When we arrived at the agency BMW When we picked up our demo car, the showroom looked like a sardine can. Every available square foot of the fancy marble floor was occupied by a new model, and customers squeezed in between them carefully so as not to bend any mirrors. There was no room for some of the new models.
BMW has undoubtedly broken a local record this year in terms of the volume of new car series launches in Israel. In the past 12 months, the company has launched no less than five completely new series in Israel (and a host of new ones), each of which has several versions. This means that a customer who walks into a dealership and asks for "something sporty and high-status for up to NIS 400,000" has to choose between seven new and new series with two, four or five doors. At least half of them are new to the country. Confused? Us too.
Our test car belongs to the top end of the new 2 Series, which is essentially the coupe version of the 1 Series. But if the outgoing 2 Series looked like a hatchback with a hastily attached trunk, the new car has a distinct and spectacular personality. The combination of a compact length (4.45 m) with a low roof, huge tires and a host of cosmetic accessories from the M Sport performance class gives the car the look of a .357 Magnum pistol: compact but deadly.
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The design of the command post is a replica of the current line of the entire BMW family with solid, emotionless lines, a wide information screen, a joystick-like gear lever, and almost naive-looking clocks.
The living space is surprising thanks to the long wheelbase: the back seat is designed for only two passengers, but it provides reasonable leg and shoulder room and even the necessary minimum of headroom for sitting upright - a phenomenon not common in the segment. The trunk is spacious, but those who intend to fill it with objects will have to anchor them well, because the dynamic forces generated by this car can grind them to a pulp.
As the name M235 suggests, this is a version equipped with a 3-liter twin-turbo engine from BMW, with accompanying chassis programming and calibration performed in the sports division. That means 326 horsepower and 45 kg on a body shorter than that of a Mazda 3 and a relatively modest curb weight of 1.44 tons.
In other words, a demon train. With the transmission in sport mode, every stroke of the accelerator pedal releases force, stretching the neck and contracting the abdominal muscles. Acceleration from zero to 100 km/h takes 4.8 seconds - the league of Porsche, Maserati, and Co. - and it takes a conscious effort not to exceed 180 km/h on open stretches of road.
As expected, the chassis matches the performance well. The steering is heavy and sharp, the feedback from the wheels is perfect and the car devours turns and turns with the skill of a track car. Brave souls who dig through the menus and deactivate the traction control system will get a hair-raising drifting machine (for those who haven't encountered the concept yet, please search YouTube).
With a price tag of 350,000 shekels, the M235 will not be a sales hit. A large portion of customers will turn to larger, more extroverted cars, but customers who recognize that some of the best things in life come in small portions will be rewarded.
