STUNNING!
AND THE 2018 BMW X2 IS A FUN CAR TO DRIVE.
I have always suspected — as, I am assuming, most car enthusiasts do — that this increasing proliferation of SUVs from traditional European luxury brands has been something of a forced marriage. Like Marie Antoinette being married off to Louis XVI so that Austria and France might cease decadeslong hostilities, it has always been all about the money and little of the heart.
That antipathy might be changing. Jaguar, for instance, has rendered some gorgeous crossovers of late, and Audi has put out some polished sport brutes. And, after years of producing a few true abominations, BMW has put out what may be the first sport something- or- other vehicle — BMW insists on calling its crossovers Sport Activity Vehicles — that challenges Range Rover’s Evoque as the cutest of, well, sport cutes.
We drove one for a week and this is what we found:
The X2 is simply stunning. It looks like it was crafted by a loving hand, attractive both in profile and detail, the styling cohesive from every angle. Though based on the X1 platform — itself shared with various Minis — the X2 is 80 millimetres shorter and, more importantly, 70- mm lower. And, with a slightly sloping rear roofline, it finally achieves the coupe- like profile that BMW has been going after all these years. There’s a little actual love in the X2’s sleek lines, not the incongruous mating of truck and coupe that are the X4 and X6.
Its sporty look is not an illusion. Despite being based on a front- wheel- drive plat- form — again, shared with the X1 and various Minis — the X2, at least in the M-optioned version I drove, steers with the precision that once made any BMW the Ultimate Driving Machine. There’s plenty of feedback in the steering wheel, body roll is well contained (again, thank that M Sport X option for its stiffer springs) and just enough to rqu e vectoring from the standardin-Canada AWD system to ke e p the whole plot in line. Most impressively, the X2 actually seems eager to attack twisty roads, again, once a common, but lately ignored, attribute of the once (and future?) Ultimate Driving Machine. Welcome back BMW, but if you can make an erstwhile front-driving SUV this good, can you please apply the same magic to some of your once mighty sedans?
BMW’s 2.0-litre Turbo has come of age. There’s enough character and enough power — 225 horsepower and 258 pound- feet of torque — to invite a least some silliness. It even gets decent gas mileage: 9.0 L/100 km despite my semi- constant thrumming on the Twin Power turbocharger. It’s a healthy little thing, perfectly suited to the size and intent of the X2.
My sole powertrain complaint has nothing to do with the engine, but the transmission’s occasional reluctance to downshift. In its standard Comfort mode, there was an almost Mercedes-like delay in response to throttle, as if it didn’ t want to kick down too abruptly, lest it jostle fragile passengers. Toggle it over to Sport and it kicked down quick enough but then held onto each gear too long for “sensibly” sporty driving. A combination of the two, without the need for various settings, would have been preferable.
Despite it’ s squashed looks, it’s almost as roomy as the supposedly more utilitarian ( don’t tell BMW I used that word) X1. Front and rear legroom is all but as generous, and concerns about headroom with that 70- mm lower roofline are at least partially mitigated by lower seats. There’s plenty of shoulder room for four ( three in the rear seats might be pushing it, though).
Its only serious deficiency compared with the X1 is that cargo capacity has shrunk to 611.6 L with the seats up compared with the X1’s 767.4 L. With the rear seats down, there’s 1,419 L versus the X1’s 1,662. I found it quite usefully accommodating of motorcycle bits and gym gear.
We can all agree that the X2 shouldn’t be taken offroad. I think the reason that the X2 works stylistically is that BMW didn’t even try for an illusion of off- road abilities. While the X2 rides a little higher for easier ingress/egress and that “command” driving position SUV apologists are always going on about, there’s still precious little ground clearance. Besides, it rides, at least in the guise I drove, on 40- profile 20- inch rubber that would probably puncture at the sight of the first sharp-edged rock in the country club’s parking lot.
The X2 is one of, if not THE BMW I’d buy. It’s roomier than it looks, fairly well equipped — though I would have liked active cruise control to be included at this price — and is at least semi practical.
It’s also sexy, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and it’s at least as much fun to drive as any Bimmer this side of an M2. Like I said, if this is what BMW can do — when it sets its mind to it — with a FWDplatform crossover, imagine if the same focus were applied to something that mattered.
Oops, there goes me hating on sport utes again.