BMW’s criteria for a successful outcome in this department will doubtless have been multi-faceted, but we’d lay good odds that renovating the 1 Series’ po-faced and ultimately uninvolving character was as high on the engineers’ priority list as it was on ours for the 2 Series.
Certainly that’s the impression one gets from even the briefest stint in the car. The hatchback’s precision and basic fluency have been preserved, largely courtesy of BMW’s springy steering and its insistence on a balanced weight distribution.
Everything beyond it now seems the result of a chassis tune considerably more in sync with the kind of interactivity expected of the brand. Emphatically, this is a rear-drive coupé – pleasingly adjustable on the throttle, patently agile (partly a virtue of the optional variable-ratio steering rack) and instilled not just with a capacity for brisk progress but an obvious relish for it.
Better still, the 2 Series is almost as adept at making the transition from trundling to pressing on (and back again) appear as seamless as it is in the 3 Series. Play with the standard performance control toggle if you must, but the differences here – even with the adaptive dampers – are subtle. In other words, the coupé’s composure largely seems default.
Perfect, of course, it isn’t. The 3 Series’ remarkable ability to soak long-wave undulations into its longer wheelbase isn’t ideally replicated. At times, the 2 Series’ body control wavers on tricky UK roads, faintly bobbing and weaving where others might already have settled.
