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“You can’t wash out the inside of your LandCruiser with a hose,” says Joe to a group of his mates as they sit around the campfire after a tough day out on the tracks.
He’s just spent the last 2 hours explaining why the Carraro solid beam axles, BMW engine, and ZF transmission in his INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster are tougher than Billy’s 79 Series LandCruiser.
In fact, in Joe’s eyes, the only thing tougher than his truck is the case of mid-strength beer that “big fella” Billy is sitting on. How that case of aluminium supports him, we’ll never know. “Your LandCruiser couldn’t pull the skin off a custard,” Joe continues. “You know, they took the best diesel engine in the world and put it in this truck.”
“Okay, enough about your INEOS,” replies Billy. I’m with him because I’ve spent enough time around these campfire conversations to know how this is exactly how it goes down.
It’s tough to own anything but a Nissan Patrol, Ford Ranger, or Toyota LandCruiser off-road. There’s almost no convincing your mates that anything besides a Patrol or LandCruiser is fit for the job off-road, but that’s exactly where INEOS wants to play with their heavy-duty INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster. Will it work? Well, they’ve had a very decent crack. I headed to the Victoria High Country to get behind the wheel and see for myself.
What is the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster?
It’s tough as nails and comes with all of the good stuff, but there’s no mistaking the INEOS as anything but the modern recreation of the Land Rover Defender.
The company owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, tried to buy the rights to keep building the original Land Rover Defender before he ended up making one himself. JLR found enough time in the day to put down their colouring pencils, turn their focus away from the Type 00 Concept, and say no! Except, somewhere along the way, they missed the bit where they forgot to trademark the design of the Defender, so now we have a replica, but with tougher, better bits.
JLR went so far as to take INEOS to court, but they dismissed the appeal of the U.K. Intellectual Property Office, saying that not everyone knows or cares what the original Defender looked like. But that’s precisely the issue that INEOS might have fallen into. Not everyone cares or knows what the original Defender looked like… think about that for a second. The obsessed old-school Defenderphiles are in your ear telling you that JLR did them wrong, the dingo ate their baby, and now half of them have bought new Defenders and the other half have coughed up decent change and bought INEOS Grenadiers.
Defender sold 3,209 units last year, 3,846 the year before, and their sales are up 34.5% YTD through June 2025. Someone misjudged how well the new, better Defender would sell, and when it’s still supremely capable off-road, the writing seems to be on the wall for the INEOS Grenadier. Or is it?!
What Does the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster Cost?
- Warranty: five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty
- Service intervals: 12 months or 15,000km
- Servicing costs: $4626 (diesel, 5 years), $4896 (petrol, 5 years)
The writing would be on the wall for the INEOS Grenadier, except for the fact that they have a ute variant called the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster, which is priced on the market anywhere from AUD$90,000 drive-away to AUD$140,000 drive-away, depending on options and accessories.
That puts it right up against the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series, which is a cult-status vehicle that has been serving farmers and adventurers for nearly half a century. It’s priced from AUD$83,500 plus on-road costs in GXL + Diff Locks, Diesel, 6 Speed Automatic grade.
It’s a tough ask, but if the Quartermaster can even chip away at a small portion of the 79 Series sales, they’ll consider it a success.
Why Would You Buy an INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster?
You don’t particularly like the Toyota LandCruiser and all of its “quirks,” but you also want more power, more capability, and a more refined experience.
Let’s start with the engine because the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster is powered by one of the greatest diesel engines to ever be put in a vehicle. It uses the BMW-sourced B57 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo diesel engine that produces 183kW @ 3250–4200rpm and 550Nm @ 1250–3000rpm. Yes, that’s down on power compared to some of the BMWs that it comes out of, but it’s more than enough to propel the Quartermaster down that road and haul 3.5 tonnes of stuff behind it.
Speaking of towing, this is an area where the Quartermaster excels, with 832kg of payload capacity, 3,550kg GVM, and a whopping 7,000kg GCM. Those numbers can only truly be matched by the 70 Series before you start looking at the full-size American pick-up trucks.
Power is sent to the ground through the fantastic ZF 8-speed 8HP torque-converter automatic, before a Tremec two-speed transfer case takes that power and splits it through a central locking differential. Optional locking front and rear axle differentials are available. Heavy-duty Carraro solid beam live axles are found at the front and rear, while the suspension is a five-link coil-spring layout with Bilstein dampers and Eibach coils. I wasn’t joking when I said it has all of the good stuff!
How Safe is the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster?
There’s only one thing that the Quartermaster is missing, really, and that’s safety equipment. JLR had to stop making the old-school Defender because it couldn’t meet the strict crash regulations, Toyota had to reclassify the 79 Series as a light truck for the same reasons, and the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster follows the same recipe. No ANCAP safety rating, no autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, or traffic sign recognition.
You get six airbags, front park sensors (optional), electronic stability and traction control, trailer stability assist, rear park assist, tyre pressure monitoring, an immobiliser, a steering wheel, and convenience features like a rear-view camera, heated exterior mirrors, and heated windscreen washer jets that make the car easier to live with than an old-school Defender.
We could spend more time on the lack of “nanny state,” active safety systems that might save you when you’re trying to figure out what all the buttons do. However, most people are fed up with all of these things, and Toyota doesn’t offer them on the 79 Series, so we’ll leave it there.
What’s the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster Like to Drive?
The INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster is much nicer to drive than a dual-cab 70 Series Toyota LandCruiser, but that wasn’t very hard.
Honestly, I was expecting much worse from the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster. They hid this car away from the press for so long that I thought it was going to be awful, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
It’s unfair to compare the ladder-frame architecture of the Quartermaster to a modern monocoque vehicle like the new Defender. Instead, I spent my time comparing it to its key rival in the 79 Series LandCruiser, which it does very well against. Yes, the steering is particularly vague on the freeway, but it’s still better than the LandCruiser. Yes, the coil-sprung, live axle suspension crashes over bumps and bounces across undulations in the mid-corner more than a 300 Series, but it’s still better than the leaf-sprung LandCruiser.
On-road, the Quartermaster drives like a 2,700kg modified dual-cab ute, which is the nicest way to say that it’s average, but not terrible. Off-road, it’s a completely different story, however, and we spent most of our time exploring the tracks around Mt Buller in the Victorian High Country.
Like only a Jeep Gladiator can, the Quartermaster gives you this constant feeling that you can’t find a track tough enough to get stuck. On many occasions, I left the car in its basic off-road mode, with the centre differential locked, and never went anywhere near the double diff-locks that were available because the electronic traction control was so effective.
When you’re in “Off-road mode,” the annoying bings and bongs turn off, including the door-chime, disables parking sensors, auto stop/start function, and seatbelt warnings, and this is a great addition for those who want to use this as their work truck.
Things like “Wading mode” are clever in stopping the fan from spinning when you’re wading up to the maximum depth of 800mm.
Like an old-school Defender, the transfer case allows you to cruise around in both high and low range with the centre diff unlocked, which makes it easy to park a trailer at the campground off-road. Still, the turning circle is not very good, which does make it difficult to navigate tighter tracks.
We couldn’t find a track on our trip that required both diff-locks, spotters, etc. although I hazard to guess that most INEOS owners won’t spend as much time on “Jeep tracks,” as Patrol and 80 Series LandCruiser owners do. That does ask one huge question of the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster.
Who Should Buy the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster?
This is the question that INEOS has to answer, and after spending a few days behind the wheel, I’m not sure that I have a straight answer for the Grenadier Quartermaster.
It does enough on paper to convince an on-the-fence 79 Series LandCruiser owner that the half-century-old farm truck is a bit overpriced. It’s more powerful, better equipped, and significantly more comfortable for long journeys around the country, but the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster can be $20,000-40,000 more expensive than the already expensive LandCruiser once you start ticking options boxes.
The rebuttal to this is that 79 Series owners will often spend tens of thousands to upgrade their rig to modern standards with seats, coil conversions, and all of those things that the INEOS comes from the factory with, but that’s half the fun. You could do the same with the Quartermaster, but expect to pay big money for it.
Old-school Defender owners are few and far between in Australia, and the modern Defender sells extremely well, so there are few sales to be found here.
Hardcore off-roaders would appreciate the diff-locks and long list of Off-road features, but it’s too expensive to point at a particularly serious section of track, and those who can afford to do so are more interested in touring around the country with a van on the back. However, a 300 Series LandCruiser would do a better job at this.
Overall, the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster impressed me, and if you’re ready for a lap of the country and want to put a tray and canopy on the back filled with all of your stuff, this could be the best way to do it without spending thousands on upgrading the flaws of a 79 Series. You’ll want to like the heavy-duty nature of a ladder-frame vehicle, you’ll want to value off-road prowess over on-road performance, and you probably dislike 79 Series LandCruisers and full-size American pick-up trucks.
It’s a niche market, but that’s entirely the point of a niche brand. Whether it’s enough to stick around is a question for the bean counters.
