BMW you’ll either love or hate

M235i GRAN COUPE: STYLING VERY MUCH UP FOR DEBATE

Sure-footedness from test strip translates onto road when you want to push things.

Mark Jones

One thing the premium German manufacturers love to do is play “model ping pong”. If one does, the other does too.

We have now have Audi A1 to A8 and a bunch of Qs thrown in too, Mercedes-Benz has every Class known to mankind and BMW is doing the same with their 1 to 8 Series, plus a whole bunch of X derivatives.

So, while we’ll probably never see Audi and BMW follow Mercedes-Benz down their ill-fated X-Class bakkie road, it was only a matter of time before BMW introduced a compact sedan. And the rival we have on test, to go up against Audi’s S3 Sedan and Mercedes-AMG A35 Sedan 4-Matic, is the M235i Gran Coupe xDrive.

Audi’s S3 Sedan comes in at R710 189 and Mercedes-AMG’s A35 Sedan at R826 000, so this new player slots in the middle of the two with a starting price of R725 000. The similarities don’t end there: they all offer the same sort of power, with the S3 making 228kW/400Nm, the A35 225kW/400Nm to challenge the 225kW and 450Nm of the M235i, and they all put the power down via all-wheel drive systems.

Maybe a quick word of caution, don’t tell BMW owners that BMW have gone backwards as their 235i now only makes 225kW while thinking this is the previous 3.0-litre straight-six engine. This new model runs a boosted 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged powerplant coupled to an eight-speed Steptronic Sport transmission.

While outright performance is not the be-all-and-end-all in what is essentially a family car, albeit a compact one, this is a BMW M Performance car and therefore it is expected to hustle. And that it does. But does the M235i Gran Coupe ever feel “really” fast? No, it feels a bit like a hot hatch.

Using the pseudo launch control, the M235i Gran Coupe still gets to 100km/h in 5.41sec and runs just short of 210km/h in the 1km sprint, with an electronically limited 250km/h top speed. This of course is done thanks to the xDrive system.

This sure-footedness from the test strip translates onto the road when you feel like pushing things. But if you are expecting a tyre-smoking, wild-knuckle ride, rather look at BMW’s rear wheel driven M Performance cars.

So why a four-door coupe and not a hatch? For me it can only be for the extra boot space. The boot has a meaningful, real-world, amount of space, but this comes at the price of rear leg room, and the Coupe styling kills the head room in the back.

I know that the car is a descendant of the 4 Series, the 6 Series and the newer 8 Series Gran Coupe models, but I didn’t find myself loving the styling. As with anything new, people’s opinions will be polarised, and you are either going to be progressive and love the M235i Gran Coupe, or hate it.

This said, what is not up for debate, is that you get a car that is packed

with the latest technology as standard or as a cost-added extra. From LED headlights up front as standard, to BMW Live Cockpit Professional and optional gesture control for infotainment functions, Lane Departure Warning with active lane return, Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go function, to a Connected Navigation service that allows you to send destinations from various apps straight to the car’s navigation system.