Now that my Grenadier is at home, I've decided to post a build thread so I can keep track of the modifications I do and post simple reviews of gear I try out. I may post first in relevant threads elsewhere in the forum, then link the post here to keep things easy to find for me. Here's the Grenadier stock.
This post is going to be long since first I'll start with a bit of an introduction on how my Grenadier journey has gone so far. I've lusted after the Defender and Series Land Rovers for a long time ever since I was a young boy watching nature documentaries. A friend of a friend in college had a yellow NAS D90 which probably set the hook. After doing the young guy thing and having a couple sporty cars, a 2016 4Runner was my first 4X4. While I mostly got it as the kids no longer fit into my E90 M3. I quickly began to appreciate the capabilities of the Toyota on muddy roads while waterfowl hunting or in the snow, and became a 4x4 guy for life.
I'm not sure where I first heard about the Grenadier project, but it was early on, well before there were any sketches or even a name. It probably wasn't long after I got my 4Runner as I had this news article bookmarked.
Eventually I got fatigued with the 4Runner's aging drivetrain and looks, and began looking for alternatives. I kept looking for an affordable Defender, while awaiting news of the Grenadier, 6th gen 4Runner, LC300, and watched what was happening in the truck space. I at one point had a reservation on a Bronco and came very close to winning a D90 on Bringatrailer. We were heading out of cell coverage in Rocky Mountain National Park when I placed my bid so I wasn't sure if I'd won or not until we left the park. I was annoyed that I would have likely won if we were at home. Here's the D90 that almost was, and looking back at it I can see why I went the way I did with my Grenadier.
Things fell into place with Toyota not bringing the LC300 to the US (the Lexus is too precious), me deciding I didn't want to daily a Defender or large pickup, and the 4Runner still isn't here. I placed my reservation immediately when they opened up, and was able to kick the tires when the early prototypes went on tour in the US. Meeting Greg Clark and some of the Ineos team at that event was fantastic and they really sold me on the dream while keeping my expectations for price and MPG in check.
Once pre-orders opened up I again couldn't wait to make my choices. I had a hard time settling on many things until the off-road driving event. For features I definitely wanted 17s, so the Fieldmaster was out. Building a base wagon up didn't save much money once I put everything in, and I suspected the Belstaff editions might have better resale if it didn't work out for me so Trialmaster it was. It had almost everything I wanted feature wise and nothing I didn't. I knew I wanted the safari windows and the checker plates, and after some debate opted for the heat reflectve glass as well.
The things I couldn't decide on were color, wheels, and seats. I liked the Sela Green, Scottish White, and Britannia Blue the most in photos, but seeing them in person at the offroad event I felt the Britannia would show scratches and the cursed Seattle pollen too well (My M3 was blue). The Eldoret was very nice and moved into it's spot in the top 3. There wasn't a Sela at the event and the painted Jerry can just didn't quite prove to me that the color was right for me. Eldoret was very cool but I felt it might be a little flashy for me. Had I seen the pictures of the white steelies before deciding I would have definitely gone Eldoret (To the point that I asked my dealer if any of their cancellations were Eldoret Trialmasters before finalizing the deal on my pre-ordered spec). Scottish White won out.
I plan on keeping the Grenadier for as long as I can. I keep my cars around 7-8 years on average so far, and only trade up when I get bored. With how excited I was about the Grenadier, I decided to opt for leather which I feel holds up better over time, and the alloys, which look nice on the truck and should also hold up well.
I enjoyed the process of tracking the vehicle as it crossed over from Zeebruge. It would have been nice to get the same alerts as when I custom ordered my M3, where I could check in with a hotline and they'd tell me the car was painted today, in the wheels shop, etc. Ineos, if you're reading this, more granular updates would be great. European delivery would be even better.
My dealer is @ElliottBayINEOSGrenadier . Initially I worked with Earl, who moved to another dealership before my truck arrived. I was reassigned to Jacob, who was attentive throughout the process. I posted my experience with EB in their dealer thread, so I'll just link that here.
Beginning with little projects, but I'll post here when things get started.
This post is going to be long since first I'll start with a bit of an introduction on how my Grenadier journey has gone so far. I've lusted after the Defender and Series Land Rovers for a long time ever since I was a young boy watching nature documentaries. A friend of a friend in college had a yellow NAS D90 which probably set the hook. After doing the young guy thing and having a couple sporty cars, a 2016 4Runner was my first 4X4. While I mostly got it as the kids no longer fit into my E90 M3. I quickly began to appreciate the capabilities of the Toyota on muddy roads while waterfowl hunting or in the snow, and became a 4x4 guy for life.
I'm not sure where I first heard about the Grenadier project, but it was early on, well before there were any sketches or even a name. It probably wasn't long after I got my 4Runner as I had this news article bookmarked.
Eventually I got fatigued with the 4Runner's aging drivetrain and looks, and began looking for alternatives. I kept looking for an affordable Defender, while awaiting news of the Grenadier, 6th gen 4Runner, LC300, and watched what was happening in the truck space. I at one point had a reservation on a Bronco and came very close to winning a D90 on Bringatrailer. We were heading out of cell coverage in Rocky Mountain National Park when I placed my bid so I wasn't sure if I'd won or not until we left the park. I was annoyed that I would have likely won if we were at home. Here's the D90 that almost was, and looking back at it I can see why I went the way I did with my Grenadier.
Things fell into place with Toyota not bringing the LC300 to the US (the Lexus is too precious), me deciding I didn't want to daily a Defender or large pickup, and the 4Runner still isn't here. I placed my reservation immediately when they opened up, and was able to kick the tires when the early prototypes went on tour in the US. Meeting Greg Clark and some of the Ineos team at that event was fantastic and they really sold me on the dream while keeping my expectations for price and MPG in check.
Once pre-orders opened up I again couldn't wait to make my choices. I had a hard time settling on many things until the off-road driving event. For features I definitely wanted 17s, so the Fieldmaster was out. Building a base wagon up didn't save much money once I put everything in, and I suspected the Belstaff editions might have better resale if it didn't work out for me so Trialmaster it was. It had almost everything I wanted feature wise and nothing I didn't. I knew I wanted the safari windows and the checker plates, and after some debate opted for the heat reflectve glass as well.
The things I couldn't decide on were color, wheels, and seats. I liked the Sela Green, Scottish White, and Britannia Blue the most in photos, but seeing them in person at the offroad event I felt the Britannia would show scratches and the cursed Seattle pollen too well (My M3 was blue). The Eldoret was very nice and moved into it's spot in the top 3. There wasn't a Sela at the event and the painted Jerry can just didn't quite prove to me that the color was right for me. Eldoret was very cool but I felt it might be a little flashy for me. Had I seen the pictures of the white steelies before deciding I would have definitely gone Eldoret (To the point that I asked my dealer if any of their cancellations were Eldoret Trialmasters before finalizing the deal on my pre-ordered spec). Scottish White won out.
I plan on keeping the Grenadier for as long as I can. I keep my cars around 7-8 years on average so far, and only trade up when I get bored. With how excited I was about the Grenadier, I decided to opt for leather which I feel holds up better over time, and the alloys, which look nice on the truck and should also hold up well.
I enjoyed the process of tracking the vehicle as it crossed over from Zeebruge. It would have been nice to get the same alerts as when I custom ordered my M3, where I could check in with a hotline and they'd tell me the car was painted today, in the wheels shop, etc. Ineos, if you're reading this, more granular updates would be great. European delivery would be even better.
My dealer is @ElliottBayINEOSGrenadier . Initially I worked with Earl, who moved to another dealership before my truck arrived. I was reassigned to Jacob, who was attentive throughout the process. I posted my experience with EB in their dealer thread, so I'll just link that here.
Beginning with little projects, but I'll post here when things get started.
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