City test: BMW Active Tourer 218i

Buying a car is like buying a new pair of shoes. In principle, you never know for sure whether the shoe will hurt you, or whether it will be a good fit for your foot. You can have a similar experience with cars. You only get to know you after a few kilometers, and then you can collect your thoughts and write down a concrete line. Z BMW Active Tourer we visited in autumn, it was especially magical Bavaria and drove over 2,000 kilometers with it. The path led us along the so-called "Romantic road”, known for its picturesque landscape and places that seem like from the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. The land where it is automotive industry at home, offers the best training ground for vehicle testing, as its extremely diverse roads enable experience in all driving modes. And the Active Tourer has proved itself on home soil with its positive qualities, as an excellent companion on such trips.

READ MORE: City Test: BMW Series 2 Active Tourer – An atypical Bavarian that absolutely impresses the active

3x something new

For BMW, the Active Tourer is something special mainly because of a bunch of new philosophical approaches of the brand. It's the first time family minivan, which at times even works as a small city SUV. In a way, BMW is trying to justify this a late entrant into the family MPV segment, and they also know that the market for city SUVs, or the SUV segment, is on the rise.

A vehicle that will get in the future hybrid drive and thus the drive to 4 wheels, we can also expect it in some crossover (CUV) version, which will be normal Active Tourer moved one step closer to another segment.

With a new one Active Toure for the first time, they present a vehicle with a white and blue badge, which basically comes to the market exclusively with front wheel drive. They say yes vowed bread eats the most, and yet they seem to be at BMW they successfully carried out this otherwise extremely demanding task by integrating the knowledge they acquired from their own brand MINI, throughout the entire decade of front-wheel drive vehicle development. In doing so, special attention was paid to the preservation of BMW typical driving dynamics.

Also new for the brand is the three-cylinder gasoline engine that breathed under the hood of the test version of the vehicle and is equipped with the 218i. An engine that has otherwise 1.5 liter working volume with the help of the latest "TwinPower Turbo" turbo blower technology, it squeezes round ones out of itself 100 kW, translated into horsepower, good ones 136 horses. Only these are Germanic strong as they are served with 220 Nm of torque in an extremely wide operating regime. Thus the three-cylinder "pulls” no problems from very low revs, no noticeable or felt turbo hole. All in all, it is extremely nicely noticeable in 4 gears as the engine accelerates impressively from 60 km/h up to 150 km/h, while at the top speed it remains cultivatedly quiet. It is precisely because of this feature that it happened to us several times that we inadvertently stayed in a lower gear than would be the most optimal one in principle. Although there are 6 gears available, we used the latter exclusively for the purpose of saving fuel. The specified engine seems to be one of the most optimal choices for Active Tourer, as it offers the driver of this type of vehicle practically everything that can be expected from this type of vehicle. The engine that we witnessed can also be found in the MINI and the most extravagant one BMW-ju – i8. With the latter, in cooperation with the hybrid drivetrain, the story is almost "super" sporty. The engine – impresses.

Driving dynamics, where BMW does not sin

Active Tourer despite the above-mentioned features, it still remains true BMW even with the sensations during the drive itself. The chassis is tuned more dynamic as with the competition and thus enables better driving feelings. Everything is especially noticeable with more dynamic driving, where the vehicle turns out with a little side tilt, and the vehicle skid is late and slightly understeer. Everything is within normal and expected limits. But not particularly to such an extent that it would Active Tourer bounced off the competition significantly. The cooperation of the chassis with the three-cylinder engine is good and ensures both a relaxed and relaxed ride, as well as moments foolish men's fortunes, when you can afford more driving dynamics. All in all, in the end, it serves relatively moderate fuel consumption. On the test circuit, we thus recorded consumption with almost 2,000 kilometers driven 7 liters per 100 kilometers. Which is good and probably the number that the average driver and vehicle buyer can expect.

In favor of the otherwise good average consumption, the basic data on the acceleration from 0 km/h to 100 km/h, for which the three-cylinder spends 9.3 seconds and data on the final speed, round 205 km/h. Enough for all family fathers, active and urban. The fact that it is the entry-level and thus the smallest engine in the range is really the one that really suits the Active Tourer. And we see no need to resort to more powerful aggregates. Despite BMW's sporty genetics, the Active Tourer is still a family-oriented car.

An excellent philosophy, but still a step away from real family life

The Active Tourer can be seen in certain details to be the brand's first product of its kind BMW. This is the case, for example excellent driving position, but still, certain trip computer data is more difficult to read, as the field of view covers the central part of the steering wheel. In order to look at him, you need to straighten up a lot in the driver's seat and stay in the most "correct" sitting position, which is not the most natural way to sit. Otherwise, a little thing that seems innocent, but we haven't noticed it with the brand until now.

Mistakes too rear bench functionality, which does not allow for certain settings and system solutions that are serially logical in the competition. The seats are not individual, but rather a bench seat. Hence the less flexibility of the space, which, for example, does not allow one seat to be removed from the vehicle and thus increase the space when you are going on vacation and urgently need extra space for a bag or two. BMW offers here additional payment for a more flexible system of rear seats and a movable rear bench, but it is necessary to dig further into the pocket and thereby further ease the family budget. It is also slightly worse vehicle transparency both forward and backward. Especially mistakes A pillar next to the windshield, which is really bulky, or rather bulky than comparable competition. Only this causes extremely reduced lateral visibility at intersections, where the driver has to change his position behind the wheel to make sure that the road is clear.

BMW is known for the fact that it already offers quite a lot in the basic configuration of the car, but also known for the fact that the lists of additional equipment are long, only this proverbially not the cheapest. The test version of the vehicle has a base price of BMW 218i Active Tourer, which amounts to 26,700 euros, added for 8,723 euros of additional equipment, which in total amounted to 35,423 euros. Some of this equipment, however, seems "too expensive" and maybe even unnecessary, but still logically chosen for the test vehicle. With some optimization and canceling, however, the price can easily drop to the round ones 30 thousand, which for many potential buyers can represent the threshold value where a purchase in this category is still considered and rationally logical. Namely entry into the segment of family minivans, also means entering the segment, because they are customers much more sensitive to what they get in the "package". And where, for example, navigation for an additional payment of 992 euros is not a price-variable option in the family budget, as it can be replaced free of charge by "mother's" smartphone with loaded Google Maps. In this segment, in principle, BMW had to bring it closer to the philosophy of families, or rather those more active buyers, who are definitely more price sensitive. Even with the prices of additional equipment, which would somehow be more attainable for this segment.

In any case, there is a lot of combinatorics, as well as possibilities for optimization and personalization Active Tourer. This is how the basic equipment can be praised"naked"Active Tourer, which includes sweets such as "runflat” tires, leather sports steering wheel, start & stop function and an important package for customers free servicing BMW Service Inclusive – 5 years or up to 100,000 kilometers driven. The latter means that with regular services up to 100,000 kilometers you will have no additional costs, and the package can also be upgraded with the option of services up to 200,000 kilometers.

It's an Active Tourer BMW-'s answer to trends in the automotive industry. Its approach to some other customer segment, which did not interfere with the Bavarian brand in the past. There are supposed to be quite a few of these customers 70 percent. In terms of length, it approaches the 1 series, in terms of interior space it competes with the 7 series. In a way, it is full of compromises, but only these are still logical and perfectly executed. It's not the prettiest in BMW-'s fleet is definitely an interesting product that can convince even with a badge on the nose. Only this will probably be one of the deciding factors for the purchase of a vehicle. It's really special BMW, but still quite true.