The Ineos Grenadier appeals to a lot of people - we here at DRIVEN know this because lots of you read the articles we post on it. None more so than last month's launch story, when Damien got to drive it for the first time in the Scottish Highlands at its international launch.
While the Grenadier may well be the brainchild of a billionaire who got annoyed when a carmaker stopped making his favourite car and then also refused to sell him the rights and tooling to keep making it himself (did someone say 'spite car'?), but its simple, honest approach to being a rugged, extremely capable off-road clearly has wide egalitarian appeal. Even though it is still a $100,000-plus vehicle...
Plus there is also the fact that it is basically a massive toy - everything from the retro "lots of different 4x4s (but mainly the Defender)" exterior through to the fantastic array of switches and toggles on the ceiling inside and even the fact that it has two horns (the main one for angry moments and a quieter, friendlier 'toot' button just to let people know you are there!) makes it a fantastic "surprise and delight" style vehicle that really does feel like a full-size Tonka toy for really big kids.
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Of course, it is also ridiculously capable off-road, backing up those big toy looks with some serious ability. The kind of serious ability that makes even the gnarliest of terrain feel easy.
As you will see in the video above, Sam and Damien got excited about the Grenadier in this week's episode of Zooming with DRIVEN (which you can watch here) and Sam hasn't even driven it yet. It's just that sort of vehicle.
You can read Damien's full First Drive of the Ineos Grenadier here.