The BMW 2 Series Coupé marks a successful return of the 1 Series Coupé. Overall it is a more compelling package than before but can it drive buyers away from the Audi TT and conventional hatchbacks?
There’s a graph BMW uses. It has body styles along one axis and car size along the other, thus allowing you to see what kinds of cars it makes and how big or expensive they are.Twenty years ago it would have been a pretty straightforward noughts and crosses-size affair. But these days it looks like a giant Connect 4 board. Coupé SUV a bit bigger than a mid-size executive SUV? But of course.And now this 2 Series Coupé. Not to be confused with the new front-wheel-drive 2 Series Active Tourer and Gran Tourer, the 2 Series coupé is to the 1 Series what the 4 Series Coupé is to the 3 Series. Geddit? It’s a rear-drive, two-door, three-box variant of the 1 Series that, while effectively a replacement for the old 1 Series coupé, is said to offer more space and style than the old car did.And thus far, we’ve been mightily impressed, including by the two descendants of the 1 Series M Coupé - in the form of the BMW M240i and M2 that sits atop the range. You could argue that the 2 Series Coupé’s history is quite short, extending as the direct lineage does only as far back as its 1 Series coupé predecessor.But BMW has a long history of three-box coupés with the presence of a number 2 in the name, starting with the 1600-2 of 1966 and followed up by the splendid 2002 in 1968, whose turbocharged version BMW would doubtless cite as an inspiration for the new M240i.Trim levels for the 2 Series comprise of SE, Sport, M Sport and M Sport Plus, and engine options consist of a range of petrol and diesel units. BMW offers the 218i 1.5-litre three-cylinder, 220i and 228i 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrols, and the hot straight-six M240i petrol, while the diesel range is punctuated by the 2.0-litre four-cylinder 218d, 220d and 225d. Topping the range is the smallest official M car made by BMW in the shape of the 365bhp M2, which uses a more powerful tune of the unit under the M240i's bonnet.So is the new BMW 2 Series set to repeat the success of its predecessors? Our comprehensive road test will reveal all.
