• Pros

• Reaallllly fun to drive.
• Great handling.
• Smooth, powerful engine, with great sound. Really too powerful to be practical for most urban or suburban drivers, but you’ll never, ever have any trouble merging onto a highway.
• Really impressive 8-speed automatic transmission option.
• Decent comfort for everyday driving. Not at all punishing, like some kidney-smacking BMW M cars of the past.
• Improved iDrive, with actual knobs for the ventilation system and audio volume.
• Fuel economy is rated at 21/32, with a combined mileage of 25. Although we got only 21.5 in mixed—though we admit, not entirely gentle—driving.

• Cons

• Two-door only with no hatchback option makes it pretty impractical for a lot of people.
• Relatively low to the ground, makes entry and exit a challenge for geezers, and impending geezers.
• Limited rear seat legroom and rear head room.
• Lousy visibility out back, with rear camera an extra cost option, on a $44,000 car. Actually, visibility all around is not the 2-series’ strong suit.
• ‘spensive... especially with the options you really want. Easily a $50K car, when you’re done. 228i version of the 2-Series, with plenty powerful 2.0 liter, 240 hp, 4-cylinder engine starts about 10K less, and is probably almost as much fun, although we haven’t driven it yet. And its fuel economy is 23/36, and 28 combined.

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