Monday 17th February 2014

BMW goes FWD

BMW wedded to RWD for life? Not since Valentine's split it seems - PH catches up

---

BMW promised us front-wheel drive and here it is: the car that undoes 85 years of brand positioning by leaving the rear wheels undriven.

The 2 Series Active Tourer further tramples on the form book by also being a practical people carrier and becoming the first mainstream BMW to use the 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo engine first seen in the i8 hybrid supercar and the new Mini hatchback. In fact it shares far more with the Mini that it does with the 2 Series coupe with which it shares a name.

Marketing folk off to do some 'urban gardening'

The advertising is based on the premise that active family types who enjoy mountain biking and, er, guerilla gardening want three boxes ticked: space, small footprint and a sporty drive. But roominess in a car 4.4 metres long can only be achieved by fitting transverse engines, according to BMW, who reckons the Active Tourer has an "unprecedented feeling of spaciousness".

The new engines available when the car goes on sale in September are all built from the same modular family where 500cc equals one cylinder. So alongside the 136hp 1.5 218i three-cylinder, likely to be the cheapest from around £23,000, there's a 150hp 2.0-litre diesel called the 218d.

In November we'll also get a 231hp 2.0-litre turbo petrol badged 225i, which confuses things by sending some of the power to the rear wheels via a version of BMW's xDrive system. The dimensions of the Active Tourer are very similar to those of its main rival, the Mercedes B-Class, a car which become impossible for BMW to ignore after it carved itself a huge market in Europe.

Looks like a BMW, will it still drive like one?

Last year the B-Class sold just shy of 100,000 in the region, not far behind the 107,000 BMW shifted of the 5 Series. Which means the Active Tourer has the potential to overtake it and become BMW's third best-selling model in Europe after the 3 Series and 1 Series. Mind-boggling stuff.

This won't be the only front-drive model either, BMW has hinted. But is that a bad thing? We're promised that from behind the wheel of the Active Tourer, you won't notice a dilution of the sports heritage. High-tensile steel grades are used to make the body stiff, and weight saving including using alumimum for the bonnet cuts the kilos. The Active Tourer does seem impressively light – the 1.5-litre car weighs just 1,320kg for example, which is less than a three-door 1 Series.

We're interested to hear what you guys think. The world didn't stop spinning on its axis when the car was revealed in pics on Friday, and Porsche for one has shown you can still moonlight away from your brand core as long as the extra cash is still being ploughed back into truly desirable cars. But it's a long way from a V8 SUV to a frugal, front-wheel-drive people carrier. Once again we're wondering, is this a niche too far?

 

[Clivey]

I am not angry...I'm just disappointed.

[myhandle]

The car that makes a Mercedes B Class look elegant.

[jon-]

What? The 2 series is the new name of the coupe 1 series. Which is a hatch.

Apart from this 2 series. Which isn't a coupe.

[RobM77]

FWD is a much more practical choice if you want space inside the car. I just hope it doesn't creep into the rest of the range, as they're pretty much the only choice left for those of us who want a manual gearbox and rear drive out of our daily driver saloon (oh, and don't care about image of course!).

[renaultgeek]

it's hideous. And aside from that, I don't really care.

[E30Addict]

Clivey said:

I am not angry...I'm just disappointed.

Agreed, but it has been on the cards for a while now and was a matter of "when" not "if".

[ellisd82]

Well, I would rather have this than some Renault Espace thing.

[danielj58]

RobM77 said:

FWD is a much more practical choice if you want space inside the car. I just hope it doesn't creep into the rest of the range, as they're pretty much the only choice left for those of us who want a manual gearbox and rear drive out of our daily driver saloon.

It was hinted not long ago that this is the way the 1 series will probably go, apparently most 1 series drivers "don't realise" they're driving a rear drive... There's also talk of the next x1 sharing the mini crossmans platform.

I understand it's got to be done, but they had a chance to make an impact on this market segment and instead the only splash they've made is the divergence away from their brands core. I personally think this should have been a mini, and the BMW version should have been a hyrbid under the iRange.

Swing and a miss for me, though it's the marketing morons that have messed up I think. I'm sure from an engineering perspective it's brilliant, and I don't doubt it'll be a good steer.

Edited by danielj58 on Monday 17th February 12:19

[Shaoxter]

That is hideous and a step too far. Probably replaces the 3GT as the ugliest car in the line up which takes some doing.

Wouldn't be too bad if there was a hardcore CSL style M car to offset it but there isn't and BMW have strayed too far in the pursuit of profit IMO.

[y2blade]

"The sound of a 1000 PHers screaming............"

[turbo-ww]

E30Addict said:

Clivey said:

I am not angry...I'm just disappointed.

Agreed, but it has been on the cards for a while now and was a matter of "when" not "if".

+1 on both counts.

'In fact it shares far more with the Mini that it does with the 2 Series coupe'

So call it a Mini then, there aren't enough variants right now....

Edited by turbo-ww on Monday 17th February 12:27

[edward1]

Given a significant proportion of their market don't care which wheels are driven this is hardly surprising. But why do we have to have another hideously ugly psuedo people carrier. Is it me or do most vehicles in this segment look like they should have a kia or hyundia badge on them.

[jimbop1]

That should not wear a BMW badge! It's also stupidly ugly.

[dukebox9reg]

Not that light. 1.6 diesel C4 Picasso now weighs 1290kg.

I dont mind a FWD BMW but to me this looks like a Kia Carens with the generic BMW face slapped on it.

I'll stick with the top spec Picasso I just got the wife.

Has got ACC, Massage leather seats, power tailgate, will actually do over 70mpg without much effort. I can imagine to get anywhere near the spec of the much better looking Picasso (in my opinion anyway) you gona have to spend silly money.

[hairyben]

Didn't BMW advertise they'd "never made an off-roader, as all our cars are designed to stay on the road" shortly before releasing the x5?

or was that a figment of my imagination?

[RobM77]

danielj58 said:

RobM77 said:

FWD is a much more practical choice if you want space inside the car. I just hope it doesn't creep into the rest of the range, as they're pretty much the only choice left for those of us who want a manual gearbox and rear drive out of our daily driver saloon.

It was hinted not long ago that this is the way the 1 series will probably go, apparently most 1 series drivers "don't realise" they're driving a rear drive...

Edited by danielj58 on Monday 17th February 12:19

Such is the problem with being in a minority - there's absolutely no way I'd want to drive a front wheel drive car everyday, or I should say more correctly that of the circa 100 FWD cars I've driven to date, I'd not want any of them as a daily driver. The problem is, I also don't like big cars and the 3 series is getting just a bit too big for me. I'm changing my E90 in September/October this year and I'm thinking about going down to the 1 series to keep closer to my ideal size in a daily driver (which is about the size of an E36). If the 1 series goes FWD then I'll be stuck..

On another note, just because the average 1 series owner doesn't know that their car is RWD doesn't mean they don't feel the benefits. Apparently my PC monitor has Innovative Dynamic Structure™ and Amplified Impulse™ technologies; I haven't got a clue what they are, but I'm probably experiencing some benefits from them. My sister got a 1 series company car and in as many words described it as having a poise and balance in corners better than any other car she'd driven - she hadn't got a clue that was because of the weight distribution and RWD, but she certainly felt the benefits.

[steve_bmw]

[Quickmoose]

I guess the idea of swapping a few thousand car enthusiast buyers with a couple of million uninformed badge chasers makes superb business sense... can't fault the l;ogic, build up years of engineering integrity and performnace accoldaes, trade it some/all in for market share and profit and see how long they can run with both camps...until ubiquity overrides the premium badge cache and they get bought by VW and reduced back to the premium ultimate saloon performance cars they should be

[RINGMEISTER]

At least you've got bragging rights down the pub when you tell everyone it shares the same engine as the I8!

[BBS-LM]

Dear me, FWD in a BMW, Kill me know.

Edited by BBS-LM on Monday 17th February 12:36