’s more than enough head room for six-footers.

There’s loads of leg room in the front, and the wide interior means that even if you and your passenger are broad, you won't be rubbing shoulders.

Front storage isn’t as generous as in the Jeep Wrangler. You get two cupholders, a small cubby in the centre console for your phone, and door pockets that’ll each take a large bottle of water. The glovebox is quite small.

As in the front, the boxy shape has its advantages in the rear, with more than enough head room for two six-footers in the outer back seats. They’ll also find generous knee room, with indents in the backs of the front seats and space under the seats for their feet. 

Unlike in some rivals, the middle seat isn’t raised, so the centre passenger won’t struggle for head room, but they will have to straddle a large transmission tunnel, due to all the underfloor gearbox gubbins. The entry-level Utility Wagon version doesn't have back seats – there's a large flat-floored space for cargo instead. You should be able to fit a standard Euro pallet back there.

On Grenadiers that do have back seats, they split and fold down in a 60/40 configuration. Annoyingly, with the rear seats folded down, there’s a slight step up from the boot floor to the seatbacks, making it trickier to slide in long items.

Talking of the boot, you’ll find 1,152 litres of boot space in the back of the five-seat Grenadier. That's much more than in pretty much any rival. In the real world, it means you won’t struggle to fit in lots of shopping or all the stuff you need for a weekend of adventuring.

The side-hinged rear load-bay doors give you a huge access area, but it does require leaving a bit of space behind the car in order to open them fully.

Alternatively, there's the Grenadier Quartermaster pick-up truck version. The load bed is wider and longer than the boot area in the wagon and has the same payload as the five-seat version (at 835kg for the petrol and 760kg for the diesel).

As a cash purchase, the entry-level Ineos Grenadier Utility Wagon will set you back slightly more than the Land Rover Defender Hard Top – its utility-focused rival. Not many buyers want a two-seat off-roader though, and we suspect most people will be more interested in the Belstaff Edition trims – named Trialmaster (aimed at off-road enthusiasts) and Fieldmaster (aimed at lifestyle customers).

In those cases, the Grenadier's price becomes a bit of a sticking point, because both versions will set you back more than the equivalent Land Rover Defender and top-spec variants of the Jeep Wrangler. The Grenadier is expected to lose its value slightly faster than the Defender but hold on to more of its value over three years than the Wrangler.

As is the case with all cars of this ilk, the Grenadier isn’t the best option for company car drivers because its high CO2 emissions put it in the highest benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax band. Fuel economy is not very good, with the petrol officially returning around 20mpg and the diesel with 23mpg. That's less than you can expect from the Wrangler.

The trim you should go for depends on how much you want to spend and what you intend to do. As well as the Utility Wagon, there's a Station Wagon version, which adds rear seats. Those versions and the Quartermaster pick-up variant come as standard with LED headlights and auxiliary grille lights, cloth seats, rear parking sensors, a central locking differential and lots of off-road and infotainment goodies.

Trialmaster trim comes with 17in steel wheels, a ladder to get on to the roof, an auxiliary battery under the rear seats, locking front and rear differentials, a rear-view camera, heated windscreen washers and heated wing mirrors. Fieldmaster – the top-spec trim – adds 18in alloy wheels, leather upholstery, heated front seats, and carpet floor mats.

Both the Grenadier and Ineos as a brand are too new to have featured in the What Car? Reliability Survey but all versions come with a five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty. That’s slightly longer than the three-year cover offered by Land Rover.

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