2 series Active / Gran Tourer

blicky_1

Been looking at one of these for a potential replacement for my Wife's Civic that will be up for return in March, doubt they will be this cheap then though!

BMW 218i 5 Door Active Tourer 1.5 M Sport Leasing

gibbo52

Yes very comfortable, plenty of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel so driving position is fine.
The sport seats I didn't like and the m sport has nothing to make it "sporty" that mine doesn't have apart from stiffer suspension that just makes it a harder ride, mine has the same engine/auto box.

un1eash

M Sport these days is more styling, bigger wheels as standard, slightly lower and stiffer suspension.
One thing BMW do get right is the amount of adjustment in the seats, there's to much if anything as your always fine tuning the seat to get things just right.

gibbsy

I had one for an extended test drive this time last year. Wife wanted something high like our then current Q3 but apart from the superb automatic gearbox it really was a disappointing drive. The seats were not that comfortable, just didn't hold you well especially with the amount of body roll in a corner. Beautifully finished inside. I'd take an X1 over it.

cosmicma

my wife has had the 220d Xdrive gran tourer ( 7 seater ) since march and she likes it
nice car with decent amount of trim, drives quite well with enough grunt to pull it along nicely fully laden and will average over 50mpg on a run taking it easy
not quite as roomy as the Ford Smax my wife had before the 220d and with all the seats filled not much room for anything else but a roof box cures that for holiday runs
the middle and rearmost seats are only really any good for children which leaves enough room for 4 adults ( including driver )   3 children of course to sit quite comfortably  

a couple of niggles and they are minor niggles
dark tinted rear /rear passenger windows are not fitted standard which would have been nice
electric folding mirrors are extra as are front parking sensors ( rears are standard )
that front collision warning / auto braking system thingy is nigh on useless
the BMW connected app barely works

ok most of my niggles could be rectified if i wanted to spend more money but i would have thought they would have come as standard    

i test drove the petrol sport version ( 218 manual gearbox ) and to be honest it was a little disappointing it seemed gutless compared to the 2ltr diesel Xdrive which got me thinking once you fill the seats with people it's going to get worse
it was still a nice car to drive but the seemingly lack of grunt put me off

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g8tecrasher

Had one for the last week on loan. All singing and dancing, every box ticked, it’s decent. Did 370 miles on half a tank really really comfy, the Nav is great and I’m really impressed by the voice recognition it’s better than my iPhone, I’d buy one tomorrow

Only things I don’t like is the wing mirrors don’t fold automatically and the boot is absolutely tiny. The legroom when using all 7 seats is non existent

GadgetObsessed

I have a 2 Series GT 220i Luxury and am really happy with it.

My wife and I first test drove the 220d M Sport but really did not like the very hard suspension. (Quite a lot of reviewers complain about the hard Sport suspension - even setting it to "Comfort" makes no difference.) We also found the petrol 220i noticeably quieter than the 220d.

I went overboard with the options and ended up with pretty much every option going - which added a hefty chunk to the price - even after getting a £5k discount.

Things I like:
(1) Nice to drive for its class of car - it is light years ahead of the VW Touran for example. Steering is very good and it is a pretty quick car.
(2) Good amount of space around the seats and reasonable boot space - though slightly less boot space that the the Touran.
(3) Optional extras really make a difference - my favourites are the head up display, larger sat nav screen, adaptive LED lights, panoramic sun-roof, electric seats with memory and proximity keys that I don't have to get out of my pocket to open or lock the car.
(4) Least ugly of the 7 seat people carriers - though beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Things I don't like - fortunately not much really:
(1)  Sat Nav - the Real Time Traffic Information is not a patch on TomTom Live services - the RTTI seems to miss a lot of small jams making it pretty poor around town where there may be lots of short hold ups. Also the colour scheme is terrible and sometimes it can take a couple of minutes to start up.
(2) Fuel economy isn't great - I get around 35 mpg. (Glad I went for the 60 litre tank option.) The diesel is probably much more economical but it is noisier and I was concerned about future treatment of diesels. The low MPG doesn't really bother me as fuel is a minor cost of owning a car. My annual fuel cost is only around £300, so is less than 10% of the depreciation cost.
(3) Heater is slow to clear the windscreen.
(3) Would have preferred it if I could have got the sports seats that I tried in in the M Sport.

un1eash

Comfort setting will only effect the suspension if you have the £390 adaptive suspension option. You can also spec sports seats at £395.

mjn

Regarding the mpg; a colleague has the 218d (i think, but could be 216d) and he was reporting about the same mpg.

Personally i think that is terrible! My 335d has an average (over 75k miles) of 34mpg! And i drive through central London!

GadgetObsessed

Interesting - I had assumed that the 218d would get much better mileage being a diesel. I wasn't expecting to get very good mpg for the petrol version that I chose but it is a bit worse than I thought it would be.

Fortunately, as fuel costs are such a low part of the running costs of my car, it doesnt really matter to me.