2022 BMW 2 Series Review _ A Pure Driver's Car

Once upon a time, BMW made a car called the 2002. It is a legend in every sense of the word. It was great when it was new, and it's still hugely desirable today. Now, the 2002 grew into the E21 BMW 3 Series, an evolution, but still a small, light, nimble, two-doored BMW. Fast forward 47 years, and we still have the BMW 3 Series, and it's still terrific, but now it's a lot bigger, and it has four doors. So, although chronology would suggest that the 3 Series is the modern successor to the 2002, the truth is, if you want a small, nimble BMW coupe, well, then you've got to go with something else. You've got to go with the 2022 BMW 2 Series. Spoiler alert, I love this car. Now, before we get into all the reasons why I love this car, I have to ask that if you haven't already, please subscribe to the CarGurus YouTube channel. We publish new reviews of new cars every single week, and if you have a car and you're looking to sell it, head over to cargurus.com and try selling it 100% online. Thanks to our network of thousands of dealerships, we can source you a great offer. Then you just have your car picked up, and you get paid. It's so easy. Now, with the 2 Series, BMW has, well, it has a tale of two 2 Series. There's the coupe, and there's the Grand Coupe. This is sleek, low-slung, with all the visual weight thrown back toward the rear wheels. Look at how the roofline cuts sharply down to this short trunk, where it all ties together with this little decklid spoiler. I love it. The Grand Coupe, well, for sure it is more practical because it has four doors, and it's also easier to get in and out of. Man, did climbing in and out of this make me feel old. But the Grand Coupe is front-wheel drive, and it looks a bit like a Bavarian Dodge Dart. So, you know, it's not bad-looking, but I don't look at it and think This is the second-generation 2 Series, and it has some serious shoes to fill. The previous 2 Series was one of the best driver's cars I've had the opportunity to test. This car is longer, it's wider, it's lower. We have a nearly 3-inch wider front track, and nearly 2 extra inches in the rear. BMW says that that should result in much improvement in the handling category, and we'll see about that. Now, our car is a 230i. That means it has the smaller engine. It also means that it's rear-wheel drive. It has the M Sport Package Pro and Shadow Line Package, delivering these bigger 19-inch alloy wheels. That also paints the spoiler black, and our calipers are red. It looks good. At the front, there's a bulge in the hood, big air intakes at the corners, and wide headlights. What many BMW enthusiasts will notice is the thin, wide grille. No tall kidneys on this BMW. The more traditional look doesn't sacrifice innovation, though. Active grille shutters help feed air to the engine when needed, closing when it's not needed to improve aerodynamics. Similarly, we've got flaps down here and air curtains over here. Without a doubt, this is a small car. I mean, 10 cubic feet of cargo space just isn't a lot, and while this 2 Series does offer a little more backseat legroom than the previous generation, it's still not enough for an adult, as I will now demonstrate with some embarrassing B-roll footage. But fold down the rear seat, and the 2 Series starts to look a bit more manageable. I fit a bicycle, a duffel bag, that blue backpack, a couple boxes about yay big, a 5-gallon bucket, and a case of beer back here. It was a hell of a weekend. If you move the front seat to access your stuff in the back, you'll have to wait for the painfully slow power seat adjustments. Get these seats back into position after you find a new shooting location because the last one was way too bright, and take a seat. From here, the 2 Series looks like classic BMW. You have the iDrive infotainment screen and a fully digital driver display, but other than that, this is almost old-school. Hard buttons, stiff seats, ignition button on the center console. Dual-zone climate comes standard, as do the sports seats. On the hot days when I was testing this car, I found myself begging for ventilated seats. I also noticed that there's not a ton of headroom, even in the front seats. Now you can lower the seats almost all the way to the floor, but then you're just barely peeking over the dash. Now I know that some people like that in a sports car, but my mom hated it. So if you're shopping for a 2 Series, just make sure that, um, make sure you're not my mother. BMW's iDrive infotainment software has advanced so much in the past decade, it's really hard to find fault with it. The 2 Series comes loaded with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but even if you use the native system instead of your phone's projection, everything is still easy to understand and navigate. Now there is the familiar rotary dial down here, but if you would rather use a touchscreen, well, this is a touchscreen. The digital driver information display in our car is part of a $2,650 premium package, as is the heated steering wheel, heated front seats, the adaptive LED headlights, and the head-up display. I do find this screen to be a little frustrating. It's just not as customizable as it seems like it should be. For instance, you can't see the average miles per gallon and the trip summary on the same display. Instead, you have to use this tiny little button on the top of the left stalk to adjust the readout on the right gauge display. It's just not very intuitive. Standard safety features include automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, and front and rear parking sensors. We also get auto-dimming mirrors, but what we don't get is adaptive cruise control. The car costs $49,000, and now this isn't unheard of in the luxury segment, but I mean, you tell me. If you can get adaptive cruise control as standard equipment on a Honda Civic, shouldn't it be standard on a BMW? The magic behind this 2 Series is that it is a true sum-of-its-parts story. The 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder is solid for a vehicle this size. 255 horsepower isn't overwhelming, but it works. 295 pound-feet of torque make the two feel very quick off the line. The M240i gives you a lot more thanks to its mouth-watering turbocharged 3.0-liter straight-six engine, and that makes 382 horsepower. But the 230i, it gives you all the power you need. Maybe not all the power you want, but definitely all the power you need. The transmission, an 8-speed automatic, is brilliantly smooth. You hardly feel downshifts, and if you put it in a sport mode, these paddles help those shifts progress from just quick to downright fast. Now, the suspension in the 230i was built for twisty roads. Driving this thing through the backroads of New Hampshire was an absolute treat. It is stiff, properly stiff, and it's not adjustable. The M240i does get adaptive dampers, but not this car. Also in sport mode, you'll notice a little bit of extra cheddar on that exhaust note. Even if the exhaust note is being provided by the speakers in the car and not the actual exhaust. Sport also adds some weight to the steering feel, although it still feels disconnected. Accurate and balanced, but you don't feel the road through this wheel. And that ties in with my only real criticism of the 230i. It's just not quite dramatic enough. I that it ends up being a recipe for speeding. When you're driving a car this size, this low to the ground, 50 miles an hour should feel like 75 miles an hour, and 75 miles an hour should feel like you're a part of the Apollo space program. But that's not the case here. If anything, it's the opposite. I can't tell you how many times I was driving along, and then I'd look at the speedometer, and suddenly I'd be looking around making sure that there wasn't a cop anywhere with a radar gun. I mean, this thing is fast, and it's fun, but it's missing that small car drama. Even without the drama, though, the BMW 2 Series is an incredible, and I mean incredible, driver's car. And the best part is you don't actually have to burn your 401k to afford one. This starts at $36,350. Now, admittedly, there is a little bit of a caveat with that price tag, because for years, finding a base price BMW has been all but impossible. Our test car at $50,000, well, that does feel a little rich, largely because you could get a pretty well-optioned 3 Series for that same money. But the 3 Series isn't nimble like this is, and frankly, you see those cars everywhere. Put a 2 Series in your driveway, and it looks a little more special. We haven't even started talking about the fuel economy, either. I mean, this car, the EPA says it should get 26 MPG city, 35 highway, 29 combined. Compare that with a Volkswagen Jetta GLI, a non-luxury front-wheel drive car with less horsepower that can't hit those numbers, or the Hyundai Elantra N. It doesn't come close. So you know what feels really good? Putting 300 miles on a sports coupe like this, and barely burning 10 gallons of gas. Are there things that I would change? Of course. But in the current market? I mean, the 2 is kind of one-of-a-kind. This is a premium sports coupe that puts the driver front and center. So let us know your thoughts on the 2 Series in the comments section below. Don't forget to subscribe to the CarGurus YouTube channel, and as always, thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.