Of my hundreds of messages posted here on the forum, and since 2021 when I told Sir Jim to take my pre-order money, I’ve been an enthusiastic supporter of the Grenadier. I see past the minor quirks of these special trucks. I hope I get back to that state of mind. But right now,
I am nearing the end of my rope with my truck out of commission for seven (7) weeks tomorrow. (!)
My dealer, Weissach in Vancouver, has been quite decent to me and transparent with the diagnosis and warranty procedure. The procedure, though, sucks. At this point, they are being held back by INEOS technical assistance, bean counters, and/or warranty procedures. Major failures on several fronts remain a mystery and no confident solution has been offered.
I wrote a letter to INEOS recently and told them I’d share it on the forum here because I can't believe how I’ve been let down by INEOS and I’ve discovered through public and private messages that this is not an uncommon story among owners. See below. Sorry, it's long. It was longer but I edited it, for brevity, and removed unnecessary personally identifiable information.
_________________
Dear INEOS,
I started my Grenadier journey four and a half years ago. After watching Sir Jim Ratcliffe share his vision, I put my deposit down in September 2021 and I was one of the first people on the priority pre-order list in Canada.
I took delivery of my Grenadier Trialmaster in June 2024 from Weissach INEOS Vancouver. My wife, daughter, and I loved the Grenadier for both off-roading and city driving, and have been willing to forgive the idiosyncrasies and glitches until recently.
Some major unresolved issues include: (with video and photo documentation in the hands of Weissach and your INEOS technical assistance team)
Motor consuming too much oil
I had to add three full litres of oil within the span of approximately 8,000 km. There's no leak. The motor is consuming that much oil. On three separate occasions (February, June, and, November 2025), my Grenadier reported "engine oil level low" and requested "refill 1.0 litre", which I reported immediately to the dealer and refilled with the proper spec of oil. The cause is unknown.
Electronic failures
There has been a litany of electronic problems with the truck. Some, involving signal and tail lights, may have been finally fixed. Several remain and are genuine safety issues. I’ll describe two. The hazard lights sometimes turn off on their own when parked roadside. Obviously, this can result in collision from other vehicles if we need to make an emergency stop, particularly on dirt roads or roads without a shoulder. The backup camera occasionally fails to display when the transmission is in reverse and the truck is backing up. Considering the limited rearward mirror visibility and rear blind spots of the Grenadier, this can be extremely unsafe, and likely violates safety regulations. Again, these issues have been video-documented and shared with Weissach.
Intermittent REAR END LOCK-UPS
With an open rear differential (i.e. not off-road, not in off-road mode, open centre, front, and rear differentials), we have experienced ongoing intermittent lock ups of the rear end, causing skid and loss of traction when cornering at slow speeds on dry pavement. There is clunking and hanging up in the rear end of the truck, as well as tire “chirping” This problem began shortly after Weissach completed the INEOS-prescribed first service. It usually happens within the first kilometre after the vehicle has been cold. The service manager at Weissach confirms they have replicated the issue at least once. During the investigation, additional fluid flushes and refills were performed. The drained fluid showed significant metal particles and unexpected discolouration, indicating significant wear over very few driven kilometres. The cause is still unknown to both the dealer and the INEOS technical assistance team, but the mechanical evidence is clear: there is a defect. A mechanical lock up causing a skid and traction loss is a safety issue and could be catastrophic at higher speed. Both Weissach’s service team and INEOS’s technical assist team agree that the rear differential should be replaced. However, the INEOS warranty group will not approve it. In addition, the Weissach service team has not been given approval to even open the rear differential assembly to fully inspect it. Instead, the Weissach service team has only peeked at the internals via the hole in the differential casing, which does not provide much visibility and no certainty on the physical state of the differential. It seems that INEOS, unlike other manufacturers, does not pay the dealer for time spent investigating warranty issues and since troubleshooting is unpaid, it penalizes the dealer if they spend the hours required. We had expected INEOS to be different in a positive way, not in a penny pinching negative way.
Shuddering motor at highway speed and complete POWERTRAIN FAILURE
Seven weeks ago, during a ski trip, we experienced a shuddering motor at highway speed on dry pavement, followed by a "powertrain error" and complete shutdown. There was no warning or transition into a usable limp mode. Just a vibrating, shaking loss of power, and then quick failure. We had no ability to slowly drive to a safe stopping place. With minimal shoulder and, as evidenced above, no reliable hazard lights to leave the truck unattended on the road, we were forced to get the truck back down the mountain into cell phone and tow range. We had to coast 11 km with an elevation drop of 2,400 feet down the mountain with motor rough idling in neutral to maintain power steering and brakes (which are significantly worn now) to get to get back into cellular service where we could call for assistance and have the truck towed. At the time of this writing, the dealer has been in possession of our Grenadier for almost 7 weeks to investigate the problem. The Weissach service team and the INEOS technical assistance team both agree that the "powertrain error" shut the truck down and left us stranded. But the teams have no answers, no more theories to test, and are not proposing any solutions. The codes, logs, and physical inspections have not revealed the cause. Since nobody can explain what actually happened, we must assume the cause is still present and may cause significant failure again at any time.
Conclusion
Our vehicle is unreliable and unsafe. The Grenadier is marketed as purpose-built for adventuring. However, in reality, it’s unusable for its intended purpose and unsuitable for remote locations.
All of our issues here are documented with notes, photos, and videos which have been provided to both Weissach INEOS in Vancouver and your INEOS technical assistance team in North Carolina. Weissach's sales and after-sales experience has been good. Weissach's sales and brand manager has been an amazing resource, their service manager has kept us in the loop, and Weissach's exec team escalated our story to Regional, Canadian, and North American INEOS staff to get our vehicle back on the road in a safe and reliable state. It hasn’t happened.
As a pre-order customer, I trusted you. I became an ambassador for your brand. I've encouraged friends to buy Grenadiers and I’m responsible for referral sales at Weissach. Other owners have noticed that I’m driving a loaner vehicle, including a Grenadier owner at a premium 4x4 outfitter in British Columbia. I get asked regularly, “What’s going on with yours? Why is it taking so long to fix?” Through the INEOS Forum, I have shared some details of my INEOS issues and received public and private messages from forum members. I hear similar stories about rear end failures (Colorado), transfer case failures (British Columbia), shuddering motor and powertrain failures (Georgia), etc. In these and other cases it’s common to hear about warranty refusals and months-long delays. These may or may not be symptoms of the same defects my truck has, but the commonality is owners feeling misled and abandoned by INEOS. This vehicle is not living up to the claim “Built on Purpose” and folks are wondering if they have a ticking time bomb, while INEOS counts their beans.
Resolution
My truck has only 18,000 km on it and it’s well documented to be unsafe, unreliable, and unfit for the purpose INEOS built it for. After 7 weeks without my vehicle, the INEOS technical team still cannot identify the cause of failures and does not have any solution. INEOS has refused to process the warranty for my defective rear differential and does not know why my motor failed either. INEOS expects me to take the vehicle back with the hope that everything is fine and the failures won’t happen again. This is absolutely unacceptable, especially for a vehicle purpose-built for extremely rugged and remote conditions. The vehicle is completely unreliable for the remote Yukon/Alaska trip we had planned for this summer (and now cancelled) if it leaves us stranded on a basic local ski trip. My wife and I run a registered charity in Vancouver for elderly health and literally today I had an opportunity to acquire some much needed equipment for the charity with what should be a simple and enjoyable 24 hour drive through the Rockies and back in my Grenadier. Well that’s obviously not happening now either, thanks to INEOS.
INEOS needs to definitively identify and fix these problems on my truck. Failing that, INEOS needs to give me a new vehicle.
Sincerely,
Vancouver, BC
2024 Grenadier Trialmaster
VIN SC6GM1CA#######
