2025 BMW X2: The roofline is hardly the only corner cut
I’ve had a previous X2 that I didn’t adore; and BMW has had other misses. But this is the first BMW that I actively hated, and I’m not the only one. A hostile takeover by Accounting?
2025 BMW X2 xDrive28i: Before test — OMG, a BMW!
Conventional wisdom: Motor1 says “The new BMW X2 looks weird and isn’t fun.” The website hates the “Love-it-or-leave-it looks, lazy transmission, dull steering,” but likes the “Minimalist cabin, powerful engine.” I’d never paid attention to Motor1; perhaps now I will.
Reality: After test — Oh. Em. Gee. O.M.G. A BMW?
Price: $52,195 as tested. $10,195 worth of options didn’t help.
Marketer’s pitch: “The disrupter.” It’s definitely disruptive.
What’s new: The little “coupe SUV” that’s actually a tall four-door hatchback experienced all kinds of exciting changes in 2024, growing 7.6 inches, getting a more muscular design, and a new look inside.
Mr. Driver’s Seat tested the lower-end X2; an M35 version offers more power. But I’m not sure it would address the downsides.
Competition: Lexus UX (coming next week), Audi Q3, BMW X1, Volvo XC40, Mini Countryman
Up to speed: BMW reports the X2 xDrive28i gets to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds.
It may very well do that, but the performance is hampered by the drive modes of the vehicle. Sport mode is usually my favorite, but in the X2 it became pinball mode: Pulling out from each stop left me feeling like I was the silver ball being smashed forward by the plunger. Then it would linger in gears until the engine practically begged for mercy, screaming like the bumps and bells of the game in play. I was worried it would tilt.
Personal mode was no saving grace, and I finally decided Comfort mode, of all places, would be the best place to run it. Granted, I had to stomp the pedal if I wanted real acceleration, but that seemed to be best.
Still, I had episodes on highways where I wanted to pass and the throttle just died out. Not sure which mode I was in, but when BMW sends a vehicle that makes you rethink passing, something’s not right, and I don’t really care if I’m in the “wrong” mode or not.
Shifty: So, back to all the whining — from the engine and the writer — you’d think shifting one’s own gears with the 7-speed StepTronic dual-clutch transmission would solve that problem. It did, for a while.
But the gears don’t operate as expected. I couldn’t downshift in a turn and have the gear change quickly; it would take its own sweet time. I found myself shouting, “Is this thing made by Nissan, or what?”
On the road: Handling was best in Sport mode, but, surprisingly, it was never really fun. Which would seem easy enough to build into a small, sporty SUV with its rear cargo space lopped off like a 1970 AMC Gremlin.
In other settings, handling felt jerky and jarring, very unBMWlike. I think they really just want us to pay more for a BMW; 50 grand oughta be more than enough.
Driver’s Seat: The seat itself provided decent comfort, although the bottom is a little short.
The steering wheel was nicely padded, but the rest of the controls — from the turn-signal stalk to the touchscreen to the gearshift paddles and gearshift switch — felt super cheap, like one good fist thump and they’d shatter. Not that I endorse thumping fists against vehicle controls, but it’s reassuring to know the option is available. (And I imagine this X2 would drive me closer to violence than most.)
Friends and stuff: The rear seat is fixed in place and the seat back has a choice of one setting. Everything is a little cramped and the seat back is rigid and fairly thin.
Sturgis Kid 4.0 reported that the wonky handling translated to the rear seat quite clearly as well.
Folding the seat down felt like something out of a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit, with just pull straps at each seat belt for the job. And you also have to pull the straps to lock the seat back in place, or it’ll stop at 90 degrees. So I guess it actually does have two settings.
Cargo space is 25.3 cubic feet with the rear seat in place and 51.7 with the seat folded.
Play some tunes: Sound from the system is about the brightest spot of the X2, and it’s only an A- or so.
The system was forever losing Bluetooth connection with my phone, and it was difficult to initially set up. And to operate. Read on …
Keeping warm and cool: Like the infotainment, the HVAC controls are all operated through the touchscreen (except for temperature), and its operation is difficult. A teeny tiny pair of arrows raises and lowers fan speed. More suitably-sized graphic elements let you choose the blower location.
And it doesn’t automatically send you back to the entertainment screen, so then you have to find the teeny tiny CarPlay icon and hit it, with your eyes off the road and simultaneously not trying to hit anything else with your finger (or with the car). And the switch often leads to CarPlay disconnections.
Even better, the hot summer test days showed me that this is nonfunctional in the heat, which is kinda when you most need the HVAC to work, no?
Where it’s built: Regensburg, Germany
How it’s built: Consumer Reports gives the X2 a reliability rating of 3 out of 5.
In the end: The list of better choices could fill a whole column.
Next week: Lexus UX 300. I was going to write this as a comparison column but there’s so much awfulness in the X2 that there would be zero suspense over which vehicle won, plus I had to have enough room to explain all the X2 awfulness.