Well it's been a whistle-stop few weeks in the Harper
household what with trying to get magazines finished before haring off round
Europe and the British Isles on what I was hoping was going to be a restful holiday.
No such luck! A week staying with relations in Majorca was actually a really
good break but returning to the UK in order to go camping in Cornwall with
friends looked like a rather poor decision when the Met Office issued a severe
weather warning for the South West...
The brand new BMW 2-Series Active Tourer has
recently made its public debut during the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, in a world
premiere.
Fortunately the rain wasn't as bad as we were expecting
which was just as well as the traffic was pretty grim. We left home early
enough in the day - or so we thought - to miss the worst of it but there's no
getting away from the fact that the West Country is as popular a holiday
destination today as it has always been and our roads simply can't cope with
the vast number of vehicles crammed with families hopefully making their way
towards the sun. What really doesn't help are those people who have to tow a
small trailer behind their car, presumably crammed with camping gear,
especially when they only use it once a year and have carried out no
maintenance on it since the last time they used it. I think I counted seven
either parked on the hard shoulder or blocking sections of dual carriageway
while their hapless owners contemplated flat tires or axles that had come away
from the trailer.
The 2 Series Active
Tourer uses the same UKL1 front-wheel drive architecture as the new MINI but has
been stretched to increase passenger space inside
Perhaps in years to come the cars towing those trailers will
be 2 Series Active Tourers as if you've read our first drive review of the car
you'll be able to tell that we were mightily impressed. While it might not be
the perfect family car it's getting quite close and is an excellent first stab
at the segment by BMW. There's still plenty of muttering about the wrong driven
wheels but I don't think it will take too long to get over that particular
objection - it's not as if the entire range is going front- wheel drive.
Not surprisingly for a modern BMW, the 2 Series Active Tourer will
launch with three different trim “lines” when it goes on sale in Europe this
year.
It's not all about wrong-wheel
drive 2 Series or grumpy old editors this month, though, as we have a cracking
selection of features to keep you entertained. We've our first UK sampling of
the awesome i8, a fully fettled home-grown 435i Coupe, an Alpina B10 and a 2002
Turbo to drool over, not to mention our three-way M car cover story where the new
M4 takes on the still excellent E46 and E92 M3s. I'm off back to Cornwall now.
wish me luck with the traffic!
