Review: INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster — Does it beat the 79 Series LandCruiser?

Go anywhere in Australia and you’ll see a 79 Series Toyota LandCruiser. The workhorse has had the market of heavy-duty dual cabs for decades but as time passed and the Toyota sat still, never receiving a real refinement upgrade, the door was left open. Enter the all-new INEOS Grenadier-based Quartermaster.

In brief:

The longer wheelbase Grenadier handles rough driving with aplomb and should tow just as well

Measuring up

Pros

• Best-in-class offroad
• Best-in-class driveline

Cons

• Moderate payload
• Cramped rear seats

From chippies and plumbers in the suburbs using the 79 Series LandCruiser to tow a tradies trailer to a forestry gang plodding along a fire trail and farmers with a sunburnt ARB fridge and a dog chain on the back ... you’ll see a 79 Series anywhere and everywhere in Australia. And then there are those who love an accessory and modifying the platform. You know the ones with the built rigs jacked to the sky with a canopy and awning on a beach in Far North Queensland. The 79’s popularity knows no bounds. Its popularity is built on its specs, performance and the fact that it has been on the market for 25 years. It is an icon, and that has put a target on its back.

Newcomer INEOS has a lot of ground to cover to catch up with its competitor to the beloved 79 Series: the just-launched Grenadier Quartermaster. I’ll get into the feel of what it is like to drive a Quartermaster in the outback a bit later in the review, but first some stats and specs for anyone wanting to know how they stack up on paper.

This table compares a 2.8L automatic GXL four-door 79 Series with a lick of Merlot Red paint to a diesel Quartermaster with an equally fancy hue of Queens Red and the optional Rough Pack which added lockers (standard on the GXL), plus upgraded wheels and tyres to get as close as I could to a matching specs lineup.

You’ll see that the payloads are wildly different, but there is an asterisk when it comes to the kerb weight. The 79 Series comes as a cab chassis, so you need to add on the weight of a tub to make it a fair fight. In saying that, the INEOS is still outgunned by more than 300kg.

Both have CarPlay/Android Auto and five-year, unlimited kilometre warranties. Where they separate again is on price, with the LandCruiser around $16,000 more affordable, but there is a catch.

The Grenadier-based Quartermaster is such a good place to be. I’ll assume you’ve experienced a 70 Series LandCruiser, so you know it’s about as comfortable as a forklift on a gravel yard and I’ll admit, as I get older, I’m realising I don’t want to live that way.

The INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster is at home in the outback

First Australian drive of the Quartermaster

Our test route was decent, if short on time (all press launches are). We started in Whyalla, SA, pushed onto Quorn and into the depths of the Flinders Ranges. Trip highlights were the always-spectacular Wilpena Pound, Arden Vale Road, Brachina Gorge and Nilpena Ediacara National Park. We covered around 900km with two drivers per car sharing duties and regular chances to swap into other models and variants.

If you want to see where we went, roughly, the best place to look is in the Flinders Ranges Atlas & Guide by Hema Maps. Google Maps is unreliable for planning out there and unusable on the road unless you have Starlink as there is little reception in the deep valleys. Luckily for us, we were not driving a forklift — we had it better.

Putting the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster to the test in the Flinders Ranges

How the Quartermaster differs from the Grenadier station wagon variant

The two variants (Grenadier Quartermaster versus the standard Grenadier) differ by 305mm between the front and rear wheels, the back has been cut off and the Quartermaster’s rear axle has been moved back to better take a load in the tub. That’s really about it.

The INEOS is more comfortable

The INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster is special. Even in the low spec I’ve used as an example above. It has exceptional Recaro seats, a 12.3in infotainment screen, grab handles in the right spots and much better sound deadening and feel when at speed than the 79 Series. It is not Rolls-Royce quiet, especially when equipped with the KO2s (one option I’d always tick), but it is better than the 79 Series.

Well laid-out controls and excellent Recaro seats

With the rear seats folded, the space is practical and durable

If you’ve driven a Jeep Wrangler or LandCruiser 70 Series, you’ll find the INEOS a better steer too, but neither the 79 Series nor Quartermaster could be considered easy or good to steer. Their solid front axles are durable and great when offroad, but they limit a lot of geometry that modern independent front suspension allows for. With no camber, they tend to lean and scrub their tyres in fast cornering. It’s a sacrifice in the same way everything is, always. Do you want better offroad ability? On-road driving will suffer.

Offroad driving, though, wow, the Quartermaster excels and blasts the 79 Series out of the water. The reason is down to suspension, where they are fundamentally different.

Coil vs. leaf suspension

The INEOS uses a progressive-rate coil spring made by the experts at Eibach at each corner while the 79 Series uses coils in the front and some seriously heavy-duty leaf packs in the rear.

INEOS leaf spring suspension

The LandCruiser’s leaf pack is meaty with seven main springs and two helpers. They are designed with the longest springs softer than the shortest. The idea is that as you load the tray and as they compress, the stiffer springs do more work. It sounds like a progressive rate, but they have nothing on the coils in the INEOS.

The initial compression in the Quartermaster suspension is much more compliant than the 79 Series. The coil springs take small bumps like road reflectors well and as you ask more of them, say in washouts on gravel roads at speed, they show their metal, stiffening up. Paired with ZF dampers (the same mob that does the excellent gearbox), the suspension works well, though we did find the front bump stops a fair bit (the bumpstops are impressively soft, by the way).

One thing you will not hide from is the weight of the Quartermaster. The INEOS is a heavy beast. You wouldn’t think it looking at it but it’s more than the weight of a Ford F-150, Ranger Raptor and the 79 Series by a fair margin. The base Quartermaster, with the diesel engine option, comes in at 2718kg and that’s before you add on options. The 79 Series with a decent tray is going to weigh around 2300kg in GXL trim.

The INEOS might be heavy, but it's faster than the 79 Series on and off the road

Yet the INEOS trumps the 79 Series at speed on and off the road. I would suggest it is down to its more compliant ride and wider track; the Quartermaster, like the wagon it’s based on, handles dirt roads really well.

But it’s not the kerb weight we care about, we know we’ll add a heap of gear to either of these workhorses, it’s just that you can add a bit more to the 79 Series. So, how would we build a Quartermaster? I’m glad you ask.

How we’d option our dream Quartermaster

Have a play with the excellent Grenadier Configurator. There, you can choose your body style (station wagon, Quartermaster or cab chassis), pick your trim level and add all of the options you could dream of. Once you’ve built yours, you can essentially order it through your local dealer, or you can share it with your mates.

We went crazy, you can see what we came up with here — our dream Quartermaster*, if you will.

*So, the excellent Rhino-Rack supplied roof platforms were not showing up on the configurator, but we’d add it on.

Here is a table of the options and specs we’d choose, and we’ll explain below.

For us, you have to start with the Trialmaster as it gets you a heap of options built into two packs.

The Trialmaster includes:

• Raised air intake
• Exterior utility belt
• Loading bay liner
• Cargo bay utility rails
• Auxiliary battery
• High load auxiliary switch panel and electrical preparation
• Compass with altimeter

And the Rough Pack which includes:

• Differential locks front and rear
• BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2 tyres

And the Smooth Pack which adds:

• Rear-view camera
• Park Assist Front (PDC)
• Power heated exterior mirrors
• Heated windscreen washer jets
• Central stowage box, lockable
• Puddle lamps and ambient door lighting

From there it’s into the extra options. We’d take ours in Devil Red, a new colour for the MY24 INEOS range, with a black roof. If you are worried about paint fade, go the Eldoret Blue with a white roof.

An option we have yet to see on delivered vehicles in Australia is a contrasting chassis. Partly to match the Devil Red body paint but mostly because we support the cause, we’d opt for the Red HALO Chassis. In doing that, INEOS will donate some of the cost to HALO Trust, a foundation set up by a pair of British Soldiers to remove mines from war-torn regions. Go look them up, they are doing great work.

The total cost of our dream Quartermaster is a bit under $137,000, a fair chunk of change ... but we are not finished yet.

Ideally pre-registration, we’d get a GVM upgrade from the likes of DMW Industries or More 4X4, both of which can get your Quartermaster to around 3900–4000kg GVM (depending on state laws and so on) at around $5800, plus fitting.

Then it’s off to Norweld for an Elite Tray which starts at $18,990 and a Deluxe Canopy starting from $19,205, and then we’d fit it out with a REDARC suite and Bushman’s upright fridge, while underneath we’d get a Brown Davis extended fuel tank which adds a whopping 78L further capacity. Apparently, around 10 per cent of Grenadier buyers in Australia fit these tanks.

All up, ours would probably set us back in the region of $230,000 to $250,000. Harking back to the 79 Series, again, a lot of you have probably dreamt up a build of one of them and you probably came to around the same price. Even though the Quartermaster is a heap more outlay up front, it equals out once you start building it.

As you do a GVM upgrade on the LandCruiser, you’ll likely move to higher load-rated wheels and tyres, however, you can leave the 17in steelies on the Grenadier with the KO2s that come supplied.

We’d option on the excellent KO2 tyres on any Grenadier we owned

There is another area you can save on, Norweld and INEOS are doing a collaboration on trays with a $7000 contribution towards certain trays — there are T&Cs and it’s not indefinite, so go talk to them and don’t cry to us if you missed it.

Interestingly, how I’d have a Quartermaster is about the same as the INEOS Skunkworks build dubbed Kaiju which you can read about on the INEOS website.

INEOS Quatermaster Kaiju

Driving distances in an INEOS

Some of you will know that I’ve covered some 6500km in various Grenadiers and most of it towing. I have been lucky enough to take four in a convoy from Melbourne to Rainbow Beach in Queensland, down to Broken Hill and back to Melbourne, which you can see in our video on the Caravan World YouTube channel.

There is a bit to unpack from that test, but it also left a few people wondering about things I didn’t cover, so we’ll start there.

Towing with the original INEOS Grenadier SUV

The left-side footrest is no problem for me. On the open road I set the cruise control and park my size 13 foot and forget about it. It is something people have fixated on yet no one I have spoken to who has a Grenadier has found it an issue. It just looks silly; it looks out of place and maybe that’s the real issue.

The overall space and ergonomics of the interior are hard for me to comment on as I do not fit in many cars (a big reason why I love US trucks like the Ford F-150 so much), but I can confirm that the pedals being offset to the right of the steering column is reminiscent of old Italian sportscars; it is not ideal but also not an issue for the bulk of us, I imagine.

The rear seats are slightly elevated which gives passengers a better view of the world while under them is where you’ll find a dedicated charger and second battery, if you option it within the Trialmaster or as a separate option. A detail I really like is that you can monitor the state of charge of the second battery on the infotainment screen and you can have your overhead wiring panel on separate channels to remove the chance of a fridge draining your starting battery.

A second battery and dedicated charger are located under the rear seat

In terms of fuel (and AdBlue) efficiency, the Grenadier with the B57 diesel is not bad. We hauled a big, big van and saw mid to high 20s per 100km covered. We did chew through some AdBlue, though, needing to top up the tank around 4000km into the drive which seemed a bit thirsty.

The petrol model used more fuel, to no one’s surprise. It sat in the high 20s with an around 2000kg pop-top caravan. In the Quartermaster, with no towing, we saw mid-teens in spirited driving; I’m sure you could get it lower if you were not in as much of a hurry as we were.

Unhitched, driving the Quartermaster rather spiritedly, we saw around 13 litres per 100km travelled in a diesel Trialmaster. I suspect you could get closer to 10L/100km on the blacktop, driving more sedately.

Powertrain head-to-head

For outright power and torque and how that power is put to the ground, the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster walks all over the LandCruiser 79 Series’ 2.8L 1GD-FTV. The BMW-sourced diesel B57 has 33 more kilowatts and 50 more newton metres of torque than the Toyota, and as much as I like the Aisin six-speed automatic transmission that is found in the LandCruiser (also found in the Toyota HiLux and Prado), it is outgunned by what has to the be the best gearbox available today, the ZF 8HP by ZF.

With eight gears, the Quartermaster has a broad working range, however it is its lightning-fast yet smooth changes that are its best character. It’s a gearbox found in luxury Bentleys down to more modest diesel BMW sedans and it’s known worldwide as one of the best.

And if you were thinking the now unavailable 1VD V8 would be a better match, it’s not. In manual only it’s more work to drive and it has a lot less torque (450Nm). There was a bit of a craze fitting automatic gearboxes to V8 LandCruisers at costs of upwards of $20,000. Putting that money into a Grenadier makes more sense to me.

Driving aids or nannies?

On this trip over to the Flinders Ranges we worked the Quartermaster hard only once. Triple-locked, in low range and with liberal throttle applied, we needed a couple of runs at a serious climb on the outskirts of Whyalla, SA. You’ll see in the pics and in the video that the hill was no joke, yet we tackled it at placard tyre pressures and with only a little help from a spotter. For these climbs and in some soft-sand driving we tackled in the Flinders Ranges, we used Off-Road Mode which reduces interference from the Bosch-supplied traction control, electronic sway control (ESC) and the like.

The Quartermaster was tested on challenging tracks in the Flinders Ranges

Back at the international launch in 2022, where I drove the five-door Grenadier from Inverness most of the way to Glasgow in Scotland, we trialled more of the aids built into the range like Hill Decent control and Wading Mode (the Grenadier is rated to still-water depths of 800mm even with the raised intake). There it excelled, particularly descending steep, snowy tracks high in the mountains.

All Grenadiers are permanent 4x4 with a Tremec transfer case used to lock the centre diff and to drop the final drive ratio a further 2.5:1 when low range is selected. The differentials are by Carraro with Eaton eLockers (if optioned) and the CV joints and axles are by Dyna, all household names in the industry. I checked with the engineers and the crown wheels are in the region of 220mm, about the same size as Toyota uses. The front steering dampener is a little exposed, running in line with the front axle on right-hand drive vehicles like ours.

The practical part: tub or cab chassis

You know we’d fit a tray and canopy to any Quartermaster we’d own but that’s not to say the factory tub is no good. It will fit a Euro pallet between the wheel wells and so long as it’s under the payload limit, it’ll take it almost anywhere without too much fuss as there are a number of tie points to hold down odd loads.

The spare wheel is sat in the tub (if we kept the tub), leaving enough storage space for all your gear. The roof-mounted Rhino-Rack platform would make a great place to carry a second spare or move the first to as the load rating is 375kg static or 120kg dynamic, plenty for a spare or a decent roof top tent.

So, does the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster beat the 79 Series?

There is no hiding from the weight of the Quartermaster which is part of the reason its payload is not as impressive as the archaic 79 Series LandCruiser, so it’s not perfect. An easy fix would be a GVM upgrade which could easily add 500kg to its carrying capacity.

What you will not have to fix is the build quality and driving experience of the INEOS. It stands out when offroad as one of if not the most capable 4X4s on sale today, yet on road its manners are better than expected for anyone that understands the way solid axle 4WDs handle.

Author Tim van Duyl after his 900km test of the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster

The Quartermaster is a worthy challenger to the incumbent LandCruiser in so many ways and it trumps it in a few too. What it has done the best at is highlighting that the LandCruiser is getting old and although it has the measure for load capacity and parts availability, the INEOS continues to impress and should be on the radar of any business or person looking for a well-built 4x4 capable of towing a big load in serious conditions.

INEOS GRENADIER QUARTERMASTER RATINGS

VALUE FOR MONEY 6.5/10

How I’d build one would top $200,000 and how I’d have it delivered from INEOS would make up over $130,000 of that; it’s a lot of money then, but it is well spec’d and more than capable

TOWING PERFORMANCE N/A

We didn’t tow with the Quartermaster, but we know the Grenadier SUV does the task with aplomb, so expect the ute will too

HITCHING UP 7/10

The high-definition camera is good but we’d like to see some tech like Trailer Light Check fitted

CREATURE COMFORTS 8/10

CarPlay and Android Auto lead the charge and are backed up with seriously good Recaro seats

ACCESSIBILITY OF SPARE PARTS 7/10

I suspect it is getting better as more vehicles land, but right now, the network is small

FUEL ECONOMY 8/10

The diesel is best (no surprise). Unhitched, we saw around 13L/100km in spirited offroad driving

SOLO PERFORMANCE 7/10

The reversing camera is decent. It would be good to see trailer light checking programming in the future

ENGINE POWER 8.5/10

Both the diesel and petrol do a great job

INNOVATION 8/10

The Euro Pallet-sized tub is nice as is having coil suspension in the rear

X-FACTOR 8.5/10

It’s uncommon, robust and hard working; everyone will want to talk about it

Taking INEOS Grenadier Quartermasters and original Grenadier SUV out for a test drive

INEOS GRENADIER QUARTERMASTER SPECS

Exterior dimensions

Offroad geometry

Weights and capacities (diesel base model)

Suspension and brakes

Warranty

Powertrains

More information

INEOS Grenadier

P: 1800 319 816

THE NEXT STEP

If you want to learn the latest caravan news, find the most innovative new caravans and camping gear or get inspired to plan your next adventure in the great outdoors, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. We promise to send you only the best content.

Related articles:

Tow test: MY24 Isuzu D-MAX | New features and facelift

First drive and tow specs: The 2023 INEOS Grenadier

Tow Car of the Year? Best tow vehicles at COTY 2024