On the one hand, this car matters
stupendously. Or at least it represents a Very Important Happening. It’s the
first front-wheel-drive BMW, and it won’t be the last. From this technical
wellspring will eventually be drawn anything up to a dozen different body
styles, including the replacements for the X1 and 1-Series hatch, and a small
saloon. There might be a small coupe and roadster in the mould of an Audi TT,
and a saloon to face off against the Mercedes CLA and A3 saloon. Remembering
too that the new Mini also uses a narrower, lighter version of the same
platform, you get a sense of its scope.
The
218d Sport Active Tourer looks clean and professional from the outside
But on the other hand, I fear it is in
itself a pretty irrelevant car. It’s a five-seat family MPV. Probably nearest
to the Ford C-Max in dynamics and capability. (Although BMW probably thinks the
Mercedes B-Class is the rival, because BMW always thinks Mercedes is its
rival.) But, critically, MPVs are a dying breed, as families shift into
faux-4WD crossovers. I could never have seen the 2-Series Active Tourer
reversing that trend, unless it were dazzlingly brilliant. Turns out it isn’t.
Oh, in many ways it’s a good car, but
there’s a clear deficit of fitness for purpose. It’s not a terribly good MPV.
The rear seat is a simple three-way split, whereas the more versatile French
competitors have three individual seats. The BMW’s seats do slide, but they
don’t tumble-fold and can’t be removed, so when you eject your passengers you
still can’t get an inanimate tall object into the load bay.
Driving
position a bit van-like. Your feet go down, not forward, to pedals. Not
uncomfortable
And when you do have passengers, they won’t
be having an easy time. BMW has earnestly striven to make this the BMW of
people-carriers. Which means its chassis settings have been sportified with a
degree of zeal that’s almost comic. BMW’s own publicity material informs us of
the 225i Active Tourer’s Nürburgring lap time, and that if you switch the DSC
to Dynamic mode, it’ll do lift-off oversteer. Come on, guys, it’s a family MPV,
for pity’s sake – get over yourselves.
In such a tall vehicle, the inevitable penalty
for all this track-biased mania is an unyielding ride, even in a straight line.
And down a twisty road, if the driver is having such a gas exploring the
BMW-style handling, it’ll all be happening at a faster pace than with other
people-carriers, so the passengers will be clinging onto the grab handles for
dear life while a rising tide of vomit fills the footwells.
Six-speed
manual feels a bit imprecise. Same ’box is just fine in the Mini, strangely
But it’s worth looking under the skin of
the Active Tourer because they’ll spin off so many cars from the same bones.
BMW’s big cheeses say that with transverse engines and front- or all-wheel
drive, this whole group of vehicles will eventually account for some 40 per
cent of all the cars the group makes. Once BMW had decided it wanted to build a
range of compact cars, it needed to do a transverse-engined FWD platform,
because as the existing RWD 1-Series proves, a compact car with a longitudinal
engine is too cramped inside.
The whole platform was designed with BMW’s
all-new modular three- and four-cylinder engines in mind. From that family,
there will be two launch engines in the UK when the car goes on sale in
September. The cheapest is in the 218i, the 3cyl turbo petrol from Mini Cooper.
In the Mini, it’s a delightful engine, and 136bhp is plenty, but in a loaded
Active Tourer it might struggle. But I can’t tell you for sure because BMW
didn’t field any for sampling.
Head-up
display appears on a little flip-up autocue
Instead, I’m driving the 218d. It’s a
2.0-litre four-cylinder making 150bhp, and it’s really good. For a four-banger
transverse diesel, it’s amazingly quiet and smooth, and works hard from
1,500rpm to 5,000rpm. The economy and CO2 figures are competitive, of course,
albeit not startling. There’s also a new six-speed manual gearbox, which needs
development work on the shift. Its narrow gate and inconsistent weight are
frequently annoying and occasionally defeating.
Within a couple of months, there will be
xDrive versions, the 225i and 220d, and in front-drive a 216d and 220d. Normal
enough BMW range development.
