It Is Slow and Hates U-Turns, but We Like It Anyway

The 2025 Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is an acquired taste but one we totally get. It is authentic, has charm, and feels built for a purpose. If the reactions of Jeep owners are any judge, they get it too. Sure, it is rather poky, and it doesn’t like to turn all that much, but we kind of dig it. Let us explain.

When you climb up into the Grenadier Quartermaster, you’re greeted with a mixture of new and old, with emphasis on the latter. Excellent visibility shows you traffic and trails with uncommon clarity. But there are no instruments in front of the driver, just a display that temporarily winks on about 50 different key-up warning lights before going dark. You’ll find a digital speedo, linear tachometer, gear-position indicator, temperature-gauge readout, and fuel-gauge readout in the upper left of the 12.3-inch central touchscreen. This configurable display also gives access to phone, media, and other categories. If you paired your phone, it appears here with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Finally, there is a real compass, which rotates with your heading. The screen is practically even with the top of the dashboard; it’s very compact yet very neat.

The rest of the interior is refreshingly analog and rather spread out. The center stack contains widely spaced controls for all your HVAC needs, along with start/stop and park assist, flanking a big central volume control. The steering wheel has arrays for cruise control and audio controls, and sports two horns: a big central pad for a blaring honk, and a smaller button off to the right side that emits a polite toot. Overhead, you’ll find an airplane-style console with still more chunky analog switches.

You feel well in control of this machine, and indeed it comes across as a mechanical device, albeit a nicely upholstered one. But a few things grate. For one, in this kitted-out Quartermaster, the spare is mounted in a rack on the back, utterly blocking your view out the rear window. The usual in-bed mounting spot can’t be used because it’s covered by a rolltop-desk-style tonneau. As for the rear, the seatback is too bolt upright for our tastes and slightly less accommodating than the Grenadier wagon‘s, although there is more space than in, say, a Toyota Tacoma.

The primary ride is fairly smooth and well controlled, and it is only when a single wheel impact comes along that it can come unglued. In most cases, this vehicle feels more settled and agreeable than a Jeep Gladiator. But steering is another matter. The Quartermaster goes straight well enough, but most subconscious course corrections become a conscious matter, as the steering is sluggish and doesn’t really return to center. And at 3.8 turns lock to lock, it’s also slow.

The humongous 47.6-foot turning circle combines with the high effort and nonexistent returnability to become a burden when parking or executing a U-turn. Ineos can say that this is what you get with recirculating-ball steering, but we think the company simply botched it. There isn’t enough caster, caster trail, or something. Maybe the steering stabilizer is too powerful. Whatever it is, the Jeep Gladiator has a 10.3-inch-longer wheelbase, but it will still cut a U-turn in just 44.5 feet with 3.1 turns lock-to-lock, more agreeable effort levels, and some returnability.

The engine and transmission are a strong point, even if they do get you to 60 mph in a leisurely 8.1 seconds. The turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six comes from BMW and pairs with a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission controlled by BMW’s electronic shifter. The output has been tweaked for truck and SUV duty, so the engine makes 281 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque, and the setup is as smooth shifting and well sorted as you’d expect from a Bavarian powertrain. The full-time four-wheel-drive transfer case made by Tremec features a chunky mechanical linkage that you can muscle to the right to lock the center diff and pull back to engage low range. Ours was also fitted with the Rough pack, which gave it front and rear electronic locking differentials as well as BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires.

Smallish brake rotors are carried over from the Grenadier wagon to the Quartermaster pickup, which weighs some 400 pounds more. They consist of 12.4-inch vented front and 12.0-inch solid rear rotors. It adds up to a 215-foot stopping distance from 70 mph, which is 21 feet longer than the wagon. Skidpad grip was a bit less too, as our Quartermaster eked out 0.59 g to the wagon’s 0.62 g. Again, the extra pounds are in play, but so are the Rough pack’s BFG tires, which our wagon didn’t have.

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No one buys one of these expecting it to corner well, but they do expect it to excel off-road. Most of the steering and braking issues disappear in the sand washes of Southern California, which we tore into with gusto. The chassis handles loose sandy surfaces with ease. The break-over angle looks like it would be so-so, but it is actually 26.2 degrees. When you look underneath, you notice things have been positioned away from the center, and items such as the fuel tank appear to be shaped to improve the situation rather than simply hang down wherever. Also, we measured the ramp travel index and got an impressive score of 555, compared with 476 for the Gladiator Mojave. A Gladiator Rubicon scores 607 but has an anti-roll-bar disconnect that this Ineos doesn’t.

In the end, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is in a bit of a pickle. It’s rather slow, and its decent on-road manners are a bit ruined by steering issues. Someone who is considering an Ineos just for the authentic look and feel might ultimately want to pass. But none of these problems matter one whit when driving off-road, so a buyer who really wants a Quartermaster for its off-road performance can gladly tolerate it. However, there is also the issue that, as a pickup, this vehicle is subject to the 1960s-era chicken-tax tariff and is at least $8000 more expensive than the Grenadier wagon.

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