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to used cars selling close, if not over,
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Thanks and on with the show.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, and welcome to "Talking Cars."
I'm Jennifer Stockburger.
I'm Mike Monticello.
And I'm Ryan Psczczolkowski.
So this week's car of the week, if you will,
is the 2022 BMW 2 Series Coupe.
And before we get going on this car in particular, Ryan,
there's some too serious confusion,
if that's the right word.
Can you walk people through how this 2 Series differs
from maybe the Gran Coupe.
Yeah, so the 2 Series--
we have a 228i xDrive all-wheel drive.
This is not--
That we've already tested.
--that we've already tested.
So when people say just throw the--
say 2 Series, you think it's just a 2 Series.
And that's a coupe and this is--
or that was a four-door and now this is a coupe.
No, they're two totally different cars
and thank God because that 228, in my opinion, was eh.
It's an all-wheel drive, but it's a front-wheel
based all-wheel drive system.
It does not feel like a BMW in it's true handling glory
that it should be, right?
We'll get into that.
Based on-- this coming from a past BMW driver yourself.
Yes.
Yes, so BMW is something I've studied over the years.
And they drive me nuts because they change the numbers.
They're always changing the body-style numbers
and it's just--
back in the day, it was a 3 Series, a 5 Series,
and 7 Series.
And then it was a 325, it was a 2.5-liter motor--
that's what 2-5 meant.
And then I went to like a 328, and it
was like OK it was a 2.8 liter.
And then all of a sudden they're like, well, it's a 330
but it's actually a 2.8 liter engine.
And then you fast forward even more years, it's a 330
but it's a turbocharged four cylinder.
So it's chaos.
The numbers don't make sense like they used to.
And, like you were saying, Ryan, it's
based on a front-wheel drive platform.
The platform, it's also used for the BMW's X1 and X2 small SUVs,
which were based on the platform of the Mini Cooper Countryman.
Again, that's the Gran Coupe.
It's silly compared to this.
This is a true BMW.
The 2 Series is smaller than a 3 Series.
It's a coupe.
Rear-wheel drive based car and it is fantastic to drive.
I was very happy because I was a little letdown when I saw it
on the list we were getting a 2 Series coupe, I was like,
oh, well, it's going to be like maybe like the one, the 228.
No, this is-- everything about it feels better.
And it's-- don't be confused with the 228, please.
So we want to get Ryan fired up, talk to him
about BMWs it sounds like.
Huh, Jen?
Yeah, it's craziness.
Sorry about that.
Take that, BMW!
So Mike, do you agree?
Do you prefer?
Yeah.
I thought that the Gran Coupe actually did OK.
I thought-- I agree, it's definitely
doesn't feel like a real BMW.
But, yeah.
A traditional, maybe a traditional BMW.
Yeah, traditional BMW.
But did you tell me that this coupe, this 2 Series coupe,
is not available with a manual, a manual transmission at all?
Right.
How dare you.
There's a disconnect.
[BLOWS RASPBERRY]
I know.
That's a bummer.
So, yeah.
So the car we bought--
so we rented one and we bought one that we're testing.
And yeah, so what does it do on 255 horsepower
turbo four-cylinder.
Basically the same-- with an eight-speed automatic--
basically the same thing as our basic same powertrain
as our 3 Series, except that our 3 Series that we tested
was all-wheel drive.
So now we get the real thing right, Ryan?
This is the rear-drive version.
And the powertrain-- we already thought
it was great in the 3 Series and it's still great, obviously,
here.
It feels really well matched to the size and weight
of this coupe, which did get a little bigger and a little
heavier with this redesign.
But, yeah, I mean, it upshifts quickly and smoothly.
I thought actually the downshifts were really smooth.
Sometimes, like, I thought the downshifts were
so good that with this transmission, when you're
at like 50% throttle or a little harder, sometimes
you do feel those upshifts, which
I know Ryan has said in the past he doesn't mind.
If you're driving the car hard, he
doesn't mind a good stiff upshift.
But that's how good the downshifts are, right?
Is that you don't feel them, you barely feel them.
And then when you talk about, also, I
liked putting the car in sport mode
because it sounds a little--
it has a little sportier note to it.
I think BMW is kind of famous these days
for piping that in, which offends me on some levels.
You know, because I feel like it should always
be done through exhaust baffles or something like that,
or pressing an exhaust button.
But I like the way it sounded better anyway so I always
put it in that mode.
So on that note, too, the Sport--
it did have the drive modes.
I did change, I think, the exhaust note,
for lack of a better word.
And it changed steering feel.
And I think suspensions felt stiffer, to your point,
when you went through the comfort.
I think the other one was comfort.
It changes the steering.
It doesn't change the suspension.
It doesn't have adaptive induction
but it does change the way-- the kind
of like the firmness of the steering, right, Ryan?
Yeah, the steering does-- it gained a little heft.
It's add to that sportier feel.
By today's standards, everything is a little bit numb,
if you will.
It doesn't have that raw feeling like it used to,
but I'll get over it eventually.
I would argue that BMW--
and this transmission is probably
the best regular automatic transmission ever--
I think it's fantastic.
It's flawless.
It is literally flawless.
Yeah.
So quick, yeah.
I'm going to push back a little bit on the steering.
That was kind of my only letdown with the car.
You mentioned vague, Ryan.
I think you said vague.
I'm saying it now anyway.
It's a little vague.
That said, even though it doesn't tell you much,
what we want out of steering is you're going through the corner
and you want to feel some stuff through the steering wheel.
You're talking about road texture and tire grip-- that's
what you want to be feeling.
It doesn't tell you too much.
All that said, it turns in naturally,
has a pretty natural heft to it.
And then the suspension works great at getting the car
through the turns.
And because its rear-wheel drive,
if you maybe coming out of some tight corners,
you can get on the throttle pretty hard
and that's when we talk about steering it with the throttle.
Maybe get a little bit of oversteer
before stability control cuts in if you still have it on.
And that's the kind of rear-drive feel
that we're talking about in that we love, so that's really cool.
I will say that we talked about the rented car.
That one had an optional sports system.
And that one I thought wrote a lot firmer, considerably
firmer, than this car.
And this car still rides firm.
We talk about German-car tautness.
That's a thing, right?
For years, back in-- what-- '80s and '90s,
it feels like a German car.
Everything we wanted to feel like a German car
because they feel taut without being harsh.
The borrowed one was pretty darn stiff.
This one is still quite firm, but I thought liveable.
And also, this one had-- ours has
18's, the borrowed one had 19s.
I don't want-- I Ryan gets defensive about the tires.
Don't blame it on the tires!
But that does make a difference.
And so I do think ours worked better from that perspective.
Still gives you the good handling but with a little more
comfortable ride, I thought.
You guys agree?
And I think when it's stiffer, when it's just
suspended more stiffly, you do get more noise, too,
in the cabin.
It just conveys up through.
Which I do think this had over the Grand Coupe 228xi.
Don't get-- why would you try and get Ryan fired up again?
What's wrong with you?
I'm sorry.
But, and again, I agree with everything you guys are saying.
My issues with the car have nothing
to do with the powertrain handling ride.
They have to do with it being a coupe.
The very nature of what it is.
The very nature of it.
What are you in anti-coupe-ite?
Kind of, or I've become one.
I think I've become one.
That could be a thing, right?
Yeah.
Are you talking to the cat?
Anyway--
There's no nobody in there.
There's no one in there.
Seat-belt fit, access, rear-seat room, like, to me, it's--
Did you say seat-belt fit?
What do you what do you mean by that?
Because it has no adjustable anchor.
The seat belt literally runs across my shoulder.
Oh you're not adjusted on the B pillar.
No.
Because it's a coupe.
Because it's a coupe, so it anchors goofy for me.
Again, I'm probably sitting far closer than you guys are.
But all of that, personally, I would
take the four-door practicality, access,
et cetera of the Gran Coupe xi 228 that we already tested.
Or the 3 Series.
3 Series.
Or a 3 Series.
There you go.
Now, you're talking about the back seat, though, Jen.
How about how slowly the front seats move forwards.
I mean, it's cool that they do it automatically,
plus it's really hard to find this lever
on the back of the upper part of the seat back to pull on it.
First, like, you're trying to find the thing.
You pull on it and then you put the seat back forwards.
And then now it's so slowly, this
is about how fast it moves as I'm going across screen.
This is how fast the seat moves.
It's so slow.
To go upwards so that that you can get in the back.
You know what it's telling you?
Its ridiculous.
It's telling you you shouldn't be putting anybody back there.
That's for your duffel bag not for any people.
So, anyway.
It's tiny.
And, I will, again, I always say, lots of standard safety
features-- forward collision warning; automatic emergency
braking with pedestrian and cyclist blind spot,
which we don't always see as part of the package;
lane departure warning; et cetera, et cetera et cetera.
So yeah, so of course, we'll have full test results coming.
But it sounds like maybe a driver's car for sure.
Absolutely.
Albeit no manual.
No manual.
Just missing that one piece.
Yeah.
I know.
Just missing that one piece.
It's a bummer because the I remember
we tested a 1 Series on the 1 Series first came out
and it was a manual.
And then we got another--
we had another 2 Series coupe years after that.
And they were both manuals and they were so fun.
They reminded me of my old 3 Series I had growing up and--
mm, I just wish they would put a manual on some of these things.
He's just like, mm.
I just loved it.
Just loved it.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, man.
So stay tuned for full results.
It's OK.
I'll be OK.
Moving to your question of the week.
This is from Stephen from Auckland, New Zealand.
Good day, Stephen.
I think they say that in New Zealand.
That's Australia.
Australia--
No, but it's New Zealand, too, I think.
Australia's--
Good day
(AUSTRALIAN ACCENT) Good day, mate!
Put another prawn on the barbie.
Oh, gosh, Stephen.
They say prawn.
They don't say shrimp there in Australia.
They do put a prawn on the barbie?
Yeah, yeah.
So Stephen asks, when I was learning to drive,
we were taught to occasionally look around
while driving long distances.
The purpose was to avoid highway hypnosis,
he says, zoning out from the monotony of the drive
and losing situational awareness.
Do driver-monitoring functions like Ford's BlueCruise or GM's
Super Cruise allow for this?
Or has the thinking changed since I first learned?
So, I will start by saying my dad called it scanning.
You should be constantly scanning ahead,
your mirrors, et cetera.
And I don't think any of these-- what
we call direct driver monitoring systems, mainly cameras,
really looking at you-- would prevent you from doing it.
Because they require a little bit of time
before they start saying, hey, you're not paying attention.
I think what you're doing-- and I'm hope--
when you're doing that situational awareness
and scanning, it's so quick and constant that you're not
defying the rules of these direct driver monitoring
systems.
I don't know if you guys think that's probably true.
No, I--
I agree.
Go ahead, Ryan.
No, sorry, I agree with you.
I mean, I spent time in our Escalade with the Super Cruise.
And, I mean, you can look to the side,
you can check your mirrors, and you
could take a sip of your water bottle quickly,
and it won't disrupt it, which is good.
I think that's probably a good threshold of alertness
for the system to have.
But definitely, like to your point,
you should be still scanning and doing that stuff.
You don't want to just be sitting
there like in a trance looking down the road
because you're afraid of the system watching you.
The system is designed to kind of understand that you
are going to be looking around.
However, if you are turned like this for a couple of minutes,
it's going to-- well more, less than a couple minutes-- it'll
tell you that before then, but it's going to alert you then.
I actually find when those systems tell me--
even the Subaru one that's not an automated driving situation
or anything--
when those systems tell me I'm not paying attention,
I'm usually not paying attention.
Or have-- you know what I mean?
It seems appropriate.
But Mike, I don't if you find that.
Well, I was just going to say, first of all,
I think it's a great question because these are new.
These Super Cruise, BlueCruise, these things
that are watching you and making sure you're paying attention,
of course, we think these systems are the right way
to go.
These direct driver monitoring systems
are the way to go instead of just occasionally,
almost randomly, saying making you put a hand on the wheel
to give it some will talk to prove that you're still
paying attention.
These things force you.
But it is a great question-- like,
could they lull you into complacency?
You could almost see someone, like, their eyes are open
but maybe they're glazing over and just
thinking about whatever, right?
And so, yeah.
And I also think it's funny, Jen, that you
mentioned your dad, right?
And so first of all, we're going to get emotional
because your dad recently passed away
and I don't want to make you cry, but--
On camera.
--he was a great guy and we miss him.
But my dad said basically the same thing.
He taught me how to drive.
And one of the things he told us was I
want you checking your mirrors, either the rear-view
mirror the side mirrors, about every 10 seconds.
And that's something that I still do to this day
because you never what's coming up behind you.
You don't if it's someone gaining on you really quickly,
maybe driving erratically, maybe a big truck is coming up,
and you need to be aware of that.
Or, most important of all, an emergency vehicle of some kind
has maybe come.
So you should always--
I say to people, well, what else do you have to do?
You're driving.
You should be paying attention.
Yes.
Exactly.
Your number-one object when you're driving
is to be paying attention.
So yeah, check your mirrors every 10, 15 seconds.
It's great to look around at the scenery,
and these systems do allow enough time
for you to look around at the scenery, see what's going on,
check your mirrors on occasion, adjust the radio station,
adjust the climate control.
They do allow enough time for that.
So I don't think that's going to be an issue--
Right.
No.
--is my guess.
And still a good tool.
So here's a question for you.
You're on a long trip, you're still
scanning to your dad and my dad's point, what's
your best tool to avoid highway hypnosis, as David says?
What do you do?
What else do you do?
Open a window?
Drink a lot of coffee?
Who are you asking?
Yeah.
I'm asking Ryan first.
Oh, you're asking me?
Yeah.
So, if I've been going on a long, long trip,
I have a bad habit of purchasing one of the small 8-ounce Red
Bull cans and sipping on that.
It's got enough energy in it to probably--
That's OK.
--kill a horse, but--
[LAUGHS] but it works.
Just, yeah, and I can, just, kind of, music, I like to I
like to listen to music.
If there's a passenger, it's always nice to talk.
Stay alert.
And like you said, scanning the mirrors make sure
my Monticello is not coming up on me at 120 miles an hour.
Yeah, that's why you're looking, yeah.
Behind, you know, yeah.
Monty, what do you do?
Yeah.
Kind of the same thing.
I actually, same thing, 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull
if I'm feeling a little sleepy.
I do, I love to get a can of sugar-free Red Bull and bag
of peanut M&Ms.
And, I mean, don't take this the wrong way,
I think I've said this on the show before.
But that's actually something that I think BlueCruise
and Super Cruise do work well for is that because they can
handle the steering for you, and they're actually designed to be
hands-off, is that I can turn those systems on, or even
the other systems as well--
turn the steering assist on while I'm like opening my bag
of M&Ms. And then I put my hands back on.
Honestly, I do that sometimes.
It does very much help with that.
So I do the same thing where I'm checking the mirrors pretty
constantly, just kind of be aware of what's
going on around me.
I always move back over to the right lane
as soon as I pass a car.
No hanging out in the left lane because there's always
things to do.
Wait, you do what?
What do you do?
You heard me, buddy.
You heard me.
All right, that is my biggest pet peeve.
Oh, my goodness.
Of not moving back over?
When they sit in the left lane.
Sorry.
I'm fired up today.
And then the other thing, so, you know I graze.
I graze on snacks to kind of keep me alert.
And then honestly, music.
Not up to loud, but I love listening to music
while I'm driving.
And keeps you kind of--
I know Jen is probably dancing in the car.
I'm more singing in the car,
I do.
There's a lot of singing and dancing.
Much to my poor children and any occupant of my car, I sing loud
and I know all the words.
And, as my husband says, honey, you know all the lyrics
but you can't sing.
And I just keep going, so sorry for them.
No comment.
Sorry for them.
No comment.
So, Stephen, great question.
Great question.
Everybody keeps scanning.
That will do it for this episode.
Keep your questions, video clips, coming,
TalkingCars@icloud.com.
Love them and we thank you for watching.
Thank you for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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