First, drop the idea about recirculating ball being in anyway part of the problem. This is just the best excuse Ineos or anyone else can come up with. There are plenty of recirc steering vehicles that drive just fine. The problem is a caster a steering damper issue. Both ultimately a choice by Ineos.
As for the rest of your question, yes these people expect to use this as an estate car. But they have no estate. They live in densely populated micro cities that are carved out of the middle of a mega city. Literally surface streets and highways for 45min in either direction. They want the Grenadier or even a G wagon etc to drive down the street to pickup their latest boutique find. They are all about getting things the way they want them. This area was debatably one of the highest concentrations of the 1993 Defender 110 when they were first introduced to the states. And likely at one point the highest density of D90's in 94,95,97. But they almost all sat in garages or side yards as trophies.
But you know what, they created a market for them. Tariffs be damned, they would just buy more of them. But everyone I have talked to has come back saying wow the steering is awful. They don't care if it's meant to go off-road. It looks like a normal vehicle, it operates mostly like a normal vehicle and should drive like a normal vehicle in their minds. So they most end up reverting back to their $120k Cadillac Escalades, G wagons and the new Lexus thing. Oh and $100k plus range rovers of course.
This is not a thread about steering and so I will leave it at that, but it was a mistake by Ineos to be sure. Steering like a pre engineering students first go kart is not a prerequisite to being a serious off road vehicle. Ineos screwed the pooch.
