Ineos Grenadier, do you reckon it'll take off?

I think a time came when management came to the conclusion that a utility/commercial vehicle or variant there of, was bad for the image of the vehicles they were selling. I don't agree with this way of looking at things. An example. There has been a big wind and it's raining heavily and power cables are down and people have no electricity. Suddenly you see a Land Rover utility coming through the wind and rain laden with ladders, cables and what not and it heads into the field to the fallen power line or pole. That type of advertising cannot be bought. It puts it into your mind that when the going gets tough this is the type of vehicle you need.
Well it would make an impression on my little mind anyway.

100%. These are genuine hero applications, marketing gold, and, to my mind, I’d think any maker of 4wd utility vehicles would want very much to serve them.

And these are the sorts of vehicles that tend to have broader appeal to outdoor types, long-range travellers, rural dwellers, tradies, etc etc… roles more and more being addressed by the cheap dual-can Ute.

Noticed this in the UK recently also. Never before have I seen a Ranger, Hilux or Triton there - UK conditions don’t suit storing payload out in the open, or in poorly-sealed trays, but they’re there now.

Because of LR, maybe.

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Originally Posted by spudfan

There has been a big wind and it's raining heavily and power cables are down and people have no electricity. Suddenly you see a Land Rover utility coming through the wind and rain laden with ladders, cables and what not and it heads into the field to the fallen power line or pole. That type of advertising cannot be bought. It puts it into your mind that when the going gets tough this is the type of vehicle you need.
Well it would make an impression on my little mind anyway.

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Land Rover started to lose that market in the mid to late ‘70’s,in Aus,and from then on it’s just history.
By the ‘90’s,that market was almost completely Jap vehicles,and that has continued on.

The last Defender,as we all know,was built out of parts found in the Ford and LR parts bin.
One doesn’t have to look far on here,and also look at posts from people that work on them all the time,such as JC or Dazza,to know the quality control and engineering was extremely poor.
A real shame as the Puma was the last of an era.

LR didn’t help its reputation or its customers with the model run one iota.They couldn’t care less,I bet they couldn’t wait for them all to be out of warranty.If I remember correctly one couldn’t get an extended warranty on the model run.I wonder why?
My son had one for ten years,so I saw first hand what they were like.

LR decided to focus on around town luxury vehicles,that was their choice,no amount of complaining will help,that’s done,it’s history,we all have to move on.
The off road vehicle market,which they pioneered was slowly disappearing,although the commercial vehicle off road market,utes,etc,was booming in some countries.But there was probably more money to be made in luxury vehicles,so maybe it was a good move.Time will tell.

Who knows what will happen with the Grenadia,it’s very tough in the real world for a new small company to design and build vehicles.

Interesting to look at history.

The Rover company was started to make bicycles, and was extremely successful. Early in the twentieth century the also started to make cars. While their cars were reasonably successful, and well designed, they made the mistake of trying to take on the mass market - competing primarily with Morris, Austin, and Ford, and to a lesser extent Rootes. Rover was, by the late twenties, in severe financial trouble, and the company was effectively taken over by their bank. Taking advantage of an excess of senior personnel at Rootes as a result of Rootes' combining a number of companies, Rover hired the Wilks brothers as General Manager and chief engineer from Hillman.

They redirected the efforts of the company from mass market to the lower end of the luxury market, turning the company around by the early 1930s.

WW2 was spent mainly building aeroplane parts and developing gas turbines, although near the end of the war Rover swapped this for Rolls Royces' tank engine business. Immediately after the war, Rover planned on continuing in their existing market segment, but soon received a reality check - "export or don't build cars" from the new government. Forced by this into designing and styarting manufacture of a utility vehicle as their existing line of cars was not sought in the export market, this was always planned as a stopgap measure. But within a few months, demand exceeded their manufacturing capability, and continued to do so for most of the next fifty years. With the profits from them funding a series of not particularly profitable or successful semi-luxury cars.

Pining for their original market, Rover effectively created a new segment in 1970 with the Rangerover - but also made the mistake of increasing capital by merging with Leyland.

for the next twenty years or so, Landrovers and Rangerovers were the only profitable products of the Leyland conglomerate, with any improvements hamstrung by the need for profits to prop up Leyland. As the ties loosened with the collapse of most of Leyland, Rover (now changing to Landrover) again sought the market that had saved the company in 1930, Rangerover having moved up market, by introducing the Discovery, which was successful in "saving the company" for another twenty years. But now after being shifted from Leyland to BMW to Ford to Tata, it effectively lost the utility market that they arguably never wanted, despite dominating it successfully and profitably for over forty years (a bit less in Australia).

I recently found out the price of a Grenadier. Ouch!

I wish they would improve their communication around delivery, production & when you will be able to drive a demo car.

Don't want to know about motor bike rallies, bike races etc.

Just want to know if they have started building production versions yet.

Dealers don't seem to be set up yet etc etc.

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Originally Posted by VladTepes

I recently found out the price of a Grenadier. Ouch!

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Have you seen the asking prices for old Defenders? Or new ones for that matter?

The Grenadier pricing is looking very favourable.

It does look favourable. There is zero prospect of me purchasing a puma Defender for some of the asking prices when for little more the Grenadier is on offer. Having said that they are all too dear in my view. I just cannot see the value as all car makers have increased prices so significantly over the last 2 years.

Cheers

There must be a problem with Carales. There are second hand 'new' Defenders on there advertised up to just under $300,000. ... that is very special [emoji1787]. But even those without 'special ' adds the costs of those show ponies makes the Grenadier even top shelf and optioned up look like very good value. Cheers

I must agree with you Ozscott.

I too have been looking at the carsales lists and am nearly stunned out of considering purchasing a Land Rover.

Considering my Ranger really does the same job as a 130 with the same mechanicals and costs me nothing to keep I'll probably just keep it.It'll just die gracefully.

The current asking price for 2nd hand defenders , both old and new models , clearly justifies purchasing a Grenadier.