First there was the Grenadier, the simple and affordable off-road utility truck that was going to carry on where the old Land Rover Defender left off. Then there was the Grenadier, the remarkable but not very affordable premium off-roader that came on like the old Defender but picked up where the new one started. And now there’s the Quartermaster, the double-cab that takes the same formula and uses it to create a 4×4 pick-up like no other.

It’s like no other because it has beam axles at both ends. Yet in other ways there are similarities to other pick-ups currently on the market. You can have it with a 3.0-litre petrol engine: the Ford Ranger says hello. Its cabin is taken directly from a station wagon: step up the KGM Musso. The tax man will laugh at your efforts to slip by unnoticed:
soon, everything.

There’s another way in which the Quartermaster differs to the rest of the pickup market, however. The model we drove was a Fieldmaster, which gave it a starting price of £73,730. Add all the options that were on our tester and now it’s standing at £84,028. You can still do an awful lot more on a new Defender but as pick-ups go it’s on its own.

Find out more in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

You might say that £55,730 is a lot of money to pay for a Hyundai. But it’s not much to pay for a house. And this is a Hyundai that’s the size of a house.

Or at least that’s how it looks. The first Santa Fe was a spongy and rather unpleasant thing. The second was a quantum leap forward in every way. The third and fourth did everything well apart from be noticed. And now they’ve gone and built the Tate Gallery on wheels.

Unbelievably, actually, the new Santa Fe is only a couple of inches longer than the previous one. Equally unbelievably, it has the same wheelbase as the Kia Sorento, whose engines and platform it shares. It just shows what car design can do, because even after three decades of pointing out to people that our big, clumsy Nissan Patrol was actually smaller than their slinky little Jag XKR and so on, it still twists our melon to look at the new Santa Fe and think that it’s just a
normal sized SUV.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

Paul Rowlands and Neil Lloyd survived a dramatic final weekend of the Motorsport UK British Cross Country Championship (BXCC) to take the title by just one point from Aston Cox and Simon Kerfoot. Walters Arena in Wales was the venue for the final two rounds of the championship and, going into the event, multiple crews were in with a chance of lifting the trophy.

Richard Watson and Paul Hughesheaded the leader board after round four but their victory hopes ended on the first run of round five when clutch problems on their Milner Evoque resulted in a stage maximum. They went back out in their new car, the ex-Mark Jacques Lofthouse Freelander, but this had steering issues which caused another stage maximum.

Phill Bayliss and Lance Murfin were in second place before Walters but several punctures blighted their round five. They still took a class win but finished well down the results on round five before salvaging 10th overall, and another class win, on round six.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

Ineos Automotive has announced that production of the Grenadier and Quartermaster will restart in early January. The lines were brought to a halt in September by what the company calls a ‘critical component shortage,’ widely believed to be linked to the insolvency of seat supplier Recaro, however this has now been resolved with all partners informed and ready to support resumption of operations at Hambach.

‘It’s great news that a solution has been found so quickly,’ says INEOS Automotive boss Lynn Calder. ‘Automotive supply chains are extremely complex but we were not willing to compromise on quality, so we are satisfi ed that we have found the best possible outcome. ‘By this summer, we had sold as many Grenadiers as we had for the whole of
2023 and are on track to have over 20,000 on the road before the end of this year.

We now turn our attention to preparing Hambach to restart in early January and with significant growth in major new
markets, including China and Mexico, and substantial expansion in the US, I believe 2025 is going to be our best year yet.

Find out more in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IT IN THE NEWS, but Ibiza has been taken over. By Defenders. By Destination Defender, to be specific.

As summer was turning into autumn, Destination Defender ‘took over the island of Ibiza with a series of activities for enthusiasts of the original British adventure brand.’ These included the opportunity to buy one, naturally – not
just any old one, but the exclusive Eivissa Edition which could only be ordered there and then, in either of the celebratory Sunrise and Noontide ‘curations.’

The Eivissa Edition is ‘a tribute to the iconic island of Ibiza.’ Which, aside from its reputation for non-stop partying, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Land Rover made six of them, three in each form, in reference to the ancient Phoenicians who first settled on the island and to whom the number was sacred, representing their god Bes. No, not the guy from Happy Mondays.

The Noontide model is a Defender 90 which ‘embodies the freshness of daytime.’ It’s inspired by the sea and sky, along with the colour of traditionalnMediterranean buildings, which is to say it’s blue and white. The latter takes the shape of a contrast roof and matching wing vent surround, and the vehicle also has white six-spoke alloys – which are wrapped in 255/60R20 Pirelli road tyres, so a halfway sensible size by today’s standards even if the tread pattern doesn’t
scream adventure.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501