The 2 Series Active Tourer is the first front-wheel-drive car BMW ever made, sparking a lot of controversy in the automotive world.
For the BMW fans, if someone told them that a front-wheel-drive MPV will actually be a car manufactured by BMW in 2014, they would’ve probably said it is a joke.
The concept of a family car is very well developed in Germany, and maybe it was the perfect timing for BMW to produce a car that excellently combines an MPV with their already known skittish vehicles.
Overall, it was not the usual MPV you would’ve expected. Yes, it had 7 seats, and yes, the driving position was high, but would you expect a 231 hp on 2.0-liter petrol engine?
We guess not. But at the same time, for someone who appreciates the way a BMW rolls and needs more room, the BMW 2 Series sounds like a perfect match.
With an unusual design for the Bavarian company and practicality dictating the way it eventually turned out, the Active Tourer also brought forward a new generation of modular engines with displacements as small as 1.5-liters. The interior was done focusing on versatility and includes sliding back seats that are also foldable 40:20:40, plenty of storage spaces and the first refreshed center console in quite a few years.
At launch, all engines were compliant with the latest CO2 emissions in Europe (the EU6 standard) and came connected to either new 6-speed automatic or manual gearboxes or a more common 8-speed ZF auto unit. The official world debut took place at the Geneva Motor Show in 2014.