Brisbane Drive Day

Thank you very much for the reports, much appreciated.
Can’t wait for another drive today.

dime80 said:

Thank you very much for the reports, much appreciated.
Can’t wait for another drive today.

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The lads from ineos were fantastic today as per last visit. My partner is quite intermediated by off rd, the drive instructed (mark) provided supportive encouragement to convince Joanne to have a drive, (really assisted in building the excitement at home) the truck is awesome as we all know off rd, the Scottish whit looks awesome. A bit off buyers remorse going on atm as I have an inky black.

trobex said:

Remainder of Photos

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Re: the shifter, there are some plug and play versions that will (apparently) fit.

dime80 said:

The lads from ineos were fantastic today as per last visit. My partner is quite intermediated by off rd, the drive instructed (mark) provided supportive encouragement to convince Joanne to have a drive, (really assisted in building the excitement at home) the truck is awesome as we all know off rd, the Scottish whit looks awesome. A bit off buyers remorse going on atm as I have an inky black.

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Personally, after having an off road vehicle in a colour similar to Donney Grey I wouldn't have another dark vehicle again

MrMike said:

Personally, after having an off road vehicle in a colour similar to Donney Grey I wouldn't have another dark vehicle again

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Why do you say that? I currently have a white defender 110 and wanted something different, so have gone for Donny grey. I think it looks quite good.

Zacman110 said:

Why do you say that? I currently have a white defender 110 and wanted something different, so have gone for Donny grey. I think it looks quite good.

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It looks dirty from the hour after I clean it, it shows scratches and blemishes. I have a Graphite 200 series and RAV4, going bush in the 200 and getting pinstripes is ok, but its getting beyond bearable for me, each to their own I suppose but I live regionally and dirt and dust etc is a daily occurrence.
Don't get me wrong Donney looks fantastic and if I had not had a dark vehicle before mine would be Donney Grey

MrMike said:

It looks dirty from the hour after I clean it, it shows scratches and blemishes. I have a Graphite 200 series and RAV4, going bush in the 200 and getting pinstripes is ok, but its getting beyond bearable for me, each to their own I suppose but I live regionally and dirt and dust etc is a daily occurrence.
Don't get me wrong Donney looks fantastic and if I had not had a dark vehicle before mine would be Donney Grey

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Fair enough! I’m hoping to get my doors and quarter panels wrapped with the grey, but I guess we’ll see! I’m just kind of over the white and am not a real fan of many of the other colours.

Zacman110 said:

Fair enough! I’m hoping to get my doors and quarter panels wrapped with the grey, but I guess we’ll see! I’m just kind of over the white and am not a real fan of many of the other colours.

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Yeah, I can understand your feelings on white. I too am getting my mushroom wrapped, holding my breath for the cost

MrMike said:

Yeah, I can understand your feelings on white. I too am getting my mushroom wrapped, holding my breath for the cost

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Same. It will be interesting to see if the utility rails can be removed to make the wrap job easier. Being a big flat door hopefully it wouldn’t be too challenging.

Zacman110 said:

Same. It will be interesting to see if the utility rails can be removed to make the wrap job easier. Being a big flat door hopefully it wouldn’t be too challenging.

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I hope so, are you in W.A? if so, let me know what the cost would be if you receive your IG before me

Zacman110 said:

Why do you say that? I currently have a white defender 110 and wanted something different, so have gone for Donny grey. I think it looks quite good.

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I've ordered Mushroom, so I don’t have this problem again.

Michael H. said:

View attachment 7802442

I've ordered Mushroom, so I don’t have this problem again.

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Me too

Michael H. said:

View attachment 7802442

I've ordered Mushroom, so I don’t have this problem again.

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Owch, hope you could buff a bit of that out!

Cross posted from the LR forum.

Ok so I went to one of their drive days yesterday. Drove around Mt Cotton. Not really very far.

Overall impressions.. I got in it and drove it. The overwhelming reaction is just relief. The cabin is so spacious. After so long putting up with literally 1947 ergonomics. It's comfortable and would comfortable for a multi day trip even for my giant family. It was comfortable in the back seat, and you can see out the windows without ducking. Passenger comfort is one of the biggest downfalls of our current car. How it drives on the highway is still and unknown for me.

Driving wise .. look it's a pretty tiny little course there. Probably didn't get it over 20kph LOL. It's fairly steep in sections and has lot's of big holes and ruts. The prototype had no working TC and the only traction aid it had was the centre diff lock so could see how the car behaved. It clambered up and over stuff without problem. Seemed to have good traction and wheel articulation. It had good visibility for a modern car although it's a lot wider than the Defender. Turning circle is no worse. The automatic worked fine and the manual selction of gears gave excellent engine braking. This surprised me. The instructor explained that when you manual select it locks the torque converter. Things would be pretty grim for you to use the hill descent.

But the big one is much to my surprise the wife wanted to have a drive.. and that she did. My Defender is just soo much for her.. the whole gear thing in what she considers to be stressful conditions. She drove it easily making off road driving wifes-play. This might seem silly but this is a big thing for our family. As I'm want to ride bikes and leave her to drive the car this would be a big help!

I lined both cars up and you can really see the differences in how they are layed out. The grenadier squeezes both the engine bay and the luggage compartment for space. I think these are reasonable things too. I didn't take a photo of this but the Grenadier is a good headlight wider too. The old defender sits a bit higher with the lift. I'm sure most people will do that for the grenadier. You can see how much longer the defender is in the rear in this shot. Just look at the back window!

Spent a while with one of the Ineos guys. They are in for the long game and know they need to build their brand. They seemed pretty committed.

He said to get the diesel and don't worry about the CRDI issues. BMW apparently have them sorted. So I'm going to think about that.

I'll have a look and a drive of a production one when they get here and will likely order a bit later in the year for a delivery next year. I've got too many trips on this year.

It was nice that the Mt Cotton testing centre was uninhabited except for the Grenadier event. Also not that many people there at the same time so we were able to properly nose around the vehicles. I opened and closed EVERYTHING.

The only thing that really concerns me is that there is no ability to completely fold down the rear seats. They clearly expect there will be heavy items that need to be placed on the folded seat backs as evidenced by the hard plastic backing. Original Defenders have just a felt lined cardboard seat back, and the W463 G-Wagens also only have a vinyl coated card backing. You can get the Grenadier's folded back seats a bit flatter by nudging the headrests up a bit, but it's still far from properly flat.

People putting in drawer systems won't be too bothered as they will naturally come up level with the folded seats. But we've occasionally stacked large boxes of stuff in our previous Defenders and current G and having a full flat floor helps enormously. The electronics & battery box under the rear seat prohibits folding the whole seat forward however years ago we had an XJ Jeep Cherokee which you could simply pull the whole rear seat base out to let the back fold flat for load carrying. I couldn't see any option to do this in the Grenadier though. Sure, it's been designed for a Euro palette, but it would have been nice if it could take a whole long chest freezer or 6 burner BBQ. Moving these types of oversized items can now only be done with a trailer.

Wow. Seeing that photo, I had not realized how “not flat” the seats folded.

Saw these shots elsewhere. Credit: Conway Best

Krabby said:

Wow. Seeing that photo, I had not realized how “not flat” the seats folded.

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Here's a view from the side...

Michael H. said:

Saw these shots elsewhere. Credit: Conway BestView attachment 7802505

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I had a GOOD look at this solution on Saturday. It's easier said than done. Both front seats have to be pushed fully forward to enable you to get the seat base tilted all the way forward (you can see the driver's side one is not even folded all the way down because the front seat in it's normal position is still blocking it). Then removing the headrests is a total palaver and leaves you with a problem of where to put them. And the result is still not a flat floor you can slide things all the way in on.

Krabby said:

Wow. Seeing that photo, I had not realized how “not flat” the seats folded.

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Think they can go a bit flatter, this is from a PTO2. No extended electrical prep so may not have second battery under rear seat, not sure if that impacts ability to lower backrest fully flat.