60000KM into the grenadier

We like to thank Dean Gallagher for providing this honest and insightful review of his experience with the Grenadier travelling through Australia and his first 60,000 KM! 

Provided on May 2025, if you have questions, you can find Dean on the Australia Ineos owners group where he has been sharing his experience from the early days.

I thought it might be time for a long-term review. I've been a bit quiet on the socials of late so for the benefit of all those who have joined this group more recently, my car was the joint-first delivered car in Australia along side Sven Geldermann’s nearly identical car. That was in June 2023 and for my car, over 60000km ago.

I don't have the wealth of knowledge of a professional motoring journalist but I am a car enthusiast who seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time consuming their content. In the main, I know what to look for and what to avoid when buying a car.

I don't go 4WDing for 4WDing sake like I used to 30 years ago - I now want a car that will get me to the places (sometimes difficult to get to places) I want to go with the least fuss and bother possible so a capable off road car is a necessity. As well as this it needs to be reliable and comfortable.

This review has to be read against my expectations of the car - I get that other people have very different reasons for buying a car so I thought it was just worth highlighting mine.

I have the Trial Master Diesel with most of the options ticked. I have the winch option but hope I'll never need to use it. Most of my mileage has been done touring, probably 20000km of that towing, 30000km country driving and 10000km around town and maybe 100km testing the limits of its abilities on the back tracks of the southwest and on beaches. Worth nothing that of all the km's I've done, about 5000km (or a bit more) have been off the pavement on a mix of heavily corrugated to smooth well looked after gravel.

So, does the car live up to my expectations?

Before the delivery of the car I, like many people were caught up in the pre-story and was expecting a simple no fuss car that would be easy to fix away from the dealership network. That's what we were promised and I desperately hoped this would be the case but it's simply not what has eventuated. I also understand the IA brand is an unfolding narrative so whilst this is a current frustration I'm not too fussed about this because the story of how Ineos made its way into the global market is only barely written past the introduction. I'm also not that fussed about it because in the real world, there hasn't been one occasion where I've been disabled to the extent I've needed an in-situ fix. I've always been able to get to my local dealer to get things resolved either at the service interval or in between if necessary.

This leads to my next point about my overall expectation of the car. I knew what I was signing up for - a brand new company that was doing a brand new but also a very complex and difficult thing. I knew that everything wouldn't be perfect out of the box. I hoped though that IA however would work hard at rectifying anything that needed resolving. As it turned out there were quite a few things that didn't work perfectly out of the box but progressively over time, all of those niggles have been resolved. I won't bore you by repeating what they were because they were all that we talked about in this group in the early days. What I can say is that IA delivered. The Ineos technical team appear very available to the dealership network to work through the more complex "not seen before" problems. As a result of this I don't have one thing wrong with my car. Everything works as it was designed to.

And this is a very good thing because what I was hoping for was a reliable, robust and comfortable 4WD capable of gobbling up all kinds of road surfaces for hours on end. This is exactly what I got. My IG pulls my camper as though it doesn't exist - irrespective of the terrain. It does tight windy roads far better than its heft should allow and it comes into its own on horrible corrugated roads. The drive train is a dream. What is doesn't do well is nimble around tight city carparks - this is definitely not what it was designed to do - it's height rules out many city underground car parks but it's turning circle just makes tight parking a pain in the ass. Simple as that.

Speaking of design...

There are a few things that IA have designed into the car (meant for adventure) that bewilders me.

The first one is the size of the diesel fuel tank and the throat size of the filler. The small size of the fuel tank is a real problem for me as I go places where refuelling stations are scarily far apart and it's not uncommon to pull up at a bowser only to find it has a high flow filler trigger that doesn't fit into the filler throat. It frustrates me that I have to keep finding workarounds for this problem when simply designing a larger tank capable of fast flow fillers for the Australian market would have made this a complete non issue. This may not be a problem for others. This fix might be written into chapter 2 of the global success story of Ineos written in 2045?

The second but related design issue is how the car communicates how much fuel you have left. When I'm travelling remotely, fuel usage and how much I have in my tank at any given time is critical. The fact they have released a car where the fuel gauge is completely bogus is mind boggling. Basically, if your gauge indicates you have half a tank you don't. You have less than a quarter. Then the gauge will move quickly from half to let you know you're completely out of fuel and when you go fill up you'll find that it had at least 10-15 litres left in the tank. Good fuel management in the outback is a safety issue. A small tank - ok, you can plan around that but compound this with an inaccurate gauge and it can be a big problem. I'm sure this is just a software fix but this fix can't come soon enough. (Maybe chapter 3)

A third small but annoying design quirk relates to the tyre pressure monitoring system. It seems that it can't really handle much of a range of real world tyre temperature change. If you're driving in some places in Australia you'll know it gets really cold at night and then really hot in the day - this means that the minute you head off in the morning your TPM system will warn you your pressures are too low so you hit the reset and off you go - only to be warned as the day heats up that your tyre pressure is too high - so you reset again - only to discover the next morning that they are too low. And on and on this goes.

And then there are the following little other pain in butt things that I hope will benefit from improved design.

The auto light sensor - mine's not broken but I have learned that it's just not that well calibrated. When I drive out of my dark garage the car won't register I'm out in the bright sunshine for at least 2 minutes of driving. Sometimes if trees cast dappled shadows continuously across my windshield the car just stays on dark/night mode indefinitely.

The warning messages that cover over trip information. I understand the importance of things being brought to my attention - but when these messages throw up over other information I want to look at it becomes very annoying. Most other cars have an easy "acknowledge" option each time you start up (and this works well) but try living with a message that you can't do anything about that pops up at continuous intervals over your display - like a fuel warning or like a service interval message reminder. Yes. I have my car booked in for 3 weeks time so can you please get off my screen now!

It feels I've devoted quite a lot of words to describe what are essentially small frustrations in comparison to the number of words I've used to describe how happy I am with the car.

I'm going to go back and reference why I bought the car. I wanted a comfortable, capable and reliable 4WD to tour and tow with and I got EXACTLY that.

I haven't modified or accessorised it very much - added a compressor, a set of drawers, some wiring for a fridge and electric brakes for towing.

I haven't lifted it because it's high enough.

I haven't added spotlights because the OEM lights are absolutely fine - they cast light wide enough and far enough to illuminate roos at a safe distance at the speed I travel.

I've gotten used to the offset reversing camera and tiny screen. Not brilliant but ok.

What foot hump?

Getting in and out needs technique - unless it involves your aging shrunken mum who might need a bit of a hand lifting herself in.

Places to put things. I've got myself a few cockpit storage solutions made by Campers Choice - now I don't have knick-knack storage issues.

Turns out the IG is BRILLIANT at what I wanted it to be.

It's very comfortable - We've done very comfortable 15 hour days in our IG and felt fresh at the end. Visibility around the car (other than through the back) is excellent. Lots of light but because of the vertical glass windscreen, personal shading from the heat of the Aussie sun is excellent.

It's reliable - It's turned out to be as robust as it feels. Sure, we're only just over 60000km in but the car feels as tight as ever.

It's capable - I have never driven a more "boss" feeling car over long stretches of really crappy road. It totally dominates whatever road surface is thrown at it - even when towing.

Additionally, it's fun. I drive the car a lot on twisty roads and am amazed at how it handles. It should not handle like it does but there you go. The motor feels more willing now than it did when it was brand new.

 

 

 

 

Would I buy one again? Absolutely - in a heart beat - especially if those little design things were resolved.

Am I tempted by the Quarter Master as an extra car in my fleet? Dangerously so.

Do I have any concerns about what was promised and what was delivered? So far none. My car was one of the first off the production line so was going to always be more reliant on dealer and IA support. This has always been delivered on. My local dealer and the tech guys at IA headquarters have been very responsive to all concerns and have resolved them all - including ones that needed parts. They weren't all resolved instantly but as soon as the problems were understood they were all resolved. You’re welcome.

 

So, sorry about the length of the epistle. I'm on holidays in the South of France in a little Yaris Cross GR. It's fun but it's no IG!