The BMW 2 Series Active Tourer is a model that had a relatively short life span on the South African market. Introduced here to some fan-fair in early 2015, it was quietly dropped in the third quarter of 2017, presumably because it was a niche model that didn’t fit well into the South African BMW range. This was especially true as the X1 Sports Activity Vehicle was about to switch to front-wheel-drive at the time.
First front-wheel-drive BMW
Short-lived or not, the 2 Series Active Tourer will go down in history as the first BMW ever launched to feature front-wheel-drive. Prior to this BMW had often emphasised that its model range was focussed on rear-wheel-drive cars because its customers expected the added dynamic feel of a rear-wheel-drive car (with the possibility of hanging the tail out in corners and holding it there on power for a satisfying drift).
However, it should be noted that the 2 Series was not the first front-wheel-drive car to be built by BMW. Since BMW took over the Mini brand about two decades ago, it has been building front-wheel-drive cars in its UK plant. And indeed, the 2 Series Active Tourer is based on the MINI chassis platform (BMW insist on identifying its ownership of the Mini marque by spelling it with uppercase letters).
Three petrol engines and a diesel available at launch
The 2 Series Active Tourer was launched with a new family of BMW engines and the line-up included three petrol engines and one diesel engine. It is interesting that all four engines featured cylinders with a 500 cc displacement, pointing to the fact that BMW had rationalised its engine line-up to be able to use common tooling to produce engines of various cylinder numbers. Key to this policy, of course, was that in the modern era, turbocharging enabled varying amounts of power to be easily added to a single engine configuration. In previous times, major power increases were achieved by increasing cylinder capacity or the number of cylinders, or both!
The 218i used a 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine
Like the front-wheel-drive system, this 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine was a new configuration for the BMW brand at the time. It was fitted in 218i models in the Active Tourer range. With a displacement of 1.5-litres it produced 100 kW and a healthy 220 Nm of torque at 1 250 rpm. It was fitted with a balancer shaft to smooth out some of the vibration frequencies that are characteristic of a 3-cylinder engine.
The 220i was equipped with a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
The 220i models came with a mildly-tuned version of BMW’s new 4-cylinder unit, designed to use the new BMW Twin Power turbocharged system that saw the turbocharger integrated into the exhaust manifold. The 220i engine displaced 1998 cc and produced 141 kW and 280 Nm of torque. All the 4-cylinder engines in the new BMW engine range featured dual balance shafts for exceptionally smooth power delivery.
The 225i high-power 2.0-litre turbo
The engine that made waves when the 2 Series Active Touring was introduced was the 170 kW petrol-fueled version of the 2.0-litre Twin Power Turbo. This enabled a 0-100 km/h time of a claimed 6.6 seconds and a top speed of 240 km/h. Pulling power was excellent thanks to 450 Nm of torque and the fact that the 225i used an 8-speed Steptronic gearbox.
The 220d 2.0-litre turbo-diesel
This turbo-diesel offered very strong performance, its 140 kW output almost equalling the 141 kW output of the 2.0-litre petrol unit. As for torque, the 220d was endowed with 400 Nm, which gave it acceleration very close to the 225i. The 220d could be ordered with either a 6-speed manual transmission or an 8-speed automatic.
Which engine is best?
One thing you can be sure of when it comes to BMW is that its engines are always excellent. They produce great performance and normally impart a huge amount of charisma in the way they spin up through the rev range.
However, the exception to this rule may well be the 141 kW unit as fitted to the 220i. It seems to flatten out its power deliver well before the 6 000 red-line, and this is a factor we have noted regarding the same engine as used in the modern generation MINI Cooper S.
Talking of MINIs, the 3-cylinder engine as used in the Active Tourer 218i is still used in the MINI range. It has nice charisma thanks to its distinct 3-cylinder sound and it would probably be our first petrol choice here.
We would opt for the diesel
But all in all, we would probably opt for the 140 kW diesel engine fitted to the 220d. This is the surprise package in the 2 Series range, as it produces excellent performance and superb diesel economy. The rated consumption figure was 5.2 litres/100 km.
What’s more, this engine and transmission configuration is still used in the currently-available BMW X1. This means that spare parts won’t be an issue for a long time to come.
So, go for the diesel model if you can find one with an impeccable service history. And talking of that, AutoTrader currently lists 54 examples of New and Used BMW 2 Series Active Tourer models for sale. And yes, a number of these are the diesel examples! Given that the model had a short life span here, with rather atypical conservative BMW styling, the prices of these cars are very reasonable in respect of anything wearing a BMW badge.
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