It’s safe to say that Ineos makes some pretty cool machines. Born out of a desire to keep the old Land Rover Defender going forever, the Grenadier’s a proper 4×4 in the old-school sense. Think solid front axle, ladder frame, and a two-speed transfer case with a proper mechanical engagement lever. The Quartermaster is more of the same except with a five-foot bed, which adds flexibility but normally presents a tariff-related issue. Maybe new zero-percent financing will cushion that blow.
See, the Grenadier and the Quartermaster are both built in France, and that dramatically changes the tax trajectory of the Quartermaster in America. Since 1964, America has imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks. Models built in Canada or Mexico have previously largely been tariff-exempt through NAFTA and the succeeding USMCA, but the Quartermaster isn’t exactly a Chevrolet Silverado built in Canada or a Toyota Tacoma assembled in Mexico.
As such, the Quartermaster carries an MSRP of $86,300, some $14,550 more than the Grenadier SUV. However, beyond dealer discounts on aged inventory, another lever’s being pulled to get some sales flowing: zero-percent financing for 60 months on 2025 and 2026 Quartermasters.
That’s a reasonably long term for such heavily subvented financing, but it’s done in place of cash incentives like up to $4,000 in conquest cash. Given how Ineos uses Santander as a financing partner instead of having an in-house captive financing wing, swapping a rebate out for really cheap financing still makes a lot of sense on a balance sheet. Oh, and because this is a factory incentive, you can still theoretically combine it with dealer discounts to reach a deal under MSRP.
For instance, here’s a brand new 2025 Ineos Quartermaster in Florida, already marked down to $78,048 including dealer fees. Combine that with zero-percent financing for up to five years, and the end result is a theoretical payment much closer to that of a well-equipped Jeep Gladiator or Toyota Tacoma. It’s still not quite that cheap, but it is easier to justify than it was before. More importantly, it’s within spitting distance of the payment on a new Grenadier SUV over the same terms, another textbook example of why it’s worth checking interest rates before signing on the dotted line. A 2026 Grenadier currently offers a 4.99 percent rate for 60 months, and while that’s fair, the interest can easily catch the total cost up to what a leftover Quartermaster goes for—somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,250 a month for five years with a $3,500 down payment.
Don’t expect even the huge on-paper price delta between the Grenadier and Quartermaster to concretely exist forever, of course. In other markets such as Canada, the SUV and pickup truck are priced identically, and Ineos did say last year that it was scouting a plant in America. If an American production facility’s built or bought and a production shift occurs, there’s a very real possibility of Quartermaster prices dropping.
For now though, if you love the idea of a rugged body-on-frame off-roader with silky-smooth BMW straight-six power, a trusty ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, and a bed, now’s the time to go for an Ineos Quartermaster. More refined than a Gladiator but more rugged than basically any other midsize truck, it really stands alone as its own thing.
Top graphic image: Ineos
Woof, that rear end is worse than the Gladiator.
I see quite a few Grenadiers around. The first couple were exciting but they’re no longer rare, so they’re lost a little bit of that sheen.
Whenever I see one of these, all I think of is my PNW friends who are in overlanding clubs that spend obscene amounts of money on glamping gear.
PNWer here. I saw a “bliss mobil” headed north on I5 the other day. Go look em up. I bet the PNW and BC are their best sales locations here in N America.
This thing has so hard ARO 33x vibes. You remember that Romanian “SUV” from the 1970s to 1990 that was sold here (in Western Europe) with the Peugeot XD3 or VM 425 Diesel engines? That was the ARO 24x. The 3xx was the pickup variant with the 33x being the double cab.
You had me at overhead console.
You lost me at the “I’m having my first rectal exam” expression of the taillights.
You lost me at “has the road manners of something from 1985.”
I do a lot of highway driving at 80 MPH (the speed limit on many highways here). I’m not the target market for something with solid front and rear axles and the aerodynamics of a brick. And if I were to buy such a thing, I wouldn’t do so at $80,000+. I would buy a sorted Disco Series 2 (if such a thing exists) and spend the rest on a CPO Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Genesis G90.
I do like their physical switches, knobs, and buttons
Even at 0%, that’s $1500+ a month once the taxes and fees are paid. No thanks.
I’d rather have a Jeep Gladiator and $50-60K in my pocket.
There are a few people near me with Grenadiers.
The niche they’re going after is the G-Wagen / Range Rover / Land Rover Discovery drivers. The image of off-road competency with some of the competency.
Offroad, they’re… meh. Too heavy.
They do all right as trail access vehicles. They don’t fit on the tight OHV-esque trails where I’m at, and they don’t have the rock-crawler capabilities the Jeeps do, but they can hold more stuff than a Tacoma or 4Runner.
The Quartermaster I don’t really see gaining much traction. The Tundra sorta fills that niche at the moment.
Unsure of how it pans out in person, but the spec sheet for the 4Runner–both this new gen and my prior gen–show nearly identical cubic feet behind the 2nd row to the Grenadier.
Let me just do some quick napkin math of what my monthly payment will be……..
Nope
$85,000.
6,300 lbs.
15/15/15 mpg rating
0-60 in 8.1 seconds
83mph in the quarter
0% APR
One good number doesn’t make up for a slew of really bad ones. This is such a fat pig that the legendary BMW B58 can barely keep up with a Hyundai Elantra. I prefer a more graceful, less excessive approach to my off-road capable dailies. This seems custom-built and custom-designed to attract people who want to pose real hard for everyone else.
I have an LR4 (that cost 1/14th of this thing) and it is also a fat pig with horrendous gas mileage, but at least I have a glorious 5.0 V8 to drink all that fuel.
I also have sweet air suspension to lower the truck so my dog can hop in easier.
I know design is subjective, but damn this thing is hard on the eyes. Good thing I’m not even close to their target market.
There is one of these in my town and it’s festooned with every “offroad” bit of tat that can be bolted on. They are kitted out like today’s plan is to cross the Kalahari, but it looks like its never seen a dirt road.
This just seems like one of the weirdest form of conspicuous consumption. Am I supposed to be impressed you have 9 extra gallons of fuel and a never used shovel?
I live in a town that sees a fair bit of tourist traffic, so I see a fair assortment of vehicles, and each and every Ineos I see is festooned as you describe. Rotopax water and fuel tanks. Recovery boards and shovels. All of it, along with the vehicle itself, impossibly clean and very evident it has never been dirty ever. I did actually see one off the pavement one time, but then the road construction ended.
Reminds me of the “cowboys” I’ve seen at the airport wearing the heavy duty jeans and full-on cowboy boots and Stetson hats when they’re about to mount a 737 economy seat rather than a horse.
Dress for the job at hand and leave the stupid peacocking shit at home or in the suitcase. No one’s impressed! You either, Ineos cosplayer!
Counterpoint, cowboy clothes are comfy and fun to wear, and nothing about being on a plane means you can’t wear your cowboy stuff. If someone wants to ride a plane in full blown cowboy getup I say why not, it’s better than PJs.
PJs are sloppy and gross-looking for everyone else but are functionally better for air travel. Tight jeans and tall stiff boots aren’t great for shoehorning into a plane seat. That attire is designed to protect against an environment that isn’t present in airports.
And good luck getting those authentic, shiny spurs through airport security.
They will def need that fuel before the shovel though
I just read TMD about Scout, then thought “I guess this is kind of the luxury ICE truck thing Audi wants to build from the Scouts” then I read this and chuckled.
Ineos doesn’t have near enough production to fill up the factory Scout is building, but I worry Ineos might have more sales with these than Scout will have by the time they launch.
Too bad Ineos didn’t do the CKD kit thing over here. Perhaps they could’ve also installed an LS Connect and Cruise package…
But yeah, fuck the lame-ass tariffs
Maybe all the newly (and rightfully) found hatred for lame-ass tariffs will result in getting rid of this one when the next admin takes over and gets rid of all recent ones.
But probably not. The F-150 is far too important to risk letting Americans choose a small, European or Asian style truck.
After a nuclear war, all that will be left is cockroaches and the chicken tax.
Maybe old Jimmy can sell it to Freelander. Then you could likely buy an Chinese erev Freelander Defender. He will get sick of loosing money eventually. The only ones interested in that operation are the Chinese. He is going to look quite funny after. Though it being built in France in a former German owned factory hasn’t done him any favors for his alleged core demographic.
I was telling my better half it is high time we get ourselves into an oppressive car note that’ll cost more per month than our mortgage. Thanks, INEOS.
My optometrist has one of these (SUV, not truck) and loves it. So there’s that. We could high five at the country club.
“No.”
–Elise (nhrn), probably.
As of two years ago, Elise was pro-Grenadier! Although, for Delmar(nhrs)’s sake, the Quartermaster loses out by not having the rear ladder (definitely the feature my kid got the most out of).
I saw someone in a Grenadier yesterday swerve three feet out of their way to avoid an inch-deep puddle. Take that for what it’s worth.
They swerved and it didn’t roll? Hmmm, maybe it’s better than I thought.
Lol
Same kind of person who puts their new Defender’s adjustable suspension on its tallest setting so they can get a half mile down a graded dirt road.
Being stuck behind a lifted brodozer that slows down to 5mph for every tiny little railroad crossing or speed bump is the most blood boiling experience.
I keep seeing INEOS and thinking of ENEOS, the motor oil people. Completely different company. And the one that starts with I is one with problems if I read the comments right…
Yeah, too bad Ineos doesn’t fill their cars with Eneos from the factory 😛
I’m starting to wonder how much longer this brand will be around. I think everyone who wants one bought one and at this point they’re producing way more trucks than they have demand for. The tariff situation definitely didn’t help.
There’s a small dealer store located near me.Well, it looks like a small dealer, but in reality it is part of a multi-brand dealership “family” all located in the same general area.
For some period of time, it was operating as a standalone Alfa-Romeo dealership. As Alfa sells less than 20k cars per year nationwide, I guess the owner of this lot pulled the plug on their Alfa store, and replaced it with an INEOS store. Every time I drive by it, the tiny lot is crammed to the gills with the same 30-40 INEOS vehicles. I don’t think the brand is doing well in general.
This brand only makes sense to own if you’re a group with an empty (or under-utilized) building. There isn’t much of a business case to it as your only franchise.
“No.”
–Beau’s CFO, probably.
Sounds like we might be neighbors. Crown?
Nope, Crown is on the other side of the country from me.
Wild. The Crown complex near me is exactly what you described – pretty sure down to an Alfa dealership turning into Ineos
The one in my area is partnered up with a CJDR dealer that’s overflowing with Chargers. They also had an inventory of Vinfast cars for a while. Maybe some Fisker Oceans before that?
They don’t seem to be picking winners.
Money laundering?
I thought about buying one of these but decided against it. I have not read good things about build quality or reliability.
Recently my brother, who is not a car guy at all, pointed at an Ineos and asked me what it is. I told him it was supposed to be a modern, updated version of the old Land Rovers. I mentioned the reliability concerns with the Ineos and he replied:
“So it’s just like the old Land Rover, then?”
Authenticity is not always a good thing.
I do not get nor understand this brand. It looks like something Tata motors should sue the pants off of because they look like a Land Rover. The only people I see with these things are richy-rich hoity toity people playing cosplay with these things.
Lawsuit was already adjudicated and LR lost.
It is for people cosplaying at being on safari. I hope the third owners have fun with them, I suspect most of the first owners won’t do much.
Would be cool if they sold a proper old school Land Rover version though. All the off-road bits and bobs, but cut the frills down to basically zero. Make it cheap enough for fleet sales to parks departments and such.
The fact of the matter is that it was a ground-up internally developed vehicle. Unlike the prior Land Rovers or G-Wagens, there’s no legacy engineering across which to amortize costs. Even with (or perhaps because of) the externally sourced BMW powertrain packages, the business case for INEOS probably heavily depends upon trying to dress up an uncivilized, military-grade ride such that rich safari-types will pay $70K+ for it. There aren’t the profit margins for cheaper ones.
I guess INEOS could do what you’re saying and start making barebones versions at cut-rate prices for the sake of exposure and brand credibility, but that would be a long play that would involve abjectly tossing money into the wind for a decade-plus. And even then, if the things aren’t reasonably durable and serviceable under such use (and I suspect they aren’t) that will do more harm than good to INEOS’ reputation.
I seriously doubt this brand will be around in another 5 years anyway
I believe the business case was “Billionaire wants a toy truck, launders money through hopeless manufacturing exercise.”
“richy-rich hoity toity people playing cosplay”
Lotta money in that market. Lotta competition, too, which Ineos seems ill-prepared to handle.
I dunno – the only REAL competition IMHO is the way more stupidly expensive Mercedes G-Wagen, now that the actual Land Rover Defender isn’t one anymore.
But they certainly have the same problem as every other tiny niche brand in the US – HUGE country, tiny number of dealers for sales and service. It’s tough to cover your overhead with stuff like this.
The G is the closest in appearance, for sure. I’m seeing this overlanding cosplay trend show up in the Lexus GX550, top-trim Sequoias, and Defenders. Those vehicles don’t have the same styling language as the Ineos, but the way they kit them out with off road gear looks so wearily familiar.
Jim Ratcliffe/INEOS have a similar political smell as Elon. Not sure if there’s any knock-on effect on sales in Europe.
It’s not just the political smell, it’s the inability to see something through. Sir Jim thought he could just splash cash and all the folks who said “they can’t kill the defender!!1!!!” would be lining up. But a broken promise about UK manufacturing, delays, and a bit too premium of pricing means this is another thing Sir Jim is looking to pull money out of… just like the cycling team, the America’s cup team, Man U, etc… who wants to buy in when the owner wants to cash out and chase other things?
Maybe Land Rover was onto something when it decided to turn its most rugged and historically honest vehicle into a friendlier off-roader with unibody construction and a greater focus on luxury, for your dollars.
Maybe there’s not really that large a market for a barebones premium off-roader, and (especially in markets like the UK where you can buy them in relatively recent vintage) people should have just been grateful that Land Rover made the old ones for as long as it feasibly could, instead of petulantly shouting “Classic Defender forever!”
Maybe INEOS the Automaker was just a stupid f*cking idea with limited appeal, even if it did have a bunch of people initially proclaiming they’d gladly throw their money at it. Not as stupid as the Cybertruck, but somewhere in that vicinity. Because sensational customer interest isn’t always (or often ever) a solid business case.