A year ago today I picked up my Grenny, having waited 2 years and 3 1/2 months after the deposit to reserve it.
Turns out I don’t really like the car. I LOVE IT. The more I drive it, the more I love it. The more I look at it, the more I love it.
Let’s get the growing pains out of the way. It has a few issues common on the forum: the passenger door handle sticks (only when it rains) and the passenger door well fills with water. A cable started dragging not long after I adopted the Grenny, which the dealer fixed with a zip tie. Sometimes it blares at me for no reason, and the Car Play is ridiculous, usually dropping when the navigation is about to tell me to merge over three lanes for the next exit. I drove a Jeep for years so wrestling the steering wheel and turning with the radius of an air craft carrier don’t bother me. I hope delivery has improved? I am fairly certain my Grenny made its way here in a rowboat with a teenage boy from India and a Bengal tiger; even after being given a VIN number my Grenny was lost at sea for months.
On the plus side:
It’s a much better city and highway truck than I expected. The fuel mileage is better than advertised. It was a comfortable ride for two 16 hour road trips. I volunteer at a food pantry - my job is to drive around & collect donations from grocery stores that would otherwise end up in landfills. The Grenny holds SO MUCH FOOD. And I can hose it down if raw chicken leaks or milk drips. Never mind the auto reviews disdainful of using the Grenny for school runs - it serves lots of purposes and rarely complains.
The Grenny will also keep me agile into old age, scaling the drivers seat and closing the back gate, which requires the strength of Ten Grinches Plus Two. And I can always find it in a crowd!
Best of all, since there is no INEOS advertising here (the manager of the empty dealership that fixed my cable reaches for another Prilosec), I have had at least 100 conversations with my fellow humans that wouldn’t have happened without the Grenny. When a big guy walked up on me in a dark, deserted parking garage & said “Tell me about your car,” instead of running him over I found myself flinging the doors open and insisting he admire the overhead switches. When the “Low Oil” warning came on during an 8 hour trip, the mechanic in the small town I stopped in refused to take payment because he was so happy to meet a Grenny. It is a source of daily joy; it is impossible to be in a bad mood when driving it.
Tariffs were announced on the heels of the INEOS CEO announing their plan to use brand ambassadors rather than an advertising campaign in North America (my dealership manager breathes into a paper bag). I hope Grenadier can continue to grow here… and also provide some parts to their dealers.
Turns out I don’t really like the car. I LOVE IT. The more I drive it, the more I love it. The more I look at it, the more I love it.
Let’s get the growing pains out of the way. It has a few issues common on the forum: the passenger door handle sticks (only when it rains) and the passenger door well fills with water. A cable started dragging not long after I adopted the Grenny, which the dealer fixed with a zip tie. Sometimes it blares at me for no reason, and the Car Play is ridiculous, usually dropping when the navigation is about to tell me to merge over three lanes for the next exit. I drove a Jeep for years so wrestling the steering wheel and turning with the radius of an air craft carrier don’t bother me. I hope delivery has improved? I am fairly certain my Grenny made its way here in a rowboat with a teenage boy from India and a Bengal tiger; even after being given a VIN number my Grenny was lost at sea for months.
On the plus side:
It’s a much better city and highway truck than I expected. The fuel mileage is better than advertised. It was a comfortable ride for two 16 hour road trips. I volunteer at a food pantry - my job is to drive around & collect donations from grocery stores that would otherwise end up in landfills. The Grenny holds SO MUCH FOOD. And I can hose it down if raw chicken leaks or milk drips. Never mind the auto reviews disdainful of using the Grenny for school runs - it serves lots of purposes and rarely complains.
The Grenny will also keep me agile into old age, scaling the drivers seat and closing the back gate, which requires the strength of Ten Grinches Plus Two. And I can always find it in a crowd!
Best of all, since there is no INEOS advertising here (the manager of the empty dealership that fixed my cable reaches for another Prilosec), I have had at least 100 conversations with my fellow humans that wouldn’t have happened without the Grenny. When a big guy walked up on me in a dark, deserted parking garage & said “Tell me about your car,” instead of running him over I found myself flinging the doors open and insisting he admire the overhead switches. When the “Low Oil” warning came on during an 8 hour trip, the mechanic in the small town I stopped in refused to take payment because he was so happy to meet a Grenny. It is a source of daily joy; it is impossible to be in a bad mood when driving it.
Tariffs were announced on the heels of the INEOS CEO announing their plan to use brand ambassadors rather than an advertising campaign in North America (my dealership manager breathes into a paper bag). I hope Grenadier can continue to grow here… and also provide some parts to their dealers.
