An off-road trip in super station wagon
Frederic Manby has a ride in the prototype Ineos Grenadier
A prototype of the Ineos Grenadier is in the middle of a world tour – I caught up withitatDuncombeParknear Helmsley.
It looks very much like the old Land Rover Defender 110 station wagon.
Unlike the modern Defender,thesoontobeavailable Grenadier has been built to be simple and easy to repair – like the Defenders were. There’s a DIY, step-by-step video you can watch on your phone or laptop, with a repair manual for backup. It will inherit the Defender’s traditional buyers.
Its chassis development and planning and design and smart thinking has produced a modern 4x4 that looks old but feels modern. It has a ladder chassis frame, carrying beam axles on triple rate coil springs. The system is strong, resilient, coping with extremes of wheel movement. You can’t have air suspension on the Grenadier because it is not totally dependable, nor electric seats because it has a wash–out floor.
The rear doors are side hinged, a narrow one and a wider one, as seen on the Isuzu Trooper. The spare wheel is hung on the wide one, with a storage compartment under itscover.Thefrontbumperhas seats indents. There are inset lashing rails along the roof edge for loads (up to 176 lbs without a rack) and side channels for clip–in tables.
The Grenadier ride is comfortableoffroad,whileacharge across pasture felt almost like being on a lawn.
There’s a massive BUT coming. Hardly anyone outside the company has driven the Grenadier, not the customers who have put down a small refundable deposit, not the specialist press, nor the wider media pack. We have all been driven.
Our driver rated the Grenadier highly against the opposition. He was keen to show the instant response of the petrol engine.
The Grenadier has one more ace: the tight turning circle, a tribute to the engineers, so useful in awkward terrain like jungles.
The Grenadier is going to be relatively affordable. Around £48,000 will buy the two–seater which has a full length load bed. There is a five–seater version on the same chassis which has fixed rear seats and a bulkhead, price a bit over £50,000.
These are classified as commercial vehicles. The rearmost side windows are replaced with a metal panel. The so–called car version is a five–seater with adjustable back seats and no bulkhead, allowing through loading. On the road tariffs for the Car add around £3,500. They say 60 to 70 percent of orders are for the Commercial – perhaps justifying the desire to build a 21st century version of the 20th century Land Rover station wagon.
Annual sales will be 25,000 to 30,000. The UK will buy about 6,000.
There will also be a double– cab pickup on a longer wheelbase. Expect to see a shorter three–door version if the demand is there.
It is built in Hambach, eastern France, in the factory which makes its tiny antithesis, the Smart hatchback. Ineos bought the factory from Mercedes–Benz and has been producingtheSmartsinceJanuary and components for M–B.