Grand total without tax
Have you tried this config setting in the admin panel?
System > Configuration > Tax > Shopping Cart Display Settings
This will get you your carts subtotal:
Mage::getModel('checkout/cart')->getQuote()->getSubtotal();
This will get your your carts grand total:
Mage::helper('checkout')->formatPrice(Mage::getModel('checkout/cart')->getQuote()->getGrandTotal());
Ok, so I figured it out. Appertently it's a core bug in Magento 1.9.2.4.
Go to: app/code/core/Mage/Tax/etc/config.xml
Change line: 165
From:
<after>freeshipping</after>
To:
<after>subtotal,nominal,shipping,freeshipping</after>
Read about the fix here:
https://github.com/OpenMage/magento-lts/pull/84