If I’d never seen a Defender, would the Grenadier look the way it does? I think it would
vehicles – Bronco, Pajero, G-wagen, various Jeeps – to see how other manufacturers had done it. Every member of the collection made an interesting contribution. In fact, the short-wheelbase, stripped-back Land Rover Air Portable was one of the most influential designs of all.”
The first Ineos 4x4 model to be shown, a five-door station wagon, has very similar dimensions to an original Defender 110 but is far more advanced in construction, function, comfort and performance thanks to its far-sighted design and a ground-up engineering and test programme that’s moving into its final stages. Showing interesting practical inf luences from boat design, it uses modern running gear, including six-cylinder petrol and diesel BMW powertrains linked to only ZF’S ubiquitous eight-speed automatic gearbox.
Ecuyer deals much more calmly than most car designers would with assertions that the Grenadier ‘looks like a Defender’, partly because the new vehicle’s parallel purpose is well known to all and partly because it became obvious to the whole design team, as the project proceeded, that anyone who sets out to design a simple vehicle with this kind of functionality will find it converging with the Defender.
“You’ve got to ask yourself why a Defender looks the way it does in the first place,” says Ecuyer, noting that even Ford’s new Bronco publicity contained images that made that look like a Defender as well. “Jim Ratcliffe’s attitude was that we almost didn’t need conventional car designers on a project like this. For example, there would have been no case for unnecessarily sculpted bonnet or wing shapes if flat or near-flat surfaces are what you need for resting a toolbox or a mug of tea…”
One interesting discovery the team made about essential 4x4 shapes is that changing their simplest design elements can rapidly change their character. “Just by changing simple stuff like the lights and grille, you can make your design reminiscent of every one of the classic 4x4s,” he says. “There just seems to be a right way of doing it.”
Ecuyer admits the project presented a steep learning curve for himself and Ratcliffe, always the project kingpin: “Jim always knew we had things to learn; that it was a phase we’d go through to bust out at the end. People around him, cardesignery types, would say ‘you don’t want to do it like that’ and he’d wonder why not. Jim’s a person who needs to find things out for himself. And all the way, he wanted a simple design that dealt really well with all the practical issues. We’d embellish it later, if we needed to.”
Ecuyer is hoping that none of the inevitable similarity talk disguises the high level of ingenuity or new design thinking behind the Grenadier: the roof that doubles as a load rack, the ingenious roof tie bars (that go roughly where the Defender 110 has roof lights), the neat two-piece rear door solution, the exposed door hinges and ‘utility rails’ along the exteriors of the doors are all examples of Grenadier honesty and versatility. And we still haven’t seen the finished cabin design, where more originality and practical thinking are promised.
One element that Ratcliffe and Ecuyer were determined to bring to the Grenadier was what the designer identifies as a feeling of familiarity: “A Defender isn’t angry like some SUVS, and it isn’t sad-faced like others. It’s got a very kind heart, which is why people love it so much. It reminds me of a very good field dog: it doesn’t sit on your lap but it’s awfully faithful. We couldn’t mimic that in our design, but we could certainly recognise it.”
Ecuyer and Ratcliffe are delighted with the initial reaction to the Grenadier, given that the 4x4 community can be extremely hard to impress. The designer says: “I’ve often asked myself if I’d never seen a Defender, whether the Grenadier would look the way it does. I think it would. It comes from the same place, uses the same rules. It’s a bit like the boats: there’s a pointy end, a square end and a fat bit in the middle. That’s what works.”
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or years, enthusiasts have craved a BMW M3 Touring, for the simple reason that it just makes so much sense. With the hot estate market spawning a host of cult classics, it was always mystifying why the Munich firm had never produced a big-booted version of its sporting 3 Series. Thankfully, it will put that right in 2022.
But the M3 Touring (previewed below) is far from the only car that we can’t believe doesn’t exist. Here we nominate those we most want to see.
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Fiat reinvented the 500, Mini reinvented the Mini; isn’t it about time that Citroën remastered its greatest hit? Twenty years ago, it would have done it in full pastiche style to create a 500/Mini-esque retro model that was way more upmarket than the original. Today, though, treading lightly is back in style, so a curved exterior, a minimalist interior, a small tyre footprint, a loping ride and silent electric propulsion would make a 2CV the ideal second car for the Honda E generation.
Beneath its wonderfully retro exterior, the Suzuki Jimny is a true 4x4, with a ladder-frame chassis, low-range transfer gearing and rigid-axle suspension. If you’re in the market for an incredibly capable, city car-sized off-roader, there’s no better choice. Thing is, there’s not much demand for such cars. And the inherent on-road compromises caused by its off-road prowess – an unrefined engine, floaty steering and a wobbly, bumpy ride – limit its appeal elsewhere. Which is a shame, because just look at it. It’s a miniature G-class masterclass that oozes charm. Strip out the 4x4 gear and fit Suzuki’s frugal mild-hybrid Boosterjet engine and it would be an ideal city car. Sacrilege, maybe, but this could also help the business case of the regular Jimny.
Mazda long ago nailed the MX-5 formula, aided by two seats, a longitudinal engine and a sweet transmission. So what if (and I’m almost whispering it for the purists) Mazda could keep all that joy but add some more noteworthy numbers? The latest 2.0-litre MX-5 delivers 182bhp and has a 0-62mph time of 6.5sec. It’s far from sluggish, but is there even more fun to be had in a Golf R-matching sub-5.0sec model? Tuners have attempted it – look at the BBR GTI MX-5 – but I’ve no doubt Mazda could crack it.
As brilliant as the Mazda MX-5 undoubtedly is, it would benefit from having a few rivals. Why couldn’t a new Alfa Romeo Spider be that car? The idea has been floating around for some time, but the closest we’ve come to having an Italian sports car with a convertible roof, rear-wheel drive and an affordable price was the Fiat 124 Spider, which was based on the MX-5. Fiat and Alfa Romeo are both part of FCA; surely there’s some scope there for the Italians to have another stab at the formula?
wanted a bigger, more complicated job and that’s what I’ve got.” So says Alison Jones, PSA Group UK managing director and global senior vicepresident, who joined the expanding company in April 2019 after 20 years at the Volkswagen Group, most recently as managing director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars.
In that short time, as Jones puts it: “We’ve lived through three Brexit attempts and the Covid pandemic. We have a strong team and we’ve been able to weather the storms.” Not that she’s any stranger to crisis, having project-managed the fallout of Dieselgate in the UK. “It was seven days a week, with four hours’ sleep a night,” says Jones.
This year’s winner of Autocar’s Great Women in the British Car Industry initiative is reluctant to draw comparisons between the two car giants but says of PSA: “The objective is really clear across every country and team. There’s such a clarity of direction, which means you don’t spend time debating what you’re here to do. You can be really entrepreneurial in the way you want to deliver something – that is an absolute strength, particularly during a global crisis. The objectives are never in question.”
Those objectives, both for the UK and globally, are to drive profit, customer satisfaction and market share and achieve PSA’S CO2 targets
– which, so far, it’s doing admirably in contrast to some makers that will need to pay EU fines.
Jones adds: “At a country level, it’s how we keep the core of the business going forward in turbulent times. We know that cash is important for us and our retailers. How do we make sure we still have a profitable business, how do we offer customer service in a Covid-safe way and make sure we achieve our CO2 compliance? To try to do all those things at the same time in the current economic environment is pretty challenging.”
The three brands Jones oversees – Citroën, DS and Peugeot – all have their own trajectory to varying degrees of success. Peugeot is the standout winner for now, with the biggest volume and market share, while DS is the straggler, selling fewer than 5000 cars last year in the UK. Jones is poised to take on far more responsibility, too, given the upcoming merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which could mean brands such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo and more fall under her remit. As it’s not yet a done deal, though, any talk of that is off the table.
Addressing the challenges facing DS, Jones says: “It takes 15-20 years to build a brand. Last year was a result of the DS 3 in runout, and it’s more