BMW’s small sedan offers plenty of go, all-wheel drive and a new look – along with a new seven-speed twin-clutch – to keep the buyers rolling in.

Words: Peter Anderson
Images: Also Peter Anderson. Very sorry, they suck. Mike is gonna kill me.

BMW’s 2 Series Gran Coupe remains something a of a mystery to me. Not because I don’t know what it is, but because I don’t quite understand the appeal. It’s appealing to me for the simple fact that it’s not an SUV and therefore can’t possibly be all bad. But it doesn’t strike me as the solid seller – 100 per month in Australia, almost like clockwork – that it is.

I didn’t mind the old one, although I don’t think a M235 would have been anywhere close to the top of my shopping list. It was fine, I guess, but for some reason the closely related crossover, the X2 M35i was a better car all-round. Handing back the old 235 wasn’t a chore.

See? A bit confusing. But it’s 2025 and the F44’s big facelift was big enough that it wasn’t called LCI but got a whole new designation, F74.

How much is a BMW 235 Gran Coupe and what do I get?

BMW 218 Gran Coupe
BMW 220 Gran Coupe
BMW M235 Gran Coupe: $86,600 + ORC

Yep, you’re looking at ninety grand to get this bad boy on the road and that’s before metallic paint. It looks like a lot because it is but it’s obvious rival, the Audi S3 Sedan is even more.

The spec list is generous, which is as it should be for the price.

Highlights include the exterior body kit along with a blacked out roof, a very nice Harmon/Kardon stereo, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a really nice digital dash.

• Active seat for driver and front passenger incl. lumbar support and massage function
• Wireless smartphone charging tray
• Adaptive LED headlights with High-beam assistant
• Adaptive M suspension
• Dual-zone climate control
• Powered boot lid
• Head-Up Display
• Live Cockpit Professional with 10.25” digital dash
• 10.7-inch media screen with BMW Operating System 9
• 12 speaker Harman/Kardon-branded stereo
• DAB+ digital radio
• M Performance leather steering wheel with red 12 o’clock marker and heating
• Keyless entry and start

• BMW Connected Drive (standard)
  • Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
  • Intelligent Personal Assistant
  • BMW Teleservices
  • Remote Software update (via onboard SIM)
  • Automatic emergency call

Exterior

• 19-inch M alloys
• M rear spoiler
• M Sport brakes, dark blue metallic
• M Sport steering
• Panorama glass sunroof, electric

Safety and Driver Assistance

• Driving Assistant Professional
  • Steering and Lane Control Assistant
  • Active Cruise Control with Stop&Go
  • Lane Keeping Assistant with active side collision protection
  • Lane change warning
  • Front and rear cross traffic warning
  • Rear collision warning

• Parking Assistant Plus
  • Active PDC
  • BMW Drive Recorder
  • Surround view camera system incl. 3D view
  • Park Assist
  • Reversing Assistant
• Tyre pressure monitoring system
• Tyre repair kit

Look & Feel

I quite like the new look, it’s much more assertive than the old car which was a bit apologetic. It’s not what you’d call pretty but it’s more obviously BMW than the old car. It’s roughly the same shape and as I’ve already alluded to, carries much from the F44, with a new front and rear.

The new lights take a bit of getting used to and the grille is a bit overpowering in gloss black, but overall, I like it. I also like the swoop of the roofline, although it cuts headroom by quite a bit.

As M bodykits do, they lower the look of the car and the wheels are very current BMW, all sharp-edged and a mix of painted and polished parts. Cool but again, not pretty.

Inside is where it’s really at, however. Things have really picked up, with a new dash design including stitching and lighting effects, some really nice materials and a new screen. OS 9 powers the media systems and the haters will note the absence of a rotary iDrive controller. It’s all pretty clean and clear and I grew to like it a lot.

The back seat is a bit tight and if you want to max out the headroom, don’t get the sedan. The roofline left me, 178cm me, with just a whisker of headroom. The rear accommodation is tight as it is in the hatch, but you do of course get a lot more cargo space in the boot. If you pressed me, I’d take the hatch.

Chassis and Drivetrain

Bigger brakes, blue calipers, bigger wheels , all-wheel drive and so it goes, a classic go-faster setup from BMW. Obviously that’s not to dismiss the work because a lot of detail work goes into the steering, the suspension and the overall setup of the car.

The basic car, which I review for Drive.com.au (and was photographed by Redline co-pilot Matt Garrard), is really very good, so this one is going to want to be excellent.

BMW’s B48 soldiers on in 223kW and 400Nm form, which shifts the 1650kg M235 to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds. So it’s fast. The new seven-speed twin clutch is certainly a part of that, giving you access to the shove without the dithering nonsense of some twin clutches.

Driving

As I said before, the old car wasn’t…great. It was fine, but unless you wanted the extra power, there was little point heading up to the top of the range. I drove it a couple of times and never gave it a backward glance, it just wasn’t something that moved me.

To labour the point, I am a BMW guy, I’ve owned seven of them, most of them rear-wheel drive 1 Series. While I was disappointed when the car switched to front-wheel drive, the company’s own figures confirmed what I’d always thought – most 1er customers didn’t care. So potentially losing the smaller end of the market – that’s us – or winning them with the 2 Series Coupe, still CLAR-based, was a win-win for BMW, really.

This F74 is way better than the F44, which I guess is why this car isn’t the F44 LCI. It’s much more engaging, much more interesting. It’s faster, more fun and looks a hell of a lot better into the bargain. And it feels less all-wheel drive despite the setup still favouring a front-wheel drive vibe.

Straight away the engine feels more lively and that’s because the transmission is more capable. It shifts really fast and I had to double check it wasn’t a torque converter because it’s so well-behaved. It performed so much better than past BMW DCTs and the 8-speed it replaces.

Steering is light and very much tuned into the way it’s done now – light and direct. Some have complained of no feel but it’s not that bad, really, and I didn’t find it upsettingly numb. It’s certainly very accurate, but it would be clichéd for me to crave more feel. Ah, bugger it, why not, if we don’t ask, we don’t get.

The brakes, too, feel more convincing and were probably the highlight for me over the older car. You can really push deep into corners when you’re having fun, knowing they’ll be there for you. No, they’re not carbon ceramics, but they took a pretty good going over on one of my favourite roads.

It’s also an easy every day car. The turbo comes on pretty quickly in traffic and you’re not left with the dithering of past DCT+turbo cars in BMW’s past, at least on lighter throttle. The ride is BMW taut but compliant and these cheekily-styled adaptive dampers (which aren’t in a conventional sense) are very good.

Redline Recommendation

It’s actually fun, which is something the UKL2 platforms haven’t always managed. It seems lessons learnt from the 128ti, still one of my favourite front-wheel drive cars ever, have filtered down.

I swing between thinking I’d have the hatch and Gran Coupe in this spec (truth be told I’d have the 128ti), but restricting myself to the two, I don’t know. I like sedans a lot and this E90-sized Gran Coupe is compelling as an all-rounder. It’ll munch the miles as well as rip up corners.

The small performance car set is dwindling, we’ve lost a lot of fun cars in the last three years. So for BMW to get it right is very cheering indeed.