Lately all-new compact BMW has relied on a platform shared with Mini. Not the last Series 2 Coupé, which revives the propulsion or the six cylinders! Test of the advanced M240i xDrive version with 374 hp, already more powerful than the previous M2 at its launch. Yum.
Test car: BMW 2 Series Coupe M240i xDrive
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From€ 59,900
€ 7,462 penalty
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Wet! Wet the purists, journalists, poopers and all those who interpreted the latest compact BMWs as the end of beans. After a Series 1 and a Series 2 Gran Coupé deemed blasphemous (traction, three cylinders …), here is the surprise Series 2 Coupé walking around all the paraphernalia mourned by the aforementioned population: the CLAR platform of the Series 3, 4, 5 and 7 with six longitudinal cylinders or rear wheel drive; the grille with wide kidney grille rather than vertical BMW M3 and M4 style; the small moth template finally, with a domed hood and swollen wings, which already evoke the future M2 even before its formalization. We love !
Ignoring the UKL platform born at Mini, this curious beast becomes the smallest model based on BMW’s CLAR … with the strange proportions that result from it. The new 2 Series Coupe is as wide as a Series 4 coupe but 22 cm shorter. Its hood lengthens and its cabin moves back further. Its pavilion rises 1 cm lower than the previous M2. And to walk the talk (or the design), our test M240i extracts 374 hp from its turbocharged six-in-line. This is 4 hp more than the BMW M2 “2016”, at the time no faster at 0 to 100 km / h (4.3 s). The killjoys intended to criticize the all-wheel drive imposed? Failed: it has a piloted rear differential capable of sending up to 100% of the torque to the outer wheel, just to wind the bends rather than undergo them. We love (bis).
Driving
To test the most alluring “M Performance” in history, BMW could have invited us on a devilishly winding course. The appointment is finally given in Germany, near the BMW plant in Munich (and far from that of the 2 Series Coupé, assembled in Mexico!), More surrounded by unlimited highways than by vertiginous mountain passes. But let’s not play the killjoy (chase the natural …) behind the wheel of a car which, from the first roundabout, makes you want to do battle.
The direction ? Extremely direct, sending the pretty 19-inch wheels to the inside pavement at the slightest turn (you get used to it from the second roundabout). The front train? No less efficient, reacting to the impulses of the large flywheel without inertia despite the respectable weight of the whole. As for the rear axle, it sends the excess torque forward in the service of traction, without pushing the car out of the turn as is sometimes the case with all-wheel drives. The 374 hp turbo six-cylinder engine does not lack responsiveness, however, as our maximum acceleration test filmed on the following page proves …
At 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or 5,500 rpm, the 500 Nm systematically provide the same straightforward, immediate thrust, and make fun of the terrain of the road, the number of passengers on board or the gear engaged. And if it is useless to exceed 6500 rpm to engage the next gear (the power then declines), the digital needle of the tachometer knows how to tickle the 7000 rpm. Sport mode reinforces this health of a soundtrack with metallic accents, admittedly relayed by the speakers but not unpleasant, and lined with exhaust crackles when decelerating as when upshifting.
This last operation generates a sudden beneficial to the sensations, pleasant at the beginning, tiresome after a few kilometers, and whose caricature is only equaled by the drifts of the rear axle once engaged the Sport Plus mode. There, the controlled differential exaggerates the transfer of torque to the outer rear wheel at the pin exit. and causes a funny oversteer, unplugged anti-skid, at least on the cold and / or wet roads of Bavaria in this autumn period.
The wheelbase (short) and the steering (more direct than precise) then favor small strokes of the racket against the steering. But let’s not shy away from this whole character which, in an increasingly civilized automobile world, appears refreshing. Unlike the Series 4 coupe with the same engine and the same platform, the Series 2 coupe also refuses 48 V micro-hybridization, just to save a few pounds on the total weight. Won, or almost: better than the BMW M440i Coupé approved at 1,815 kg, the M240i admits all the same 1,765 kg with driver…
At 1,080 kg all wet, the ancestor BMW 2002 turbo seems far removed, but this excess weight at the same time allows the contemporary 2 Series to remain silent on the motorway, protected by numerous anti-collision radars. All in firm comfort but never breaking, at least with the optional pilot-operated suspension of our test model. In the long list of supplements, the only missing gesture controls, laser lights or ventilated seats offered by the cousin Series 4. The poopers will do without, thank you!
On board
Price and competition
If the BMW 2 Series Coupé is exchanged from € 41,800 in gasoline (220i 184 ch) and € 44,700 in diesel (220d 190 ch), this enviable M240i xDrive propels the price to € 59,900. This is unfortunately only the beginning, since a penalty of € 9,550 is added to it and increases its additional cost tenfold over the options checked. The height of ridicule? “Mixed Sport” tires (efficient Michelin Pilot Sport 4S fitted to our 2 Series test drives) increase CO emissions.2 from 185 to 198 g / km and the penalty to 16,810 €, bringing the total cost of this climb to 8,800 €! As with the recently tested M440i Gran Coupé, it is therefore better to keep the rubber with low rolling resistance when ordering and then buy the correct tires after-sales … ?) rivals, even if there are few direct competitors.
The Ford Mustang is also a four-seater coupe, but it is powered by an atmospheric 460bhp 5.0 V8 with a very different character and does not offer four-wheel drive. Its reasonable price of € 49,900 in a manual gearbox is unfortunately weighed down by a penalty, which will reach € 25,000 in 2022. As for the Audi RS3 (5 cylinders 400 hp) and Mercedes-AMG Class A 45 S (4 cylinders 421 hp ), they are closer to the BMW in power but do not exist in coupe, only in four-door body. Here too the prices are delusional: penalty included, count € 88,900 for the RS3 Sedan and € 87,770 for the CLA 45 S. Enough to pass, at € 69,450 included ecotax, the M240i for an affordable sports car. Where will inflation stop?
Find the test report, the video bonus, the technical sheet and all the prices-equipment-options of the BMW M240i Coupé on the following page.