Is the 2024 Ineos Grenadier Old-School in All the Wrong Ways? We Test It to Find Out

For those still unfamiliar, Ineos Automotive was founded in 2016 and is the brainchild of British billionaire and petrochemical company founder Jim Ratcliffe. After failing to purchase the tooling for the last-generation Land Rover Defender when it was discontinued, Ratcliffe commissioned his own reinterpretation of the classic. The company’s first vehicle, the Grenadier, made its debut in 2020 and is now making its way into the hands of owners around the world.

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Classic Styling, Inside and Out

The Grenadier’s styling is meant to evoke the same emotions and nostalgia of its spiritual ancestors. Its round headlights, flat fenders, slab sides, and steel wheels are reminiscent of the original Land Rover Defender. You may even spot a bit of Mercedes-Benz G-Class and FJ-era Toyota Land Cruiser if you squint hard enough.

The Trialmaster model is the top-tier Grenadier trim, and our test SUV came loaded with $6,195 worth of options. The Eldoret Blue paint and black contrast roof make up $1,860 of that cost. The rest comes from the addition of a recovery winch ($4,085) and rubber floormats ($250). Included with the Grenadier Trialmaster are the signature exterior utility belt and roof access ladder, high-load auxiliary switch panel, a secondary battery, and a raised air intake. The Trialmaster also comes with Ineos’ Rough pack (front and rear electronic-locking differentials and BFGoodrich KO2 tires) and Smooth pack (rearview camera, front park assist, heated windshield washers, puddle lamps, ambient lighting, and more). 

The interior at first glance appears properly upscale with high-quality Nappa leather, cloth, and metal trim throughout. But the lack of a traditional instrument panel is the first thing you notice. Instead, much of the vehicle’s instrumentation is located on a central touchscreen. With necessities such as speed, gear position, and odometer taking up about a third of the 12.3-inch screen, little real estate remains for infotainment. In front of the driver is a small warning-light cluster, much of which makes little sense. The steering wheel feels much like a game controller with its pods of buttons flanking the airbag.

Aviation is also a big theme throughout the cabin. The center stack and roof-mounted auxiliary-switch panels mimic those found in modern jets. The knobs and buttons are large and well labeled, making them quick to find and easy to use. However, as novel as the aviation-themed panels are, the plastic switchgear gives the whole vibe a cheap feeling. 

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Modern Technology

Unfortunately, the company’s desire to give the Grenadier an old-school vibe quickly conflicts with modern conveniences. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and they work quite well. That said, navigating the plethora of added menus and settings through the combination of touchscreen and rotary knob is difficult even for the most tech-savvy users. A rearview camera is also standard, but it looks to us as though it offers the resolution of a ’90s flip phone. 

Utilizing the different off-road drive modes, and understanding the functions they serve, also proved challenging as different features are activated by different combinations of button presses and screen menus. Any goodwill garnered by including a manually shifted transfer case is lost to the complex drive modes.

All 2024 Ineos Grenadiers also come standard with advanced driver assistance features such as lane departure warning and automatic emergency braking. Plus, they can warn drivers when they exceed the speed limit or appear drowsy. That said, their implementation distracted us quickly from the overall experience.

Case in point: the speed limit warning. As soon as you exceed the posted speed limit by as little as a single mile per hour, the Grenadier launches into a symphony of increasingly frequent chimes. As we learned by searching Ineos forums (the owner’s manual isn’t helpful here), the only way to disable the feature is buried deep within the user-interface menu. Adding frustration, you must repeat the process each time you start the SUV. Combined with the other mystery bells, dings, and chirps, the Grenadier produced more warning noises in a typical day than any vehicle we’ve driven recently.

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Dude, Where’d the Power Go?

Under the 2024 Ineos Grenadier Trialmaster’s hood is a BMW-sourced, turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine. Ineos rates the mill at 281 hp and 331 lb-ft of torque. BMW uses the same B58 engine prolifically throughout its own lineup. However, when fit in the full-size 2025 X7 SUV or 740i sedan, this engine is rated for 375 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque.

Why? Ineos says the engine is “tuned for the off-road application the Grenadier serves.” The issue with this comes when you recognize that the amount of time most people will spend off-road pales in comparison to that of pavement pounding. Mustering all its might, the Grenadier manages to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 8.9 seconds, on par with the 155-hp 2024 Buick Encore.

By comparison, the 2024 Ineos Grenadier’s closest competitors are all significantly more powerful and quicker on their feet. Toyota’s 2024 Land Cruiser is powered by a turbocharged 2.4-liter hybrid I-4 that produces 326 hp and 465 lb-ft. The new Land Cruiser gets from a stop to 60 mph in 8.0 seconds. The turbocharged 3.0-liter I-6-powered, 395-hp, 406-lb-ft, 2024 Land Rover Defender 130 weighs just 171 pounds less than the Grenadier and hits 60 mph in 6.4 seconds. And Jeep’s Wrangler Rubicon X 4xe makes the sprint in a comparatively blistering 5.6 seconds.

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Steer Me Straight, Please

Although we appreciate the idea of reanimating something classic into a modern vehicle, some things simply need to be left in the past.

Immediately after sliding behind the wheel, you’re greeted by what is possibly the wildest steering feel in a new car on the market today. The Grenadier features live axles front and rear and thus uses a recirculating-ball-type steering design. The biggest issue, however, is the seemingly utter lack of caster in the front knuckles. This causes the steering to not recenter naturally. We were taken by surprise when, after completing our first turn out of a parking spot, the Ineos continued the arc until we unwound the wheel manually.

The Bosch steering box is itself quite tough; it works notably well at not transferring harsh inputs when off-road. However, it takes nearly four full turns of the wheel to get from lock to lock. Ineos describes this as a “precision” feature. However, it’s anything but when maneuvering into a parking stall. The lack of caster showed up again as we felt like we were constantly chasing and correcting the vehicle’s direction, even on smooth highways. 

Slowing the Grenadier isn’t a mundane affair, either. Stopping in a hurry requires quite the quadriceps extension to work the brake pedal. Getting all 6,089 pounds decelerated from 60 mph to a stop took 152 feet, and it wasn’t without drama. Under heavy braking the Grenadier nose-dives like a hungry pelican as it wanders side to side, and the meaty BFGoodrich tires let out a screech and howl while the pedal pulsates against your foot. By contrast, the Land Rover Defender 130 Outbound stopped in 121 feet, the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X in 136, and Land Cruiser in 117.

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Handling Leaves Something to Be Desired

Look, we get it. The Ineos Grenadier is a tall, boxy off-roader never meant to be a Nürburgring champ. And that becomes even more obvious when you consider the 31.5 seconds it took to complete our figure-eight test. The SUV’s non-defeatable stability control system proved to be its biggest limiting factor in this specific evaluation exercise. The system is incredibly hyperactive and would not allow any lateral movement on the skidpad at speeds greater than 30 mph, proving to be among the most intrusive setups we’ve ever tested.

It’s not all bad, though. We found the Grenadier’s highway ride to be quite palatable. Ineos kept the vehicle simple by offering just one suspension arrangement. The five-link live-axle setup front and rear uses variable-rate Eibach coil springs and ZF-sourced twin-tube dampers. The combination does a fine job of absorbing broken pavement and expansion joints; however, large undulations often caused the rear suspension to get into its jounces.

Navigating mountain roads was also an interesting experience. Despite the steering’s shortcomings and the truck’s boxy shape, it was quite pleasant while powering through miles of twisty turns. Diving into a corner, the Grenadier took a set quickly and followed a perfect arc with little understeer or drama. That said, although the upright and tall seating position gives all five passengers an excellent view out the large windows, it also contributes to a bit of nausea felt by the rear-seat passengers when combined with the head toss incurred while navigating those winding mountain roads. It’s an effect not experienced by the same passengers in other off-road vehicles.

A Good First Draft

Knowing how difficult it is to successfully launch a new automotive brand, we’re keen to show Ineos Automotive a good deal of grace here. The Grenadier Trialmaster has the off-road ability and the classic, rugged styling the company aimed to deliver. And it sure draws a lot of attention when out on the town.

Still, with its underpowered engine, off-putting steering, overactive nannies, and confusing technology package, the 2024 Ineos Grenadier seems to miss the mark in certain areas. This is somewhat disappointing at present, but should the company take these criticisms to heart, there's no doubt the next version will be improved.

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