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Jalopnik spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the new BMW 228i Coupe and concludes that this is the best enthusiast BMW people can buy now. After two weeks of test drive, they say: “the 228i represents the best all-around BMW performance car for your dollarâ€. Here is an excerpt from their review:
There’s this idea out there that to get a good BMW, you have to have the hardest, nastiest, angriest, M-iest version possible, the one with all the turbos and all the cylinders and all the carbon fiber. The 228i proves that wrong.
To understand this car, you have to go back to the idea behind the original 2002 and other New Class sedans and coupes: they were made to drive like sports cars while offering levels of practicality that sports cars couldn’t. A sedan for sporting. A sport sedan, if you will! BMW certainly wasn’t the first to do that, but their idea was the one that prevailed. And the 228i fulfills that mission perhaps better than any other car in the current lineup.
It’s something you can live with and have a ton of fun with in equal measure. BMW still nails that, despite all the grief we give them over its other weird product decisions.
The 228i has this BRZ-esque agility to it that makes it feel sharper than the M235i. Like most new BMWs it has variable drive modes that tweak throttle response and steering feel, but I found it best in the default Comfort mode; in that setting the steering has a dancer-like grace to it that doesn’t need any artificial tightening. It feels plenty balanced on its own.
In fact, let’s talk about balance for a moment. That’s what’s so great about the 228i. You may think you’re losing out by opting for the 2.0-liter turbo four over the M235i’s 3.0-liter inline six, but you’re not.
