BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 153
TRIVIAL PURSUITS
Although it is technically and legally
a passenger car, those agricultural
underpinnings mean that, to drive,
the Grenadier feels less like a
conventional car than anything else
on the road. Everybody comments
on the steering: the turning circle is
so large that parking is more akin to
bringing a destroyer around, with a
similar number of turns of the tiller
required. The diesel engine is gruf昀氀y
audible (but those who despair at the
electri昀椀cation of the car will welcome
that) and the ride is surprisingly
comfortable, especially at speed, if
only because the Grenadier’s weight
crushes all below it.
For all its 昀氀aws, I adore it. It can
boast what too many modern cars
lack: character, idiosyncrasy and a
sense of itself. And, having driven it
extensively across the great estates
of the Highlands, I can attest that
its on-road compromises at least
deliver unstoppable off-road abilities,
matching the rock-crawling abilities
of the original Defender which
inspired it.
When the Grenadier was 昀椀rst
launched, cynics questioned Sir Jim’s
aim of such a Marmite vehicle 昀椀nding
30,000 customers per year, but his
seemingly contrarian approach may
turn out to be prescient. Old-school
off-roaders like the Grenadier have
not been swept away by the rising tide
of bland Chinese EVs, as some feared
they might.
Quite the opposite. The new Defender
has been a riotous success: it is Land
Rover’s biggest-seller by a country
mile, accounting for nearly a third of
its 375 000 annual production, and
the lion’s share of last year’s £2.5bn
pro昀椀t, the company’s best in ten years.
The Mercedes G-Class, meanwhile,
is recording its best quarterly sales
in its 46-year history and has been
outselling the S-class in the US.
BMW is the latest carmaker to
develop a proper mud-plugger, due
to appear in 2029 and its 昀椀rst since
the 1930s. The Toyota Land Cruiser
had a recent retro reboot, and even
the Chinese carmakers are getting
involved: the Great Wall Tank and
Yangwang U8 are both proper offroaders with a similar, old-school
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body-on-frame construction to the
Grenadier. The U8 can even swim.
The Grenadier doesn’t need to
capture much of this growing market
to be success. Polarising design and
engineering are an advantage when
you only need a small percentage of
the market to love it enough to buy
it, as is a brand which only makes
proper, rugged off-roaders and
isn’t seen on hatchbacks. There’s
an electric sibling to the Grenadier
planned, to be launched when demand
for EVs recovers.
Until then, Sir Jim’s “eff-you” to Land
Rover will continue to win customers
at a surprising rate. I suspect that
more than a few of them will be
Boisdale regulars.
From
£62,495
