BMW 2-Series Active Tourer review: this clever family car proves the MPV is down, but not out
telegraph.co.ukBMW 2-Series Active Tourer, apparently. At least, that’s if the accepted wisdom is to be believed. Cars like this were once all the rage, but their anodyne image deterred buyers and drove them into ostensibly more desirable SUVs – so now that’s what everyone wants, despite MPVs tending to be more practical family cars.But, perhaps because of its premium badge and upmarket trappings, the Active Tourer has bucked that trend.
BMW says the first generation brought in the most new customers out of any of its models – 50 per cent of buyers had come from owning a different marque, and 80 per cent of those customers stayed with BMW, many swapping their Active Tourers for a newer version.
Now, the Active Tourer has been renewed from the ground up, and on a new platform – quite a statement of faith in the model from BMW at a time when most of the manufacturers that aren’t ditching MPVs altogether are stringing out mild rehashes of old models to serve the small number of buyers that still want them.
The question is: has it done enough to make you want one over and above an SUV?It’s called FAAR (standing for Frontantriebsarchitektur, or front-wheel-drive architecture), this new platform on which the 2-Series is based, and as is becoming par for the course these days it’s been designed to house not only internal combustion engines, but also hybrid and pure electric powertrains.That has a big benefit for the two new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions of the 2-Series which, somewhat remarkably, BMW reckons will comprise as much as 48 per cent of Active Tourer sales in this country.
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