Anyone else considering returning their Ineos Grenadier?

[Trialmaster]

I am sure all current owners are experiencing false warning messages. But just to make you all feel better, they appear to decrease as time goes by. Last couple of drives - nothing bonged or any messages.

And apart from the above, we have no real complaints, yes I want them to look at a couple of things: door seal and the headlamp cowl.

I was told on delivery it would take 5 weeks after delivery for the Software refresh - this has gone by. Now told August. I have asked INEOS direct and if I receive an answer will post.

Good luck with your vehicles........

 

[lightning]

"The LC150 is end of life, the LC300 we can’t get, the Patrol no longer exists here, the G-class (of which I had 2 before) has become a mall cruiser and the defender easts electronics and engines for breakfast (5 friends tried Africa with them…5 came back on the back of a truck, and I always had a particular love for LR)"

l've not heard of any catastrophic failures with the new Defender
Plenty of minor issues but many owners have taken them overlanding and nobody has reported having to be recovered out of the bush/desert etc

l believe there were some issues with the early 2.0 litre engine which was discontinued fairly quickly. EML lights and one or two failures.

The new Defender does famously have 83 microprocessors (although the Grenadier has over 40)
The Defender has been designed to keep going if minor non-critical issues occur, so you might get a warning on the dash but the vehicle won't stop driving.

Having said that l would choose a Grenadier for a trip across Africa because l think it's more fit for purpose (and l say this as the owner of a new Defender)

Although l am confident my Defender would make the journey.

The only things that have stopped me from changing my Defender for a Grenadier is the price increase and non-commercial status.
Nothing to do with the vehicle itself.

 

[DCPU]

l don't hear of any Grenadiers actually breaking down

Have you tried a Freedom of Information request to the AA?

 

[DCPU]

Although in theory anyway, any licensed mechanic should be able to access information and order parts. Will be interesting to see if that is indeed the case.

or indeed any owner.

 

[DCPU]

l've not heard of any catastrophic failures with the new Defender

Plenty of minor issues but many owners have taken them overlanding and nobody has reported having to be recovered out of the bush/desert etc

 

[bigleonski]

I can understand the frustration from some in the thread. I myself on occasion have shouted to the IG when the oompth message displays. But…until now I haven’t experienced any mechanical issues. It feels solid and drives exactly the way I expected it to do.

I have accepted that it’ll take 6 to 12 months before all the gremlins are solved. It’s not ideal but on a vehicle with a quoted lifespan of “single owner vehicle” so over 30 years….I try to be patient knowing that it’ll get fixed eventually. I haven’t found any decent alternative in Europe at least. The LC150 is end of life, the LC300 we can’t get, the Patrol no longer exists here, the G-class (of which I had 2 before) has become a mall cruiser and the defender easts electronics and engines for breakfast (5 friends tried Africa with them…5 came back on the back of a truck, and I always had a particular love for LR)

So in essence…if you can muster the patience…ride it out. Good luck to all

Defender 0 from 5 - seriously? That’s a very sad trip indeed.

 

[lightning]

Yeah that's seriously bad luck. lt wasn't Team lneos was it?

l hope mine doesn't set on fire. Maybe the owner torched it because they were so fed up with it.

 

[Logsplitter]

I never had any problems with my 2014 Defender 2.2tdci. other than usual with that sort of travel such as nuts and bolts shaking loose, lost brake pads etc. and used for various expeditions. The reasons for buying the Grenadier were to have more power and comfort ,easier driving due to automatic transmission ,5 year’s warranty , remote parts support ,the flying spanner’s etc.
my expectations are high for the Grenadier because it has been built for purpose

 

[lightning]

The old Defender was okay, l had five of them (but never a tdci)

ln nearly 200,000 miles l only had two actual breakdowns, one 300tdi due to a badly fitted immobiliser and a TD5 ECU failure.

The new one, well that remains to be seen.
As with most modern vehicles, there's not much you can do if it actually does stop working.
So far it's been faultless but l've not been to Africa in it.

 

[AnD3rew]

l've not heard of any catastrophic failures with the new Defender
Plenty of minor issues but many owners have taken them overlanding and nobody has reported having to be recovered out of the bush/desert etc

l believe there were some issues with the early 2.0 litre engine which was discontinued fairly quickly. EML lights and one or two failures.

The new Defender does famously have 83 microprocessors (although the Grenadier has over 40)
The Defender has been designed to keep going if minor non-critical issues occur, so you might get a warning on the dash but the vehicle won't stop driving.

Having said that l would choose a Grenadier for a trip across Africa because l think it's more fit for purpose (and l say this as the owner of a new Defender)

Although l am confident my Defender would make the journey.

The only things that have stopped me from changing my Defender for a Grenadier is the price increase and non-commercial status.
Nothing to do with the vehicle itself.

Google new Defender engine failure. There are quite a few. Along with other niggly things. My long experience with Land Rovers is that they can be all or nothing, either essentially faultless or a complete basket case.

 

[lightning]

Yeah the 2.0 had some issues, one reviewer in the USA had two faulty engines although it didn't actually break down.
Fortunately LR stopped using that engine in the Defender, which has also had issues in other LR vehicles such as the Evoque.

l've not heard of any problems with the 3.0 six cylinder that replaced it in the Defender.

The Grenadier engines are BMW units and very good. So once the software issues are sorted there shouldn't be any issues there in the long term.

 

[lightning]

either essentially faultless or a complete basket case.

Hopefully mine will turn out to be the former.

 

[AnD3rew]

Hopefully mine will turn out to be the former.

I had 3 from new. 1 was a single issue catastrophic basket case, 1 was a basket case of endless minor-moderate issues. 1 was essentially flawless. I guess 1:3 isn’t too bad

 

[DCPU]

l've not heard of any problems with the 3.0 six cylinder that replaced it in the Defender.

Last week's recall:

 

[Earthwatcher]

Had mine too long to return but, sad to say, I'm ready to part with it now. I always knew that the acid test would not be its off-road prowess but its on-road manners and a longish motorway drive this weekend confirmed that it's just not in the same league as the new Defender in that respect. Maybe if I'd had problems with the Defender, as some say they have, I would think differently but that car has driven like a dream so far. The interior, storage spaces, details such as seats folding flat and the gizmos (such as overtaking alert) that are simply not wanted by many Grenadier owners, I welcome. That's not to say I didn't buy in to the utilitarian principles of the Grenadier. But the Gren software is not great, too many oddball warning signals (transmission error was one that flashed up yesterday), and the radio has me flummoxed, plus an unpleasant whine at motorway speeds. Stuff like the smooth load-bay surface can be fixed with a rubber mat but the steering play - yes I can handle that, but why should I? It has a fantastic presence when you stand back and look at it and those coils look as if they could take a battering. But it's bigger than I need. Perfection, for me was the Limited edition 4-litre Grand Cherokee that I ran for years in the 1990s which had masses of grunt but ran so well on the tarmac too. If I was doing some serious over-landing in Oz or Africa I'd probably be hiring a Land Cruiser as I have in the past. I have to conclude that the Grenadier is an image machine that I'm sure will live up to its promise in time but I'm thinking now that Clarkson's conclusion was right - the car could have done with a bit more time on the drawing board.

 

[Nocrays]

Everyone suffers from infantile failures.

Our New Land Rover's Epic Fail | Our New Land Rover's Epic Fail | By The Fast Lane Car | Facebook

Our New Land Rover's Epic Fail

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[DCPU]

I'm thinking now that Clarkson's conclusion was right - the car could have done with a bit more time on the drawing board.

For me not just time on the drawing board, but more time learning how to put it together better ~ there's a lot of very silly mistakes, poor fitting, etc.

 

[bakepl]

I'm a bit of a land rover fan as well but heaps around like below....

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RKSgKa7ykg

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEkkB_v13fQ&t=1708s

 

[Jeremy996]

l've not heard of any catastrophic failures with the new Defender
Plenty of minor issues but many owners have taken them overlanding and nobody has reported having to be recovered out of the bush/desert etc

This is anecdote rather than data, but people I know on the engineering side of JLR think I'm on the right lines in saying that of 10 new Defender owners, 5 are ecstatic, 4 are mostly happy but something is irritating them, (usually the infotainment), and 1 new owner is looking to reject/sue/burn to the ground/curse Gerry McGovern and his first born. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_McGovern).

JLR have sold a lot of new Defenders, so there will be a lot of happy people and a much smaller number ready to kill! What worries me is how reliable will they be at ten or more years old?

 

[lightning]

Yes me too. Maybe by that time l will have a Grenadier.

You can "google" anything and get horror stories, the Grenadier is one of the few vehicles that doesn't show any horror stories but you can find a few about the BMW engines.

Wouldn't stop me buying one though. l'll have to wait a few years until used prices drop, probably after lneos has improved their Grenadier and the early models are cheaper in the used market.

Having come from an old Defender, the on road "failings" of the Grenadier wouldn't bother me at all.

It's just a shame that my Defender arrived first. (l ordered both in 2022 and l needed delivery before the end of March 2023) The Defender arrived early, November 2022. At the time lneos couldn't give a date for the Grenadier so l went with the Defender.

No issues with the infotainment or software on my Defender