I am out for now and let me explain why:-
The Grenadier was conceived as a tough off road utility vehicle for the working man, not a fancy Mall crawler. The fact is that it is not well equipped enough and doesn't have the brand recognition of Mercedes or Land Rover to be a mall crawler means it sits in the middle. It is too expensive for the Jeep/Bronco user and too cheap without the build quality and residual history of a G Wagon or a Land Cruiser/Lexus. It will probably end up like a Range Rover with atrocious depreciation. Lexus and Toyota hold their value because they have had decades of good reliability and proven offroad chops.
Anybody serious about off-roading knows that 35's. rock rails, lockers and winches are absolutely mandatory. These accessory prices are insane. You aren't going to tackle much at Moab or any other national park without them.
I want to wait and see how the third-party accessory market embraces this vehicle because except on the margin there is simply not enough demand to support a robust aftermarket. Just look at the Land Cruiser/Lexus market very few options with a vehicle that has a much bigger customer base.
The dealer network in the US is so subpar and undefined that I might find myself 300 plus miles from a dealer. My nearest Land Rover/ Jeep/ Mercedes dealer is 8 miles away. Customers simply aren't going to drive that far. This looks like the Alfa Romeo relaunch in the US, not enough dealers, sketchy out the door reliability and atrocious depreciation.
I think INEOS don't understand the US market, It will make or break the Grenadier it creates volume (unless they can crack China who are not big off road vehicle buyers). To get the factory to a margin level 25,000 units a year is a minimum, so it must be successful in the US. It is the largest off-road vehicle market in the world by far. The sheer size of the US aftermarket for Jeep parts proves that. There are hundreds of companies producing all sorts of gear because the market is huge. The Bronco is growing it further, along with the Colorado, New Tacoma, Ranger who all are very capable off-road vehicles and have at least some aftermarket support.
I want to see if Sales really do support the value proposition. To achieve the sales levels INEOS needs the UK, SA, Australia and other markets simply cannot generate enough sales. Holden folded in Australia because they couldn't make money in a market where in their best years, they only sold 100k units. The UK new car market is Australia around 1m units, SA is 500k, The UK is 2.3m in a good year. The USA is around 16m (pre covid) this is why prices are lower it is where the sales are. The G wagon in its best year sold 15k units globally and 8.5k in the US. Half of global sales!!! Land Rover sells 90,000 units in the US (30% of its production) with the Defender being the best seller by far.
I am concerned about depreciation. If it is the same as Land Rover then waiting is the prudent move.
There will always be people who will buy the latest cool toy. It is a very small market. Not enough to sell 10,000 units in the US, EVERY YEAR, which INEOS must do. If the Grenadier was $10k - $15k less then I would probably be in but at mid $90k including taxes for a well-equipped but spartan in comparison a Lexus, Range Rover or Mercedes vehicle, it is going to have a very small market. If they have soft sales, they will have to cut prices to drive efficiency in the plant.
I am willing to make the bet that INEOS have their pricing wrong, and that pricing will soften. It will for all manufacturers as inflation and supply chain shortages disappear. We are already seeing it starting to happen in the US. You can only throttle back production so much unless you can keep raising prices. It worked for a while, but I think that ship has sailed. Every Auto manufacturer is at their peak margin position right now as they all priced much higher than their cost increases because they could. Keynes was not wrong......
Another point of note is that the UK configurator includes VAT and OTR costs. The US configurator excludes taxes and OTR. So even with the exchange rate at 1.20 and import duty which is 2-3% the pricing is way off.
I love the vehicle; I love the concept, but it simply isn't THAT much better than other options to justify the price right now. I have the means to buy it but not the desire.
