Confessions of a Land Rover Addict

I recently returned from a week with my wife in St.David’s, Pembrokeshire in West Wales. We drove there and back, accompanied by our two Jack Russells in my 19-year-old Land Rover Defender 90, appropriately called Trundle. (Note to the uninitiated – all old Land Rovers should have a name!)

At this point, I should say ‘My name is David, and I am an addict; it has been 3 days since my last fix’. If there was such a thing as Land Rovers Anonymous, I would be at every meeting. It’s an addiction that started at an early age; aged 5 or 6 I wrote in my school book ‘This is my Land Rover and it is my best car’ underneath a picture of a blue Land Rover that I’d drawn. The addiction has led me to own a number of Land Rovers over the years – Bumpy, Chester, Winston and now Trundle.

Of course, working as a brand consultant, I am something of a self-aware addict. I understand what Land Rover have done to make me feel this way, the emotions reinforced by the experience of driving one, the certainty that it can handle anything I come across and the sense of camaraderie with other Defender drivers. They are noisy, bumpy, damp and expensive to run, but the smile on my face as I drive it, with the experience of motoring from a previous era, and the waves as I pass another Defender make the positives far outweigh any negatives.

However, my addiction is limited to vehicles made before 29th January 2016. On this day, Land Rover stopped the production of the old Land Rover Defender model. They teased that a new model was coming, and the addict in me waited with eager anticipation. They teased for three years before launching the new Defender in 2019; three years of waiting only to be disappointed. The new model felt like it had moved away from the rough and basic older model. The electrical controls, the air suspension, the upmarket interior felt just wrong. I test drove one at a Land Rover Experience Centre last year and whilst it was a perfectly serviceable off-road car, it lacked any ability to stir my emotions in the way its predecessors do.

At the time Land Rover pulled production of the Defender, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was sitting having a beer with his colleagues in the Grenadier pub in Chelsea. He thought that Land Rover were leaving a gap in the market and decided that his company INEOS could fill it. And so the idea for the INEOS Grenadier was born; a vehicle that would be functional, reliable and stylish. It became the vehicle that Land Rover should have built but didn’t. And along the way INEOS had to fight and win trademark infringement lawsuits from Land Rover.

I should declare an interest at this point. In 2021/22, I spent some time working with INEOS on their brand and got to know this fascinating company quite well. If anyone could pull off launching a totally new vehicle in six years, then INEOS could do it. Their core values of Grit, Rigour and Humour, backed by the flexibility and freedom of being a private company saw the INEOS Grenadier being delivered to the first customers in December 2022.

When an invitation to a Grenadier test drive dropped into my inbox, it was too much of a temptation not to break our return journey from Wales and stop off at the beautiful Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell to put the Grenadier through its paces. There was no disappointment here. On the road it felt solid and off the road it felt unstoppable – this is what the new Defender should have been. The brand positioning for the Grenadier is ‘Built on Purpose’ and purpose is what it delivered. It seemed to be very well thought through; nothing was there that didn’t have a purpose and the overhead aircraft-style control panel was particularly stylish.

Off-road was where it got me. The Land Rover Experience off-road course was fairly sanitised compared to the route through the Welsh hills that Grenadier took me on. It was the steep downhill, deeply rutted track that convinced me. By deep ruts, I mean foot deep crevices where the track had been washed away, with the centre of the track lined with sharp protruding rocks. The Grenadier handled it with ease and style, and in the process, won my heart.

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INEOS have managed that holy-grail of brand marketing – to hijack the brand loyalty of a competitor and take it for themselves. Have I rushed out and placed an order for a new Grenadier – no; but I currently have neither the need nor the budget for such a vehicle. But have I been prompted to write a LinkedIn article about it, and talk to my friends about the Grenadier – absolutely. And there is talk of a smaller, electric 4x4 coming from INEOS in 2026. My addiction may take a new direction!

David Robertson Mitchell is a brand consultant working with sportsperson and team brands. He was the brand consultant at the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team for nine years from 2014 - 2022.

#landrover #ineos #ineosgrenadier #brand #brandloyalty