Originally Posted by
sweets
A while ago my wife and I did a Schoeman trip all round the skeleton coast.
Henk, the family's mechanic, was our guide.
His attitude to their vehicles was pretty simple, as their camps can be many tens (if not hundreds) of miles from any civilization whatsoever. (They are pretty remote and you fly into them in light aircraft, their safaris consist of flights between each of their bases, and then tours round the area of each base).
He was adamant then that he would never use anything other than Series Land Rovers, and certainly nothing newer. He had a tool kit that weighed about 9kg, and included a couple of spares (dizzy cap and arm, for instance). Tyre spares and maybe a half-shaft or two.
He knew from experience that he could repair every possible failure with that kit, and possibly a few bits of improvisation, like roof-mounting the fuel tank in the event of a pump failure and so forth.
He had less love for Land Cruisers, although initially robust, he thought they had too many sealed units that could not be repaired.
And was equally certain that he was never going to trust his survival (and he saw the vehicles as survival equipment) to an ECU or chipset that might well fail in the heat and dust. Hence the lack of modernisation.
This might have changed by now, we went about 15 years ago, and the fleet, although well maintained, was (by definition) pretty old even back then. But I am sure the concept has remained the same.
I think the Grenadier is a great thing, and very capable off road, but imho it is in an odd place.
Very basic and military looking, but extraordinarily expensive, and so complex as to be risky for use anywhere other than under full dealer support.
So it looks (and is specified) like it should be a great expedition vehicle, but is too expensive for so basic a task, and can't be taken away from the world of electronics, diagnostics and replacement sensors.
I think it is destined for a life ferrying people up onto the moors for expensive shooting, and back again to the luxury lodge. Or life in the city.
Personally, I would much prefer to spend (a lot less) money on the New Toyota IMVO in 4wd format, and leave the Grenadier to the moneyed Walts.
I do hope they bring that to the UK.