BMW Series 2 Gran Coupe - an unexpected upgrade and 4 days worth of fun motoring

[trinacriabob]

This was the last of 3 rental at different locations in Portugal and a vehicle I never thought I’d be writing a review about.  Again, I rented an automatic vehicle with one of the major agencies and the description indicated a Toyota Corolla Hybrid automatic or similar.  Anymore, you go up to a kiosk, as if ordering at McDonald’s, to kick off your rental at major European airports.  It’s important to have one’s data for the transaction ready.  If there are questions or hiccups, agency personnel are on hand.  I was doing this and then, at a certain part of the screen, a car description, including specifics like the license plate, appeared.  I asked the agent what this was all about.  I was told that a BMW Series 2 Gran Coupe was the car I was being assigned.  I almost didn’t want it and asked if they had something else.  They didn’t.  I started looking at this smallest member of the BMW family in awe.  I also sked my phone what its cost might be since insurance might have certain parameters.  It appeared to come it at somewhere between 37,000 Euro and 42,000 Euro, depending on how it’s equipped.

I could not form an immediate opinion of this car.  I was in a stupor that I would be driving this car for 4 days.  Also, its controls and settings are not that easily learned.  I did learn most, while a few more obscure ones went unlearned.  They do not correspond to the settings we know in American domestics, Japanese cars, or even VW-Seat-Skoda.

As I got used to the BMW 2 series, what shone was how planted this vehicle was and how nicely weighted the steering was.  This car was driven on city streets in or near Porto, on the tolled highways, and on 2-lane roads, with one foray into the twisties into and out of Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres.  It fares well everywhere, but it really inspires confidence on the highway where, for its size, it’s sort of a small “bank vault” and on two-lane roads where it corners with agility and remains composed.  I had only driven a college friend’s BMW 3 series with a manual transmission from Santa Barbara back to L.A.’s San Fernando Valley and it, too, shone for being nimble and planted, although they were not the most reputable as the years wore on.  My friend eventually moved on to a new Ford Mustang with a V8.

With this BMW’s good handling, the ride is also very controlled – firm and smooth.  Noise suppression is also excellent and the maximum posted highway speeds, or slightly more than that, produced negligible wind or road noise.  It’s a car that doesn’t wear on the driver for a long-haul trek.

The engine was a twin turbo diesel and, when pushed, it responded very well and the engine produced more of a strong hum rather than the clanging sounds one would except of a diesel.  It didn’t really sound like a diesel from inside the cabin.  However, if standing outside the car when it was idling, it did sound a little like a diesel, but not quite like the old school Oldsmobile diesels that sounded like they were gargling with metal marbles.  The car responded well to quick and defensive merges and prolonged grades on highways, which Portugal’s interior definitely has.

The other part of the powertrain equation is the transmission.  It was a geared automatic with 8 speeds.  The truth is that you could barely feel any of the shifts, making me question if BMW could have sold out and gone the CVT route.  That wasn’t the case.  If pushed, the first few shifts could barely be felt, with changes into the remaining gears being imperceptible.  This outshone the 8-speed automatic in larger Toyotas that I have driven a time or two and which featured excellent shifting.  At this point, virtually all foreign manufacturers, and especially the premium ones, are adept at making automatic transmissions. We’re not talking about Smart cars and Opels from right around the New Millennium.

There is no doubt that this small BMW is an attractive vehicle.  For being a small sedan, it’s billed as a Gran Coupe and the looks are svelte enough.  The rapport between the exterior volumes is pleasing to the eye and any sculpting and character lines work well, including the ones carved into the front fascia and the rear taillamp assembly and bumper.

One thing that was unexpected and make for a good chuckle is the frameless doors.  I haven’t seen that in decades.  Hello, GM colonnade coupes of yesteryear.  I don’t know if I liked it or not.  However, it probably helps give the car a sleeker look.

The cabin was comfortable and there is suitable room for the front passengers.  The seats are defined with bolsters and adjustable supports for the lumbar and the front edge of the cushion.  The only other car with aggressive bolstering in its seats I’ve ever driven is the last Pontiac Grand Prix where the price point didn’t allow for them to spend enough money to thoughtfully design them.   It appeared that this small BMW’s rear seat room was decent, though not ample, but the trunk was surprisingly roomy.

I’m not giving this car a score of 100 or anything like that.  It made for a few annoyances.  I’ve already mentioned the slight difficulty with setting up and getting used to the controls.  To that, add infotainment and climate controls graphics and operation which weren’t pleasing to the eye or user friendly.  Graphics at night have orange/amber backlighting and Pontiac proves that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  It, too, leaned toward this color for illumination, not to mention an often similar “twin kidney” grille up front.  Unlike other cars, and less expensive cars, the infotainment center Bluetooth did not display my music collection with the additional graphics about the artist as less expensive cars readily have.  The adjacent red and blue stripes often seen on the grilles of BMWs make their way into the lower part of the dashboard and extend onto the front door panel.  This effect can be seen at dusk. 

The most irritating thing to me was the automatic transmission lever.  It’s a standard lever.  It’s not a push button or a round dial that some cars have gone to.  It was easy to put it into drive and reverse, but there was a button at the back of the lever that parked the car, or so it seemed.  This could lead someone to push the button and think they were free to go.  If the lever was not returned to P, the car was not parked and would still be running.  The build quality of the console and the levers and buttons appeared to be excellent, but operating it caused some head scratching at times.

This BMW 2 series coupe/sedan is expensive to purchase and expensive to maintain, especially for the incomes and purchasing power in some of its markets.  As time marches on, major repairs or replacing parts is expected to be expensive.  That would require weighing how much one wants to own one of the “ultimate driving machines” vis a vis weighing the costs of ownership.  As for one of its costs – fuel  – that was surprisingly favorable, with consumption being sparse and diesel fuel being less costly in Europe.

This was a serendipitous experience and a pleasant surprise.  It was a lot of fun to drive this BMW and sample the confidence it inspired, be it on major highways or on challenging two-lane roads.  I also find it humorous that with all the cars I’ve rented and upgrades I’ve been given stateside, I’ve yet to turn the key on a Cadillac and put one in gear.  However, I got to drive a car and brand I would have never expected to.  The price of the rental for those 4 days was reasonable (read:  one helluva upgrade) and presumable priced in line for the anticipated Toyota Corolla Hybrid. 

I don’t know if I’d want to own a BMW 2 Gran Coupe overseas as its owner would have to contend with a lot of rambunctious drivers in “beaters” and on more challenging roads.  However, if money is no object and one can afford the repairs down the line, or is leasing one, this could be a great way to go about motoring.

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PHOTOS FORTHCOMING

[trinacriabob]

EXTERIOR

Side view near Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres

Rear angled view above the town of Viana do Castelo

Front view of grille at pick up

Large, skinny tires, with no curvature at their sides, and aluminum alloy wheels - taking photos at pick up

When you step out at dusk and the mirror is still extended outward, the logo and BMW are reflected on the ground

When you step out at dusk and the mirror is finally folds inward automatically, the logo and BMW are reflected on the side of the door and will finally go out on its own

[trinacriabob]

INTERIOR

Full view of instrumental panel, console, and part of front seating

Angled view of instrumental panel, console, and part of front seating

A fair deal of ergonomic comfort is built into the front seats (that stuff in the creases is sand, which is an all too common occurrence in this area since people will take their rental cars to the beach)

Rear seats (you can barely see the dark blue/light blue/red striping theme toward the top);  the visibility was good and the rear view mirrors and alert systems helped, though I do still turn my head, "old school style"

Cupholders in the rear seat armrest as well as 2 air vents and 2 USB ports at the rear of the console ... as you can see, the rear seat leg room is fine but not generous

The speedometer is to the left and the tachometer is to the right, which is opposite what I expect to see ... but the mapping is centralized, which makes it easy to use ... there are both fuel and temperature gauges, and the speed readout can be set to digital within the speedometer - I was satisfied with the main IP pod

The vents circulated air very well and conditioned air came on very quickly, but I'm not so sure how I liked the controls beneath them and above the console

This is the console at night with the shifter and you can see the "P" indicator on a button at the rear of the lever while the others are attained by moving the lever; anymore, a lot of settings such as brakes, drive mode, and others are on buttons on the console

These are the blue graphics that make their ways onto the front passenger doors at dusk; the cross hatching is sort of interesting

The trunk size is fairly good for the size of the car and the roofline

There is also this additional shallow space beneath the trunk floor, and the spare and other things are below this, which might be the actual floor of the trunk

Edited September 11, 2023 by trinacriabob

[trinacriabob]

BONUS 

Don't say I didn't try.  This also shows the infotainment center graphics (complete with orange/amber effects), that weren't to my liking, especially for songs and artists, unless there was another way to set this up

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END OF PHOTOS