Ineos Reviews

The Grenadier exists because Land Rover refused to sell a billionaire the tooling for the discontinued original Defender — so he built his own from scratch for over a billion pounds. Here's what road tests say about the result.

A Genuinely Unusual Way for a Car Company to Start

When production of the original Land Rover Defender ended in 2016 after 67 years, chemicals billionaire and lifelong Defender fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe approached Jaguar Land Rover with an offer to buy the manufacturing tooling and continue building it himself. JLR declined, so Ratcliffe sketched his own idea for a spiritual successor on the back of a £5 note in The Grenadier, a London pub near his offices — a note still pinned to the pub's ceiling today. What followed was a genuinely serious commitment rather than a rich man's whim: Ineos Automotive was formed in 2017, and more than a billion pounds went into engineering a purpose-built 4x4 from a blank sheet, deliberately prioritising functional, old-school off-road capability over modern SUV comforts.

Reviewers consistently praise the Grenadier's genuine off-road ability, built around the same uncompromising priorities Ratcliffe set out with — proper durability and capability rather than car-like refinement for the school run. Ineos received a record number of orders in early 2026, up 20% year-on-year, suggesting the formula has found a genuine audience. Reviewers are equally honest that this comes with real trade-offs on-road, including a firmer ride and heavier controls than more road-focused SUV rivals. The summaries below cover what several independent testers actually found behind the wheel of each model.

Every Model, One Place

Rather than picking a single opinion and running with it, each review here pulls together several independent road tests and highlights where they agree — and where they don't. Pick a model below to see the full breakdown.