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Walk into a BMW showroom with your heart set on a 2 Series, and you might end up driving home in something rather different from what you bargained for, because the badge actually covers two completely separate machines. The rear-driven two-door 2 Series Coupe is the bedrock of the hardcore M2, while the 2026 BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe is, despite its name, a subcompact saloon that sits below the 3 Series and shares its bones with the X1 and a handful of Mini siblings. Pitched as the most affordable car wearing the blue and white roundel, the 2026 model is the second crack at this front-driven formula, and it has spent its development time trying to feel less like a Mini in a smart suit and more like a proper junior BMW.
CarBuzz spent a full week behind the wheel of the M235 xDrive, the warm range-topper that gathers up everything BMW knows about turning a transverse-engined platform into something genuinely entertaining on a B-road. The bonnet hides the familiar B48 four-cylinder turbocharged petrol unit, but it now drives the wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox rather than the previous torque converter automatic, and the M235 squeezes out 312 horsepower thanks to an upgraded oil supply, beefier bearing caps, and a stronger crankshaft and injection setup. Launch traction is ferocious, with our test car ripping from rest to 60 mph in just 4.52 seconds, a number that quietly humbles the last six-cylinder Z4 manual we strapped a stopwatch to.
Outside, this generation cleans up well. The wheelbase carries over, but overall length grows by seven-tenths of an inch, and the roofline rises by a full inch, finally edging the silhouette closer to the four-door coupé shape BMW has been chasing since the original car launched in 2020. Slimmer headlights tighten the face, the kidney grille has mercifully not ballooned in size, and an M Sport exterior pack is now standard across the entire range. The colour palette is unusually playful too, taking in Thundernight purple, Vegas Red, Dakar Yellow II, British Racing Green, and the gorgeous Wildberry Metallic, all of which give the saloon a wardrobe with proper personality rather than the usual fleet-car greys.
Climb inside, and the picture clouds over considerably. Out goes the previous Sensatec synthetic upholstery, replaced by a more pleasant Veganza material, but the option of genuine leather has been quietly deleted from the build sheet entirely. Worse, almost every physical button on the dashboard has been swept onto the new 10.7-inch infotainment touchscreen, including the climate controls, while the air vents now use the same fiddly little joystick adjusters lifted from the 5 Series. BMW Operating System 9 also dragged its heels in our test car, often taking close to a minute to load the user profile and finally cough up Apple CarPlay, which means setting off without seat heating or your podcast queued up has become routine.
The handling overhaul has paid genuine dividends, with sharper steering responses and a revised strut front and three-link rear suspension setup that lets the chassis carve through bends in a way the old car simply could not. Fuel economy has climbed nicely across the range thanks to the new gearbox, with the M235 still managing a creditable 24/33/27 mpg in city, motorway, and combined driving, while the lesser 228 trims stretch even further between fill-ups. BMW has well and truly cured the boredom that hung over the original Gran Coupe, transforming it into a properly engaging little four-door that finally lives up to its sporting badge. The firmer ride and the touchscreen-heavy cabin do ask the driver to make some compromises in exchange for that newfound agility, but for keen drivers craving a compact saloon that genuinely wants to be hustled, the M235 xDrive has become a far more tempting prospect than the car it replaces.
