Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster First Drive review: Dripping personality, damned by chickens
JOSHUA TREE, California – Subjectively, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster 2025 is an absolute sweetheart truck. It drips with character, from the row of cockpit-style switches on the dashboard and ceiling panels to the name itself. You know you’re in for something interesting when you answer “What car is that?” lasts up to 10 syllables. For those who desire an even simpler, more similar off-road vehicle than the quarrelsome people, Land Cruiser and the G Wagens of this world offer, it proudly flies the old-school flag with front and rear live axles, recirculating ball steering, selectable high and low ranges with a sturdy shifter and multiple locks distinctive. If you see some sand ahead and feel the need to dial up the symbol with a little cactus on it to help you pass, the Quartermaster is not your truck.
However, objectively, the Quartermaster probably won’t be your truck for many other reasons. The price is a big one. It starts at $86,900, or $15,400 more than the Grenadier SUV or “Station Wagon” as Ineos calls it, which is sure to confuse every American. You can read more about that version in our first drive of the Grenadier review. The reason for the Quartermaster premium package has little to do with the one-foot-longer frame and wheelbase, as well as the 61.5-inch stretchable bed. No, the fault lies with West Germany, Lyndon B. Johnson and the chickens.
Back in the early 1960s, the Johnson administration responded to French and West German tariffs on a variety of American products, especially chicken, with a 25 percent import tax. The Auto workers unitedMeanwhile, they want to limit the import of Volkswagen cars produced by West Germany commercial trucks and pickup trucks, and effectively negotiated with the Johnson administration to impose a chicken tax on these commercial vehicle in exchange for not standing out. The auto industry would continue to lobby for its adoption long after the chicken tax was lifted on other products, thus leaving Japanese companies, especially in the 1980s, in trouble. much more difficult to import their minivans.
Companies have dodged taxes in various ways over the years, but Ineos did not feel the need to do so for the Quartermaster, which was built in Hambach, France, in a former Smart factory. The result is a pickup that’s not only much more expensive than its nearly identical SUV sibling, but can easily surpass $100,000 with plenty of affordable options. It doesn’t feel like it should. Admittedly, there is no other pickup truck of its size and power source (gasoline vs. electric) in that price range, nor is there any other off-road vehicle in that price range that offers a semi-bed load. However, it’s a hard pill to swallow.
At least here in the United States. IN Australia, Quartermaster will have no problem finding a home. Its relatively narrow width and short bed, the crew cabin isn’t palatial, and its old-school off-road capabilities fit the modern definition of an Aussie “Ute” perfectly. Indeed, Ineos predicts 80% of Grenadiers sold Down Under will be Quartermasters or chassis cab variants, which we won’t get.
The American location chosen to showcase the Quartermaster could certainly be mistaken for Australia, despite having beige soil instead of red and Joshua trees instead of eucalyptus. We were hitting the dusty, rocky trails just outside Joshua Tree National Park, often in a pretty decent stretch, where the sturdy Grenadier proved resilient to the vibrations violently caused by the washboard surface and the strong impact of large waves.
The recirculating ball steering rack is the most controversial element of the Grenadier, a fact reported by how often the people at Ineos seem to mention it. Having had potential customers say “no thanks” after trying it, they certainly found the feeling of off-centering, lack of self-centering and stiff head turning to be uncomfortable and completely different. compared to modern rack and pinion systems, which often have the help of electrical power. Younger drivers in particular, who may have never driven a car without an EPS let alone a recirculating bulb setup, will find it especially alienating. They may also find it novel, just one of many similar feelings expected of not only the Grenadier but off-roaders in general.
Personally, I don’t see what a big deal it is and it’s certainly not as agricultural as I expected. The biggest problem is adjusting the center of gravity at highway speeds as well as sudden turns. At one point while driving at higher speeds in convoy with other Quartermasters, the dust ahead cleared to reveal a sudden right turn and a metal fence behind. Quick decision! I jerked the steering wheel to the right and encountered a wall of resistance that other steering systems wouldn’t have. I drove the two-spoke wheel harder and farther while pressing into the long stroke brake pedal. Fence avoided, worst case scenario experienced.
So why bother with your old steering wheel? Well, we also went hiking. I’ve long been trained not to wrap my thumbs around steering wheel spokes when going off-road, as a sudden jerk can break them. It’s a cogs and gears thing. That’s less likely to happen with the recirculating ball, and indeed, our rock crawl was very easy from a steering perspective.
However, the throttle can be difficult to adjust in such situations. There wasn’t much response to the initial dab of the throttle, and the delay in response created some worry that I’d overshoot and launch the Quartermaster into a rock. I don’t, but better pedal feel or a change in throttle application would be appreciated.
Perhaps this has something to do with the Quartermaster sharing its drivetrain with cars that are almost live-axle, body-on-frame opposites pickup truck. The 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine is of BMW car (it even says so on the hood) and a ZF eight-speed transmission, both of which come together on many BMWs. Output is 281 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque, and although the 0-60 time is estimated to be a slow 8.8 seconds by modern standards, it certainly doesn’t feel slow as I expected. When out on the open road, it accelerates smartly with ample torque low in the rev range. The smoothness and sound you expect from Bavarian Engine The work is certainly present as well. That said, the ZF transmission is too quick to change gears when driving at uphill speeds. To compensate, I instinctively flicked the BMW-sourced gear lever to the left to select the M/S-badged Sport mode promised, but discovered there was no S. Only M.
I suppose it’s better than nothing, but it’s a bit of a curiosity about half-heartedly stealing parts to get a surprisingly bespoke cabin. All other buttons, switches, stalks etc are Ineos pieces. The toggles in particular are extremely interesting, as it’s hard not to start the car (via the switchblade style key, BTW) and immediately turn on two or three unconnected auxiliary toggles in the ceiling home just to feel like an astronaut. I may not be Buzz Aldrin, but I play a game on the way to Lowe’s.
Speaking of those journeys, the Quartermaster bed has a load capacity of 1,889 pounds, about 500 pounds more than a conventional bed. jeep gladiator The Rubicon is, obviously, the closest thing conceptually to the Quartermaster (though Jeep car has a different chassis than its SUV sibling). The 61.5-inch long bed is an inch longer than a bed fighterof, as well as being 6.9 inches wider at its largest point (63.7 inches). Of course, the Gladiator doesn’t have a spare tire taking up space in the bed like the Ineos. It is cleverly cut into an indentation on either side of the bed (you maybe stuff two spares in there if you want), but it still takes up space. The rear door also isn’t equipped with a damper, a common feature of trucks these days, meaning it just slams down roughly.
Like the regular Grenadier, there is a handle/tether point above the rear door, the tie-down points can move nicely ABOVE “Safari” doors and windows are available on the front seats. There are many customization options, including a unique contrast-painted ladder frame (available in Quartermaster Britannia Blue with a Halo Red frame and a particularly eye-catching Scottish White roof) and many accessories such as an integrated front panel. crank and removable rear winch. Should make for a fun tug of war.
The cabin forward of the front seats is something the SUV and Quartermaster have in common, although the truck’s rear seatback is significantly more upright and it seems like passengers would quickly tire walking along the vertical pegs. Legroom is also uncomfortable, especially if front-seat occupants make the most of the admittedly generous space. If so, hope you enjoy sitting cross-legged. Furthermore, using the fold-flat rear seatback for storage requires you to first flip the rear seat bottom forward, which in turn pushes the driver’s seat far forward. Either way, not ideal.
Other niggles include double doors that almost never close the first time unless you get in the habit of slamming them. Once inside, there are Tesla-style gauges integrated into the center touchscreen, with a panel in front of the driver dedicated to turn signals and various warning lights that illuminate when you Use Terrain mode. The touchscreen itself, a unique user interface equipped with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, also washed out all day long in the harsh desert sun. While its location makes sense for a British company trying to minimize costs by not making two different angled center stack designs for the left- and right-hand drive markets, it There is definitely a downside.
Ultimately, with the Quartermaster’s sky-high chicken tax price, compromised back seat, and lackluster sales of the Gladiator compared to the Wrangler, it seems likely that the Grenadier “Station Wagon” will find more buyers. It also has plenty of charm (and a nicer rear end, I might add), along with the inherent benefits and drawbacks of Ineos’s purpose-built reverse concept. Then again, if you have the money, extra space in your garage, and are used to paying more taxes than you think you should, why not? The guy with Bronco Badlands down the street will be jealous.
