BMW 2 series is good, but not for purists
The new BMW 220d Gran Coupe has good handling despite its front-wheel drive platform.
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BMW 220d Gran Coupe |
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Rating |
★★★☆☆ |
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Price |
€35,235 - €42,859 as tested |
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Engine |
Solid two litre turbodiesel |
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The Spec |
Extras add up quickly |
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Verdict |
Purists look away |
The German language might often seem impenetrable and foreboding to those of us who know little about its daily use. Sure, we might get pleasantries such as ‘danke,’ or ‘bitte,’ or ‘guten tag,’ but the manner in which German appears to slew words together to form other, more complicated, words and meanings, is often inexplicable.
And yet there are many German words that do not translate directly into English and have still been adopted by English-speakers because they express an emotion or feeling that we have no direct word for.
Schadenfreude is a perfect example. By now commonly used in English, its meaning essentially translates into "taking pleasure or enjoyment from others’ troubles" and it is indeed a fantastic word.
Another I’ve come across recently is "backpfeifengesicht". And, believe it or not, this one applies directly to this week’s tester, the BMW 220d Gran Coupe.
Uniquely German — and again with no English equivalent — it essentially means "a face that deserves a fist". Quite why it applies to a motor car is explained by the use of another word — English this time — and that one is ‘purist’ which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a person who insists on absolute adherence to traditional rules or structures".
Now, having traditionally made cars which are rear-wheel drive and developed a cognoscenti who adore the purity of such a thing, BMW has made something of a rod for its own back by going against its own design principles and making front-wheel drive (FWD) cars and thus eschewing the views of those for whom a BMW should always remain faithful to its design values.
This FWD crack started with the 2 Series Active Tourer and continued with its brother, the 2 Series Grand Tourer, but those were family cars and not likely to offend purists.
But then the leakage spawned the new X1 and the X2, but most alarmingly for the pure fans, it then crept into the new 1 Series and it was here that the "backpfeifengesicht" came into play.
At the launch of the 1 Series in the UK at the back end of last year, I took the opportunity to ask the attending BMW personnel why they were offending their purist customers in this way. By the look of the engineer tasked with answering my questions, there was one face in the room that deserved a fist – and it was mine.
“This is a big change for us,” the engineer responded darkly. “The reason why we are moving all smaller cars to the FWD platform is to create more interior space. We have got a lot of negativity about this and purists are accusing us of selling out,” he added.
What he failed to admit was that BMW famously admitted over a decade ago, when the original 1 Series came into being, was that 80% of the car’s owners thought it was front-wheel drive anyway. Another thing he didn’t bother mentioning was that BMW – along with many other carmakers — had realised for some time that FWD cars return better economy figures than their RWD counterparts.
With manufacturers now having to meet fleet average CO2 emission targets — or face massive fines for not doing so — making a lot of FWD cars and especially big-selling ones like the 1 Series, helps reduce their emission numbers. No matter that this gave them a small overall CO2 reduction, the corporate view was that, well, it all helps.
So, having avoided a dig in the mush for my temerity in asking about the company’s treatment of its purist customers, we subsequently emerge at the point where the 220d Gran Coupe arrives at the door for testing.
The 2 Series, of course, is the coupe version of the 1 Series, but as is the way these days, the breakdown of the various cars iterated from one source is now astonishing.
In the case of the 1 Series, that means, a hatchback, a saloon, a coupe, a small SUV, an SUV coupe and this, a Gran Coupe.
Effectively then, the Gran Coupe is a four-door coupe but with frameless windows, which is enough — it would appear — to allow BMW the licence to call it a coupe rather than a saloon.
And what of it? Well, as 80% of customers previously thought the 1 Series was FWD anyway, it would not appear most of them will notice any difference now that it and is siblings really are FWD. But the truth is that the torque steer and understeering characteristics of the 220d Grand Coupe are quite evident and make it pretty obvious which wheels are doing the work here.
That said — and I should know this as a child of that era when FWD became commonplace in mass-produced vehicles — this BMW is possibly one of the most refined of the genre and unless you really have it under the hammer or are as shamelessly sensitive to these things as I am, you won’t know the difference or even care.
The nuts and bolts of the car tell us that the 220d engine is a two-litre turbodiesel and, because the tester was the M Sport version, was fitted with the eight-speed Steptronic Sport auto gearbox. There is 190 bhp on offer, producing a 235 kph top speed and a handy 7.5 second 0-100 kph time. The car will also return 4.3 l/100km (65.1 mpg).
It is fleet and most potent in the mid-range where the 400 Nm of torque available between 1,750 and 2,500 rpm gives unstinting and sustained thrust.
The handling is really good as long as you don’t try and thrash it, although the ride in M Sport guise is very much on the firm side, so if you’re looking for extravagant comfort, look elsewhere in the specification range. The bottom line here is that this car will not find favour with BMW purists for obvious reasons.
On the inside, there is an extravagance of allure in a cockpit which is an exemplar of build quality and finish, while the practicality of the thing is underlined by ample legroom (although headroom is a little tight thanks to the aggressively slanted roofline) and a very big boot.
A good car then and one which will hold its own with the best of any similar FWD machines. But the very fact it is not a traditional BMW means it will be bought only by those who could not care less which set of wheels drive it.
Were you to try and persuade aficionados otherwise, you could well find yourself victim to the dreaded backpfeifengesicht. Your face has been warned.
