Stuck in Namibia !

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

Hi all,

I’m sorry that I’ve not kept up with posting about my African trip as the lack of WiFi in most places is and has been rather hit and miss.
As some of you are aware at the moment I am stuck in Namibia as my Grenadier broke down.
Here’s how it all went down.

I have been travelling since the 3rd of January throughout South Africa Botswana and had just entered into Namibia last Tuesday, I stayed at a lodge in Tsumkwe just over the border of Botswana for one night and was leaving for a place called Grootfontein the following morning, I left for the 300 km trip first thing in the morning and after about two hours on the gravel corrugated roads my Gren temperature shot up to 130 and the warning said to stop the vehicle immediately which I did I checked for water and the water was non-existent…dry as a bone, I put lots of water in which made no difference to the vehicle whatsoever, I was on a road where there was literally no one and no passing vehicles, the heat was over 30° and after three hours started to panic and thankfully I had a satellite device on me where I could send a message and after a few hours there were four police forces looking for me and I was found by the owner of the lodge that I had stayed the previous night, I truly was so frightened as there were no vehicles passing and I was running out of water because I had put in over 60 L into the vehicle with no effect of cooling it down.

After nine hours, I had been found and returned to the lodge and Ineos in Windhoek was contacted and they arranged for a pick up truck to collect the vehicle and myself to drive to Ineos in Windhoek, a couple of days later I was on the pick up truck with my vehicle and endured a 15 1/2 hour drive to Ineos, I was put up in a hotel in the capital when my vehicle was dropped off and was told by the servicing manager not to worry about anything as long as I was safe that everything would be taken care of regarding my accommodation, warranty of the vehicle, and recovery of the vehicle.

So that was last Thursday that they received the vehicle at the garage and now it is late on Monday and Ineos South Africa who apparently have to authorise any work, warranty etc and accommodation costs have done in my opinion very little, after saying everything would be taken care of it seems that they want me to pay for my accommodation and recovery costs and get it back from INEOS in the UK, I don’t have the funds for this and also I have lost a whole week of travelling and my pre paid accommodations en route throughout Namibia.

So, what went wrong ?

The small radiator on the drivers side had become loose and detached on the corrugated gravel roads, on the early vehicles that radiator was not held in place by brackets, Logsplitter also had exactly the same problem with his Gren travelling through Africa on the same road, but he managed to mend his and then got it fixed at a later date, now in my opinion Ineos new that the earlier vehicles had this fault and I believe they should have been recalled to have that radiator rebuilt with a bracket around it to stop it falling out and apart, I don’t know how Ineos did their trials through Namibia, but I am as sure as sure can be that they certainly didn’t test them for hundreds of miles on those corrugated roads.

I have completely lost confidence in the vehicle and its capabilities certainly in Africa, I hopefully will get it back tomorrow and I can continue and salvage a little bit of my Namibian trip, I know people say that maybe I should travel with somebody else but that’s not the point. I don’t like to travel with anybody else, that’s why I’m travelling solo but I shouldn’t have found myself in a position with a vehicle not fit for what it was built for on these roads, stranded on my own fearing I would die alone.

Now I have had INEOS saying I should pay for my hotel etc when they initially said they’d sort it out (Ineos in Namibia) but they are just a sales team and service department and everything has to go through Ineos in Cape Town I found out, many emails were sent today and went unanswered, now Ineos in Cape Town have replied saying they have to get authorisation from the chief financial officer in the UK, it beggars belief !

I feel like selling my vehicle on return to the UK and going back to an old defender, Ineos customer service remains complete shit.

And this is a company that contacted me in the first instance when they found out I was bringing my Gren and doing a three month trip through Africa asking me if they could follow my journey and post it on their social media, strange how I’ve contacted them today on social media telling them all about what’s happening and my disappointment in the company and yet they haven’t replied not once.

Annee

 

[LeeroyJ]

I mean no offense here, but when you undertake an expedition of this magnitude in a location like Africa, in a "new" vehicle, you absolutely must expect and plan for mechanical problems. A broken bracket or cooler is not at all outrageous.

I traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers through the middle east in Land Cruisers and had very very few mechanical problems. But I always planned for them. I always had contingencies for how I would deal with such an issue. If something had broken, I would have dealt with it and not written off the entire vehicle. The same goes for my Grenadier.

That being said, I do honestly hope you are able to get a swift solution to your problems and get back to enjoying your trip.

 

[Tom D]

That’s so sad to hear. I really hope that IA read this and do something about it. Stories like this do their brand no good at all.
I think as an industrial chemicals company they have had a massive steep learning curve dealing directly with the public and have largely failed in that regard. The whole customer service experience is pretty terrible. Things will go wrong with any vehicle, but it’s how they respond to that that really matters.
I don’t know if you can claim on your travel insurance for the accommodation. But there’s no way IA should be asking for you to pay for the repair. If there’s a recharge to be made to the UK they should absolutely be doing that internally.
I believe that the additional brackets were present on Africa spec and Australia spec vehicles but not EU/UK spec (plastic rather than steel bumper) . But I might be wrong on that.
Good luck!

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

I mean no offense here, but when you undertake an expedition of this magnitude in a location like Africa, in a "new" vehicle, you absolutely must expect and plan for mechanical problems. A broken bracket or cooler is not at all outrageous.

I traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers through the middle east in Land Cruisers and had very very few mechanical problems. But I always planned for them. I always had contingencies for how I would deal with such an issue. If something had broken, I would have dealt with it and not written off the entire vehicle. The same goes for my Grenadier.

That being said, I do honestly hope you are able to get a swift solution to your problems and get back to enjoying your trip.

With all due respect INEOS knew this was an issue and didn’t recall the early vehicles when they first knew about it…I didn’t know the bloody radiator would fall apart or have a chance because of a missing support bracket.
I’m not some idiot thinking nothing would go wrong however my issue now is how INEOS are dealing with it…or lack of.

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

That’s so sad to hear. I really hope that IA read this and do something about it. Stories like this do their brand no good at all.
I think as an industrial chemicals company they have had a massive steep learning curve dealing directly with the public and have largely failed in that regard. The whole customer service experience is pretty terrible. Things will go wrong with any vehicle, but it’s how they respond to that that really matters.
I don’t know if you can claim on your travel insurance for the accommodation. But there’s no way IA should be asking for you to pay for the repair. If there’s a recharge to be made to the UK they should absolutely be doing that internally.
I believe that the additional brackets were present on Africa spec and Australia spec vehicles but not EU/UK spec (plastic rather than steel bumper) . But I might be wrong on that.
Good luck!

You’re right Tom…all others had the bracket but not the UK.
The customer service from before I got my vehicle to now has been dire, they are certainly not handling this in the fastest or best way and I am over the way that they have treated so many of us.
I could not get insurance has have recently had cancer, this was a trip of a lifetime as my oncologists had said i’d better do this trip sooner rather than later.

 

[CountyV8]

Hi Annee did you get my DMs?

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

Hi Annee did you get my DMs?

Yes thank you.

 

[Zimm]

Holy cow. A bracket??? How complicated is this bracket? Does no one have tin snips and a rivet gun? Was the entire unit destroyed? Could it have been bypassed with hose stock? Some of the places I’ve been to can make piston rings out of soup can lids. (Yea, not shitting ya). Necessity is the mother of invention. As an older guy in America may say,” you gotta Mcgyver that shit. “ I have a booger rig box. Tin. Snips. Superglue. Gorilla tape. Hacksaw. Steel wire. Sail repair kit. C Clamps. Alumaweld. Jb weld. Inner tube. 4roses whiskey. Etc.

Admittedly modern cars pose serious issues with traditional Micky Mouse repairs, and I don’t know exactly what’s going on here, but there must be more damage somewhere or some sort of sensor bullshit to be completely crippled by a bracket.

Oh… for a hotel room to be covered under warranty would be rather extraordinary. Regular readers wouldn’t likely cast me as an Ineos service fanboy, but, I think holding them to providing a room is a bit much. I’d be thrilled with an office couch.

I don’t mean to sound overly unsympathetic, but without comms, dying in middle of nowhere when an engine shits the bed is one thing, a radiator bracket is another. Going alone requires solid medical and mechanical skills. All The world isn’t Disney land quite yet. Solo travel is dangerous, be prepared. And I don’t mean with an SOS button.

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

Let me add….i didn’t ask to be put up anywhere, they offered !!!

 

[IslandFalconer]

Sounds like the typical Ineos middle finger. They don’t give a poop about after sales support or service. They want to sell trucks and marketing. As for the owner who forked over the money we don’t matter all that much.

 

[ECrider]

Said rhs small radiator (drivers right hand drive).
Is this the 'missing bracket.

Excuse the rusty lamp
protectors - Aliexpress specials!!

 

[Logsplitter]

The sprung steel brackets are on African spec vehicles that I saw but that maybe just the newest iterations. I had theses brackets added to mine in Namibia after small rads fell out of their fixings many times. The brackets/support bars stop the lower part of the steel bumper that is underneath the plastic outer bumper from flexing on extremely rough or corrugated roads.

 

[shakesc]

The sprung steel brackets are on African spec vehicles that I saw but that maybe just the newest iterations. I had theses brackets added to mine in Namibia after small rads fell out of their fixings many times. The brackets/support bars stop the lower part of the steel bumper that is underneath the plastic outer bumper from flexing on extremely rough or corrugated roads.

If you have the parts looks an easy retrofit, probably not tricky to fabricate.

 

[Trialmaster]

Have we part numbers or a recall notice to fix this severe problem?

 

[CRH]

Said rhs small radiator (drivers right hand drive).
Is this the 'missing bracket.

Excuse the rusty lamp
protectors - Aliexpress specials!!

Mine is an early UK vehicle, I looks as though 1 side has had a new bracket and the other has had 2 when it's been in for work/service's