Hi All. Just wanted to post a few of my thoughts from seeing and driving the car today, as well as perhaps adding a few additional bits of info. Hopefully some of the Melbourne guys can add some additional thoughts.
1/ The car is even better in the flesh than I could of imagined - I cannot wait to get mine. My brother came with me, and was lucky enough to get a drive too - now he wants one.
2/ It drives extremely well with heaps of power in the diesel, mated to a perfect gearbox with almost indiscernable gear changes.
3/ It will drive very nicely on the black top, with the subtle suspension absorbing a lot of the terrible Australian road conditions. At full speed, it just absorbed any of the divots and drains that we were able to drive over. They mentioned that they had a large aftermarket suspension supplier think that they could do a better job of the suspension tuning for the Australian market than Inoes had done. After a drive in the vehicle, the owner of said company apologised for his previous remarks.
4/ The stereo system has good sound for a 4x4 truck, about on par with standard vehicle systems - certainly not a fantastic sound system though.
5/ They still do not have a solution for Solar setups on the roof of the car, connecting into the battery system.
6/ The raised air intake can be fitted later on at any stage.
7/ In Australia about 70% of vehicles ordered are Diesels, and about 70% are Trialmasters.
8/ When connecting a large trailer, the vehicle has trailer sway control, however it does not change the gearbox shift patterns/engine revs based on the fact that is now towing - Thank goodness. Apparently it has a cracker of a transmission cooler too - good to know for towing in the Oz heat.
9/ Yes the winch does involve changing the front suspension setup. Just adding a Roo Bar does not change the suspension.
10/ Strangely the car felt a little smaller than I imagined - in physical size, as well as the way it handled. However there is plenty of legroom and passenger room. My son and I are both over 6ft, and sitting behind me he had plenty of legroom.
11/ The Recaro seats are the best cars seats I have ever sat in.
12/ The drivers side footrest is a double edged sword. I can imagine on very long drives, that you would find it hard to stretch your left leg, unless you stretched it above the brake pedal. However the wide footrest certainly didn't change any driving position or feel uncomfortable during the brief drive. In fact in off roading situations I think the large footrest comes in handy as it provides a firm footrest to push back against as you are attempting steep declines.
13/ There is minimal body roll in my opinion, and I would consider far less than any other vehicles of this size and weight.
14/ Like many have commented it feels like a Strong rigid vehicle - tank like but nimble at the same time.
15/ Like a tank, it feels like it could go anywhere, and immediately instills confidence in you as the driver that you can conquer the terrain. Nothing was too hard for it, in low gear or no low gear.
16 / The Safari roof sits forward of the head position of the driver, so if you are a balding bloke like me, then you are effectively sitting in the shade. The window is coated in a reflective coating. I don't usually like Sunroofs, but this one was not too bad.
17/ They indicated that they are still finalising some small unique items for Australian certification, but sounded like they are nearly there.
This is a good start, I may think of others to add.
However overall, it is an awesome package, and even though these cars were the ones brand new off the docks this week, they were still PT02's, with many things still to be rectified, I can only imagine how much better the full production cars will be.
Great review Davman! Well done.
I also went last Saturday and was so excited I completely forgot all my questions and only managed to take a few random pics.
I agree that the glovebox is too small only good for your service book and the centre console is ridiculous. It will fit a wallet and stubby holder and not much else.
Ineos has done a fantastic job but the 200 series has a cavernous amount of storage if you compare the pair.
There is a little bit of room under the seats for some boxes or drawers to hide bits and pieces in though.
If they could install a mini fridge in the console space it’d be awesome in my opinion.
From a driving perspective, Compared to driving my mates lifted LC79 series (or any 79 for that matter) the comparison is vast. The grenadier was like a luxury vehicle (don’t tell the ATO
) smooth and easy with minimal lag between breaking and acceleration in the diesel.
The engine even sounded throaty enough without the V8.
We didn’t go over corrugations so can’t tell how it handled ruts but having done a few tracks in a 79, if the Grenadier doesn’t snake its way down the road I’ll be very very happy.
The Leather Recaro seats were very comfortable as well even when going up and over the hills. (Tempted to change my order from fabric to leather too)
For those torn by the colours, the web does not do the Green any justice at all.
My initial order was Donny Grey, but after seeing the Sela Green in person I’m changing my order.
Admittedly I’ve only seen Blue, Silver and the Green.
As for the Safari windows, you can have a full size roof rack (I believe Rhino was installed on the PT02) but you won’t be able to open them
(and the height with the racks will restrict you from most undercover car parks with 2.1m clearance)
I‘m also second guessing my choice of Safari windows, I love the idea but the blazing Sun may be an issue in Aus
there are options i guess, like these..
The best 4WD rear window sun shades, back window sun shades. Keep your 4WD interior cool. Protect your family and interior from harmful UV. Glare reduction.
rvsunshades.com.au
or Ali Express has some.. but they look pretty nasty though.
or Tint a car may be able to do something?
my partners Rav has a electric shade for her panoramic moon roof which maybe Ineos could look into for G2.0?
An idea for a half rack I found here to maybe suit the Safari windows.
I asked about the battery setup and they are under the rear seat, BUT there is a jump start plug under the bonnet! nice and handy.
And the back seats fold down to open up the boot space but there’s about 100mm step up where the seats fold.
Could be alleviated by some drawers (although pretty thin) possibly?
Again, great review and hope to meet you round the traps sometime.
