BMW X2 review

• What is it?
• Gotcha. What’s it up against?
• This’ll be bought on style though, right?
• What about the interior?
• Copy that. What’s going on underneath?
• Our choice from the range
• What's the verdict?
• What is it like to drive?
• What are the engines like?
• And the M35i?
• What’s the ride like?
• What is it like on the inside?
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

It’s hard to imagine a car that needs less explaining than the BMW X2. It’s a lower, sleeker, sportier and slightly less roomy counterpart to the X1. You know, like the X4 is to the X3, or the X6 to the X5.

So it’s a crossover for people who are willing to compromise on back-seat and boot space (though not that much). In return they get sleeker looks and a slightly sportier drive.

Gotcha. What’s it up against?

Well since the X1 faces up to the likes of the Audi Q3, Mercedes GLA and indeed the Jaguar E-Pace, then BMW’s official hype talks of this being the vanguard in some sort of new category. But ask the man who led the project and he’s candid: its main rival is the Ranger Rover Evoque. A vehicle that the Germans were surprisingly slow in challenging.

The Evoque’s sales have put a vast amount of butter on Land Rover’s bread, and the X2’s haven’t been too shabby for BMW either. In 2021, it shifted 311,928 versions of the X1 and X2 across the globe, which puts the little X just behind the 5 Series and 6 Series (326k), big brothers X3 and X4 (414k), and the 3 Series and 4 Series (just under half a million).

This’ll be bought on style though, right?

Indeed. It doesn’t look like a shrunken X4 or X6, which to most eyes is a mercy. The tail is shorter and more vertical than theirs, to make it more parkable because it’s aimed at urban people. BMW has simplified the surfaces along the sides. If you like designer-speak, the BMW pencil-operatives call it ‘precision with poetry’. Whereas the more frantic creases of the X4 were ‘romantic’. Ah, remember ‘flame surfacing’?

It’s not just surfacing that’s new. The wheel arches have gone a little Countach on us. The absence of a window behind the rear door leaves space for a wide pillar punctuated by a BMW badge. They say this alludes to classic BMW coupes including the 3.0 CSL Batmobile. Could it also be because otherwise you might not, from the side, immediately recognise it as a BMW at all?

At the back, an outer plastic skin on the tailgate allows its surface to be flush with the bumper. Insurance companies don’t like vulnerable steel to come out flush. The tail-lamps have a new-to-BMW bordering crease – see the Ford Ecosport for details.

Up front, the kidney grilles have been effectively inverted, wider at the base than the top to make the thing apparently sniff the road. A 2020 update refined the sides and ditched the round fog lights that sat just underneath the LEDs.

What about the interior?

Inside, you can have plain cloth or leather, or go all rucksack with mesh fabrics, suede inserts and contrast stitching. We’ve saved the full breakdown for the Interior tab, so head this way if it’s those details you’re after.

Copy that. What’s going on underneath?

It sits on BMW’s transverse-engined platform. All very familiar stuff. Mostly four-cylinder engines (including one petrol three-cylinder hybrid, no sixes ever) and some AWD, but front-wheel drive for the base cars.

The same platform also resides under the Mini Countryman, but the engineer who led both the Countryman and X2 projects says they feel very different, thanks to different springs, dampers, roll-bars, bushes, steering racks, etc. He also points out that every visible interior part is different between BMW and Mini – except the boot-opening switch in the driver’s door.

From the start the X2 selection box has 20i petrol and 20d. They both make about 190bhp. The petrol is FWD, the diesel all-wheel drive and eight-speed auto as standard. An 18d can be had with AWD or FWD.

Further up there’s a 25e hybrid that pairs a 1.5-litre triple with an electric motor and AWD, or the range topping M35i that takes the familiar 2.0-litre and Very Turbocharges it up to 302bhp.

Our choice from the range

BMW

xDrive 25e M Sport 5dr Auto

Ј42,405

It’s getting on a bit now and due an update, and the lack of a fully electrified version makes the case for this even harder. That said, it’s still good to drive, and decently made and equipped. On top of that it manages to serve up a zingy new style that hardly compromises its space or usefulness. OK, so we’d still have a 320i Touring, but the rest of the world can’t get enough of BMW’s crossovers and this shows why.

Driving

What is it like to drive?

Let’s get the one honkingly obvious thing out of the way first. We’re in the X2 20d xDrive. If we were in a 320d xDrive Touring we’d be having more fun, and the sticker price for those is the same.

The X2’s ride is firmer than the estate’s. It feels a bit heavy in a succession of tight bends and gives you precious little of the steering feedback or sense of playfulness you’d find in that 3 Series Touring – or indeed an Evoque. That said, for a crossover, the X2 is really very agreeable.

What are the engines like?

For a start most of the small diesel crossovers have raucous engines, but this one shows how it ought to be done, beavering away in decent quietness both when mooching in town and when you give it an open-road overtake to do. Performance isn’t at all bad.

The 25e is a solid hybrid offering too, pairing BMW’s rorty little three-cylinder petrol turbo with an e-motor for a combined whack of 217bhp and 284lb ft of torque. It of course defaults to e-mode whenever you’re starting out, can recharge in around three or four hours, and hands over to the combustion engine rather smoothly.

And the M35i?

That punches a full 300bhp and feels fast and fighty, but won’t reward any feedback or playfulness.

As usual, BMW has got the eight-speed auto ‘box just right too. That’s what you get on the xDrive cars (though the hybrid’s gearlever is oddly old-fashioned). The FWD ones, called sDrive, get a new seven-speed DCT.

What’s the ride like?

The suspension is on the firmish side. Our test car ran the slightly lowered and stiffened M Sport suspension. Its motions are progressive rather than jarring. Many tall cars have over-stiff anti-roll bars, causing lateral rocking over one-sided bumps in a straight line. Not the X2, which stays pretty serene. We did however, find a fair bit of road and wind noise around the A-pillars.

It uses the spring travel well. That translates into able cornering. Body lean is well-controlled – despite what we just said about the anti-roll bars. Everything happens as you’d expect – the X2’s decently responsive, easy to be accurate with.

Driver-assist options include radar cruise and low-speed traffic jam assist – lane following and stop-go. As usual, keep a wary eye on what it’s up to.

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

Though the entry version comes with more conventional black cloth or a couple of shades of leather, the Sport, M Sport and especially M Sport X trims have more colourful clothes. It’s the latter that’s in the photos.

The dashboard is a model of clarity and lush materials: situation BMW normal. The standard infotainment has all you need, including detailed live traffic and connected services. It’s now touch-sensitive but the iDrive hardware controller remains the best in the business and that’s how we tend to make our inputs.

The top-ender has a bigger screen. Want Apple CarPlay? You used to have to pay extra for this, now it’s standard. Integration is brilliant; it even works over bluetooth if you’re wire-averse.

The driving position likewise is well-arranged and adjustable, if not very high off the ground. Is this really an SUV? The M Sport’s seats have vivid and firm side bolstering, which is great if you’re not too broad.

Rear room is surprisingly useful. Grown-ups can go there. In fact it’s kids who might object, as they try to peer out through the high and shallow windows. Still, it’s no prison cell – they get vents, a 12V outlet, decent speakers and an armrest.

The boot’s pretty good too (470 litres with the seats up, 1,355 litres with ’em down), with a deepish belly below the floor adding to its gulp. Instead of a roller blind there’s a hard tray. That’s less of a faff than a blind when it’s in place, but then when you fold the seats there’s nowhere to put it. Swings and roundabouts.

Basically then, there’s scarcely any practicality deficit to choosing this over the X1. Main issues are the visibility from the rear, and the smaller tailgate aperture which hinders loading bulky stuff.

Buying

What should I be paying?

Usual array of suspects on offer here, spanning a pair of petrols (18i, 20i), diesels (18d, 20d) the hybrid 25e and the range-topping M35i. In the UK, there are only two trim levels – Sport and M Sport – while the 35i occupies its own space entirely.

The petrols emit between 141 and 163g/km of CO2, the diesels 137 and 149g/km of CO2 (all depending on the gearbox). Unsurprisingly the hybrid’s the most frugal, claiming CO2 emissions of between 39 and 41g/km of CO2 and fuel economy of between 155mpg and 166.2mpg. Sure, why not.

Other running costs for the 20d – depreciation, servicing, as well as fuelling and company car tax – look bang-on competitive with the Evoque and Merc GLA. The  base Sport version of the newly revitalised X1 is – as of 2022 – a few grand more expensive than its equivalent X2, but you can expect more price parity once the X2 gets its inevitable refresh too. Currently, they kick off at £33,540.

The base X2 spec is strong on equipment but low on good cheer – the cabin is monochrome, the upholstery cloth, the wheels small. The M Sport’s only a little cheerier, though leather isn’t standard. Everything’s better in the 35i, with bigger wheels (20s) and better trim.

Keyword: BMW X2 review