We visited Andreas Christl of Abenteuer4x4 at his new basecamp. He told us how an idea turned into a real company, what his first tour looked like, why selling adventures is hard work too, and how the Ineos Grenadier suddenly became part of the story. Between travel, add-on parts and pop-top roofs, one thing stays the same with Andreas: honest passion for engineering, off-road and his customers, who appreciate exactly that.
Matsch&Piste: Tell us, how did you start out with Abenteuer4x4?
Andreas Christl: I founded Abenteuer4x4 in 2010. Back then I was still at BMW in development, constantly on the move: on race tracks, at driver training, often with prototypes. I grew up in Mittenwald, where all-wheel drive was almost everyday life. Army everywhere, mountain troops, tank training grounds. We were outdoors all the time, on enduros, old off-roaders or Syncros. So I grew up with all that madness.
For four years I built up Abenteuer4x4 alongside my job, until I left BMW at the end of 2013 and focused only on the company. Originally I come from the building trade, then I studied photography and ran my own studio in Cologne. Later I founded an online picture agency with a friend, a proper dotcom business. I sold that company at some point. Then came the time at BMW, oh, and somewhere in between there was a marketing degree too.
The love of engineering, the adventure and a certain restlessness in my blood, I’ve always had that. At some point the idea came to combine travelling with driving. I was out and about a lot in the Defender with friends, and our first training courses grew out of that. Structured from the start, like at BMW: theory, technology, practice. But for me it was never just about teaching people to drive, it was about showing them what’s actually happening, so they really understand their vehicle.
Matsch&Piste: Can you still remember where your first trip went, the one you actually sold?
Andreas Christl: To Poland. With exactly one customer. We were two guides, “Renate” and me, and this one customer got the full programme: breakfast, dinner, the whole works. At some point he asks: “Am I your first customer?” I say: “Why?” And he points at the invoice: “It says 001 there.” So I say: “Yes, you’re our first and right now also our only one.” He was happy anyway.
A lot of people think founding a travel company is dead easy. Website, car, done. But that’s not how it works. If you do it properly, with package travel law, insurance and all the bureaucracy, it costs real money. It was a long road before that one invoice numbered 001 turned into a real company.
Matsch&Piste: So the first Abenteuer4x4 trip was the Poland tour. And then the whole thing took off?
Andreas Christl: Massively. First came the trips, then the parts. I think the door hinges for the Defender were the first product. After that came rock sliders for the 110, then roof racks, a winch bumper. Some things still run today, like the rock sliders, others we took out of the range at some point.
The problem is: we have lots of ideas but too few people. Good people can always get in touch with Abenteuer4x4, whether for the office, vehicle sales or trip organisation. We’ve had a few here already, but we also weed people out rigorously. Many think this is an adventure playground, all relaxed and fun. It isn’t. This is a tough business. It’s fun, yes, and we have great customers, but there’s real work behind it.
The clothing came later. It started when customers at the fair in Bad Kissingen literally bought the team jackets off our backs. They were embroidered fleece jackets, nothing special. One of them was a company director from Switzerland. He absolutely had to have my jacket because it was warm. That’s how it started. Then merino jackets joined the range at some point, and later we did a few exclusive pieces.
And at some point the Gumbies, those cult flip-flops that suddenly everyone wanted. At the fairs in Kissingen they brought women to the stand in droves. And when women shop, the men stick around too. Sounds banal, but it worked and probably carried us a fair way through Covid.
Luckily the time wasn’t that bad. Many of our customers knew us, trusted us and simply left their booked trips standing. As a voucher, as a prepayment. That was worth its weight in gold.
The rest ran through the shop. Petromax, Gumbies, anything that was in any way in demand suddenly went out via eBay and Amazon. We got that up and running in a few days, while others still thought the virus was just a footnote. Looking back it was a wild time, and we reacted quickly, almost instinctively, in exactly the right way.
Matsch&Piste: Do you still go along on the trips yourself, actually?
Andreas Christl: When I have time, yes. My last tour was exactly a year ago with Ineos in the Western Alps, a hut-to-hut tour. This year I haven’t been out at all yet, not even at a training course. Since we moved into the new hall there’s simply a lot going on, new structures, more customers, more projects. And with the sale of the Grenadier a whole new dynamic has come in on top.
I used to be on the road constantly, today I’m here more, because it’s simply needed. When we do a conversion now, with portal axles and a pop-top roof, it quickly comes to really large sums. And when a customer then transfers half the amount without hesitating, it shows how much trust has grown in the meantime. Experiencing that is, in its own way, just as satisfying as being out there.
Matsch&Piste: Is there a tour you most like to drive?
Andreas Christl: I don’t have to force my way into the rough stuff. Mud up to my ears? That’s not my thing. I prefer it technical, where you have to think and drive a bit. But basically, with travel, it’s about finding places where there are no other people. I grew up in the mountains, which is why I’m drawn back there too: Spain, Italy, France, Montenegro. And Croatia, that tour is now being added. I simply like landscape, quiet, nature. That’s my thing.
Matsch&Piste: How many tours do you currently offer?
Andreas Christl: This year there were around 60 events at Abenteuer4x4, so trips and training courses together. We have tours in Spain, in the Western Alps with three different routes, in the Pyrenees and in Poland, one south, one north and one in Masuria. On top of that there’s Iceland, Montenegro and Romania. The programme is growing constantly, but we make sure that every tour really suits us.
Matsch&Piste: And Africa? Does that play a role with you too?
Andreas Christl: Two years ago we were in South Africa, with seven hired off-roaders. It was really strong, but also quite an effort. We might do something like that again now and then. Namibia would tempt me, or Botswana, those are the two countries I’d love to drive at some point. We keep having customers who want to go to South Africa or Namibia. But then you have to be able to rely on the guide actually standing at the airport.
Matsch&Piste: Do you also offer tours for big vehicles, so expedition trucks?
Andreas Christl: No, we don’t do that. Our motorhome tours are meant for vehicles up to about five and a half tonnes, so Sprinter, MAN TGE, Crafter and similar. Next year we’re doing another tour like that in Montenegro.
Last week, though, a 6×6 MAN stood in our yard, straight from China. They wanted to “downsize” to a Quartermaster with a living box. That made me laugh. But that’s exactly what shows how the whole thing has developed: we stand out, and the interest is growing. Even people who normally move in completely different vehicle worlds now drop by to see us.
Matsch&Piste: What sets you apart from other providers? Why do people keep coming back to you?
Andreas Christl: I think most customers drive where they want to drive anyway and look for the provider they feel most comfortable with. We’re all a bit different there: one likes it more tightly organised, another prefers it more family-like. I think we’re similar to Red Rock: very customer-focused, friendly, approachable. With us the customer comes first. They should simply feel at ease.
That starts with the travel documents. They have to be solid, look proper, simply feel right. There’s a lot of love in the detail there. We write the names and tour numbers on the folders by hand. Sure, you could do that with a sticker too, but then the personal touch is missing. And that’s exactly what makes it for me. I don’t know how the others handle it, but in the end we probably all tick along similarly. We do know each other, after all, and many customers travel with several providers anyway.
Matsch&Piste: Everything was going well with Abenteuer4x4 and then you suddenly started selling cars. How did that come about? And was it a good idea?
Andreas Christl: Ineos really did the marketing perfectly back then. That build-up of tension, the videos, the whole setting, it was great cinema. Everyone in the scene knew: something’s coming. I was convinced it was actually Land Rover and that at the end they’d say: “Ha, gotcha, this is the new Defender.” Who builds a car like that out of nothing?
A lot of people wanted to get in there somehow. At some point I simply wrote an email to Ineos, because I found it exciting. Thought to myself: when the Grenadier comes, I’ll order one. I never actually wanted to sell it. Then we started developing concepts for Ineos: training, trips, ideas for the marketing. And at some point the question came: “We know you’re not classic car dealers, but do you fancy a pilot project?” That’s how we slid into it. Completely unspectacular and still it was a really good idea.
What was coming our way we didn’t know, of course. But suddenly it all made sense: we can sell the vehicle, convert it, kit it out, offer trips, the whole thing comes full circle. The basecamp here, by the way, was already planned before, completely independently of Ineos. It would stand here just the same if the Grenadier had never come.
But with the Ineos in the range everything became even more coherent. We have terrain, an event area, products, trips, training, it all interlocks. That’s exactly how we’d imagined it.
At the start we jumped in at the deep end there. If we’d known everything that was coming our way, we’d probably have left it. None of us was a car salesman, none of us knew how to set up financing. And to be honest: I don’t want to be one either. If this place came across like a classic car dealership, people wouldn’t feel comfortable.
We knew this wouldn’t run smoothly. But we didn’t care. We didn’t want glossy showrooms, but honest work and exactly the customers who appreciate that. People who really have something planned with their vehicles, who want to understand the technology and are looking for advice that’s honest. That’s who we do this for.
Matsch&Piste: Do customers come to you through the Ineos Grenadier and then end up on your trips? Or is it more the other way round, that travel customers buy cars?
Andreas Christl: At the start it was actually the case that many of our travel customers got interested in the Grenadier, and quite a few then bought one too. By now it’s more the other way round: many who get themselves a Grenadier come to us later for trips or training.
The typical Grenadier driver is fulfilling an old dream right now. Many watched Daktari back in the day and are now at the age where they can afford a car like that. Money is rarely the issue there. It’s about longing, about adventure, about that feeling of freedom.
Everyone who buys a Grenadier from us gets a training course thrown in. It’s important to us that they really understand the car. At first many don’t even dare to pull the levers or use the diff locks. We show them what the vehicle can do and when to use what. That way we meet them where they already are in their minds: somewhere between the Sahara, an Alpine pass and Leopoldstraße.
This feeling of freedom that the Grenadier conveys is exactly what we pick up on with our trips. Tours like our hut trips fit it perfectly: no big kit, no roof tent, no cool box, just set off and experience it. That appeals to the Grenadier drivers no end. At the training in the Bavarian Forest we noticed it clearly: demand was huge, we could have done it twice as often. Something’s really happening there. There’s movement in it, as if a change is coming. It’s not only the Grenadier driver, but they’re noticeably bringing in fresh momentum.
Matsch&Piste: Now be honest, not as a car salesman, but as a die-hard off-roader: what do you make of the Grenadier?
Andreas Christl: I really love it. Not because I sell it, but because it’s simply an awesome car. Sure, we live in the year 2025, there are regulations you have to comply with, whether you want to or not. That brings compromises with it. I’d love a V8, without AdBlue, ideally with chip fat in the tank. It’s just not possible any more.
But what Ineos has put on its wheels there is strong. Back then we bought up all the 2023 models, because they had the least electronics in them. Nobody else wanted them, we did. Not a single one of them is left. And if you look at the engineering: the car is rugged. In my opinion this is how the new Defender should have looked.
Sure, the Grenadier has its weak points too, like every other off-roader. If you push it hard, there are parts that give up. It was exactly the same with the Defender, the Toyota and the G. And all that whingeing online? Forget it. The car isn’t perfect, but it has character.
For seventy years the rain came into the Defender, and yet everyone loved it. The Grenadier drivers tick exactly the same. If a light comes on or a panel gap isn’t right, that’s no drama. Anyone who wants something smooth and urban buys something else. Anyone who wants an honest car stays hooked here.
Matsch&Piste: Does Abenteuer4x4 have its own workshop by now too?
Andreas Christl: Not directly with us. The workshop is over in the car centre, it belongs to a mate of mine. We work closely together and we’re in the process of getting the aftersales contract. Flo, the master mechanic, is constantly shuttling back and forth, collecting and delivering the cars. In principle it all runs under one roof.
The workshop subject is decisive. If the work there isn’t done cleanly, the car won’t run either. Often it’s little things like software packages that weren’t loaded properly. Then a light comes on somewhere and everyone thinks the car is broken. When all that was wrong was the update not being clean. Ineos still has a bit of homework to do internally there, above all on communication and processes. Some partners simply can’t be bothered with it.
But when everything is done right, the Grenadier runs reliably. We have six of them in the rental fleet, I wouldn’t send them out if I knew they wouldn’t arrive. I think that says it all.
Matsch&Piste: What are your top 5 add-on products for the Grenadier?
Andreas Christl: Clearly the winch from LeTech. Then the Evocorse wheels, they don’t just look good, they also work really strongly in combination with an adapted suspension. We mostly fit Taubenreuther or Koni, often together with bigger tyres. And of course our own rock sliders, they always sell.
A big topic is the pop-top roof. It’s elaborate, costs time and nerves, but it’s worth it. We showed it for the first time in Bad Kissingen, by now there are already six or seven out there, the next one is in the works. The fitting takes two times four days, headliner out, wiring, seals, everything. Complete, it comes to around 18,500 euros, of which 6,000 alone is the fitting.
Many underestimate it. I once had a customer from near Ingolstadt who had the roof fitted somewhere else because it was cheaper. Later she stood here, tears in her eyes, the headliner was wavy, the seals botched. That raises the question: do you save 3,000 euros or do it right straight away? On a car that costs nearly 100,000, the decision should be clear.
We’re currently planning our own interior conversion, modular, with a drawer, cool box and pull-out bed. Although: most Grenadier drivers don’t actually sleep in the car. They tick differently from the Defender people. They’d rather take a hotel than lie on the mattress in the back. But the topic will come, as soon as the first used ones appear, people will want conversions. I’m sure of that.
Matsch&Piste: And what about payload with the pop-top roof? Do you lose a lot of weight there?
Andreas Christl: The roof weighs about 130 to 140 kilos. You do cut a piece out of the top as well, so in the end there’s a plus of around 100 kilos left. With that you’re in a similar range to a roof rack with a roof tent, if anything a bit below.
Matsch&Piste: And the whole thing is road-legal with TÜV approval?
Andreas Christl: Yes, after a pretty long road. The German state has its own particular logic there. With us it started with fire-protection reports, material certificates, endless phone calls. It was tough, but now we have it. Even so, we still check again for every vehicle whether it works, with the chassis number and all the trimmings.
Matsch&Piste: You’re doing quite a lot by now. What other plans are there for the future?
Andreas Christl: The future? At the moment, at Abenteuer4x4 it’s first of all about getting what we’ve started running properly. That’s task enough. How much work really lies behind it, until a project like this is up and standing, you only see when you’re right in the middle of it. The whole thing really started from zero. But that’s what makes it exciting too. When you see that something is taking shape, that something is growing, then it’s worth the effort. And quite honestly: anyone who does this for the money is doing it for the wrong reason.
There’s also a little tour to go with the interview on YouTube
We were visiting Abenteuer4x4 at the Basecamp Sonnefeld. Andreas Christl told us how a company grew out of his passion for off-roading, and why for him the Ineos Grenadier is one of the best 4x4s of our time. Together with Nick from the team we also take a look at the pop-top roof for the Grenadier and have a look in the workshop at what a stripped-out Grenadier looks like. Did you actually know that at Abenteuer4x4 you can hire a fully kitted-out Grenadier for your own trip?