A Florida Man Traded in a Ferrari F40 for an Ineos Grenadier and a Huge Check originally appeared on Autoblog.
This wasn't your ordinary dealer trade-in
If you've ever gone through the challenging process of trading in an older car for a new one at a dealership, you may have experienced something like this. You begin by telling the salesperson that you're interested in trading in your vehicle. After that, you fill out a bunch of forms, and then a dealership employee inspects every inch of your car for a detailed appraisal. In the end, you might find that the offer you receive is significantly lower than what you were expecting or the Kelley Blue Book value.
Although these sorts of trades happen daily at dealerships across the United States, one dealership in Florida said that one recent customer's trade-in transaction left them with not only a new vehicle, but also a seven-figure check because of what he traded in.
This Ineos dealer got the pull of the century
Most days, dealers would help owners of older versions of everyday cars trade in their pride-and-joys for a new one; however, per Newsweek, the vehicle that a customer at an Ineos dealership in Florida brought to trade up towards a new Grenadier was no RAV4, X5, or even a G-Wagon, but rather something much rarer and valuable.
According to George Ratcliffe, the Americas president at Ineos Automotive, a customer recently walked into a Florida Ineos dealership looking to trade in their Ferrari F40 for a brand-new Ineos Grenadier SUV.
He told the news magazine that the salesperson spoke to the dealer principal about the transaction, of which he said, "You've got to get it and get out of it. So, he wrote a check for $2.4 million." In return, the dealer sold the F40 the next day for $2.5 million.
Very few details about the F40 sold to the Ineos dealership and the Ineos Grenadier that was sold in exchange have been disseminated, apart from the fact that the owner will be using the new Grenadier on his farm. In their report, Road & Track magazine confirmed that the F40 was subsequently sold "at a slight profit."
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The Ineos Grenadier and Ferrari F40 share one thing in common: spirit
However, what we do know is that the owner traded in a vehicle designed for a raw form of driving for another vehicle designed for a raw form of driving. Famously, the Ferrari F40 was the last vehicle overseen and commissioned by Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari. Built for its 40th anniversary, the F40 was a no-nonsense, track-focused car made to showcase the best of what Fiorano could do without any restrictions. It was a stripped-out machine made of advanced materials like aluminium, carbon fiber, and Kevlar that lacked power windows, door trim, stereo, or even carpets. However, it had a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 that rocketed it to 200 miles per hour.
Similarly, the Ineos Grenadier was made for no compromises off-road. As the brainchild of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the chairman of the British chemical company Ineos Group, the Grenadier was built to be "the world’s purest 4X4," after the discontinuation of the original Land Rover Defender. In turn, the automaker set off to build a spiritual successor loaded with an off-roader's dream setup, including a ladder frame, solid axles from a tractor, BMW-sourced gas or diesel engines, a Tremec transfer case, and a no-frills interior.
Final thoughts
Although there are few details about the transaction, the exact cars, or the people involved in it, we do know that someone traded in a car that nets an easy seven figures at auction and private sales for an SUV that starts at $71,000. The reason why may never be known, but whoever bought the F40 from the dealer at the supposed $2.5 million sale price seems to have gotten a deal. On August 12, an F40 with 7,500 miles known online as "the Craigslist F40" just sold at auction for $3 million.
A Florida Man Traded in a Ferrari F40 for an Ineos Grenadier and a Huge Check first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 15, 2025
This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
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