The BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe strikes me as one of the oddest cars built today. It’s close to the least expensive vehicle BMW makes (a base model X1 or X2 SUV undercuts it by a trivial amount). And it’s fairly un-BMW-like.
List its attributes: a compact 4-door sedan body, standard front-wheel drive (FWD), a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, and a 7-speed automatic transmission, and you almost could be describing a Honda Civic.
But, of course, it’s a sophisticated European luxury car. Think of the 2 Series Gran Coupe a bit like a burger on the menu of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Yes, it’s working-class food, but an elevated take on working-class food.
BMW loaned me a 2 Series Gran Coupe for a week of commuting and running errands.
Which Trim Level
My tester was the M235 xDrive, which has nearly every option and package BMW offers, including all-wheel drive (AWD), the M Performance Package (which adds high-performance tires that likely improve the driving experience significantly), the Premium Package (with a panoramic moonroof), and the M Technology Package (adding a head-up display and other high-end tech).
When you add all of that, it’s not truly the elevated Civic so much as a miniaturized 3 Series. My tester retails for $59,175 after the destination fee.
The priciest burger in town.
New 2025 BMW 2 Series Prices
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Retail Price
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Fair Purchase Price (92620)
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|---|---|---|---|---|
$40,775 |
TBD |
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$42,775 |
TBD |
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$42,775 |
TBD |
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$50,675 |
TBD |
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$51,775 |
TBD |
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$53,775 |
TBD |
Favorite Feature
My favorite feature of the M235 is probably too niche. I love that you can turn off the screens for a less-distracted driving experience. I like the peace of it.
That facet might not appeal to many, so I’ll offer something more mainstream.
What sets the M235 apart most from other compact luxury sport coupes is a truly fantastic engine. It’s a transverse-mounted, turbocharged inline 4-cylinder unit, which reads like something you’d get from Honda. But it feels like something you’d get from a German luxury car manufacturer with a racing division.
It’s high-strung and generous with power even at low speeds and gets the M235 up to 60 mph in just 4.2 seconds.
What It’s Like to Drive
That potent engine sends power through a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that is smooth, though perhaps a bit jumpy in Sport Plus mode. However, you may want a bit of a thump when pulling away from a stop in the raciest mode.
Pulling the left shift paddle gives you a brief boost of power.
The steering is extremely sharp for a 4-door car. Some might find the adaptive M suspension that comes with the M Performance Package a bit stiff. If you’re going to drive this with relish and be alone in the car, you might want it. If you’re going to commute in it and regularly carry family, you might want to save the $2,550 by not checking the box for that package.
Interior Comfort and Technology
From the driver’s seat, the M235 xDrive is a comfortable place to be. The colors of BMW’s M division – stripes of aqua, royal blue, and red – are splashed throughout. They’re stitched on the seat belts and the dashboard, striped above the mostly hidden vents, and shine through the cabin lighting.
I could never decide if it was a stylish touch or a little juvenile. Softer dash materials would have made me sure the look worked. There’s too much hard plastic in here for a nearly $60,000 price tag. But if you want a reminder that M engineers tuned this, they could be a positive.
The latest version of BMW’s iDrive puts most of the controls behind touchscreen menus. That’s a matter of taste, which either bothers you or doesn’t. It’s something to know as you think about a test drive.
The rear seats are tight, but that’s true of most cars in this class.
Limitations
BMW sells two cars under the 2 Series name. This one, the 2 Series Gran Coupe, has four doors and sits on a platform that allows building front-wheel-drive models. The other, the 2 Series Coupe, has two doors and uses an entirely different, rear-wheel-drive-oriented platform.
The cars overlap in price, and both have relatively small rear seats. If I were looking at this car, I might also look closely at that car. This car doesn’t give you an everyday-usable second row, anyway, so I’d be very tempted just to get the better-looking, better-handling Coupe instead.
