Hello, everyone and welcome! In this video we are checking out the
2017 BMW 230i now when I first got in to this vehicle. You know because it's the base 2 series
I wasn't expecting it to be all that quick, but when you put your foot down
this thing really moves, and it's pretty impressive
for it being you know the base model, and it can really put some power down
and I was surprised by that so I went back and I'm looking up you know, how much horsepower does this thing have?
Just 248 horsepower. I feel like everything has 250 horsepower these days.
you know not all that impressive of a figure if you compare it to you know the base Mustang 300 horsepower the Ecoboost mustang 310 horsepower
in fact comparing it to the Ecoboost Mustang is pretty surprising because that car has 60 more horsepower,
60 more pound feet, weighs just 190 pounds more than this vehicle, and yet
this has a faster 0-60. 0-60 in 5.2, 5.3 seconds
versus the mid-to you know maybe mid to high fives for the Mustang ecoboost
now if you were to take the BMW 240i the upgraded version of this with
335 Horsepower a hundred less than the Mustang GT
those have nearly identical 0 to 60 times in the low 4 second range and this has 100 you know one hundred less horsepower
so BMW is able to post some really impressive acceleration numbers without all that much horsepower
so, how are they able to do it? Well part of it is the low end torque this engine is producing
258 lb-ft of torque from just
1450 RPM and it produces that peak torque a nice just flat
line all the way to 4800 RPM
so you've got you know a tremendous amount of torque for about half the rev range of the engine and this thing does rev I
mean the torque does start to taper off after 5,000 RPM,
but this thing revs happily to 7,000 just a little bit beyond 7,000 and you've still got good power.
Now this power is coming from a 2.0L inline four-cylinder turbocharged engine
It does have double vanos and valvetronic
so when you're pressing your foot on the throttle pedal what you're doing actually is
changing how much the intake valves open rather than a throttle valve to manipulate
you know how much power you're going to make now the engine is matched with a six-speed manual transmission
and this is the first manual transmission
BMW I've ever driven, so I don't know how indicative it is of the rest of their line
but I have been enjoying it
I feel like it's what Subaru you know wants to make in their manual transmissions
and I mean that less of an insult to Subaru and more of a compliment to BMW
it has this notchiness, this clunkiness to it that you get in a Subaru transmission
but also feels very sure of itself it feels, you know
very precise
mechanically satisfying. It's got that clunkiness, but it also never feels sloppy, and so I do like the way that it feels
I think there are better shifter feels out there
but I do really like the way that this one feels as far as the clutch
you've got a good amount of travel in there a good amount of range which you can use to engage
it's a very easy car to drive and this also does have downshift rev-matching, so it will blip the throttle there for you
you can turn that off if you don't want to do it, you want to do that yourself
but you know I do like the manual shifting
it does have rev hang, and it has it pretty bad
so that's a bit of a disappointing thing that you know if you're going and you can see there, so if I'm in second gear
and I'm kind of decently on the throttle I let off completely shift to third
there's a quite a big lurch there if I shift quickly in order to do that smoothly
you're on second pressing the clutch you wait you wait you wait you release, and that was really smooth
but that also was a really long duration that I waited
so there's a bit of rep hang with this engine
and that is a little bit of a disappointment as far as the throttle
control you've actually got really good control with the throttle pedal here, and I think it's one of the highlights of this vehicle
which I've been surprised by because usually when turbocharged cars you get a bit of a weird feel
where you know you give it half throttle it waits,
it picks up a little bit of turbo boost and then you get additional power
and so it doesn't feel linear once you put your foot down
this does a good job of you know modulating the throttle modulating the power
so that you don't feel like you're waiting for that turbo lag
and you know it does have turbo lag don't get me wrong
but the way that the throttle works if you ask for you know 70% power
it really does give you 70% and put your foot down more and you get more power versus some other cars out there
you know you get full power even if you're at 60%
throttle as far as the braking a nice really good brake pedal feel to it not a ton of travel
but a nice progression as you press into that brake how much pressure you apply
directly correlates with how much braking force you get I really do like the way the brakes feel this does have the performance package
which seems like a no-brainer,
it's only 2,300 bucks and for that $2,300 you get an adaptive suspension
so you've got comfort and sport modes you get better brakes both calipers and rotors you
get bigger wheels you get Michelin pilot super sport tires, and you get a sport steering system
and so you know $2,300 the amount that you get for that for that track package seems like a no-brainer
if you're going to be spending the money on a BMW anyways
but again really good brake pedal feel now as far as the steering you know
it's got good grip and it stays flat in these corners
and it feels good going around it the steering itself doesn't seem to communicate
all that much you get a little bit of a feedback you can feel you know a bit of a vibration in there
but you don't get all that much and overall the steering feel is pretty light
it's pretty effortless does it require you to really you know manhandle, the car does what you ask it to do
I wouldn't say it's you know bad in any way. I just wouldn't say it's necessarily great in any way either
but man
this car is truly a joy in these twisting roads drop it down into second gear it revs,
for days and just asks you to drive it hard.
Really enjoyable!
Great braking!
The gearing does feel appropriate you know I'm always
asking for more aggressive gearing, and I feel like it could have a more aggressive third and fourth year
but you still get plenty of good torque
and you get great acceleration in third and fourth gear so it's not all that bad the engine does a really nice job
it puts the torque down, and I mean it's a good accelerating car. It's impressive
considering again, you're only looking at 250 horsepower or 260 pound feet of torque now as far as this interior
i've got plenty of space as the driver you know with my legs when they're not going to bump into anything good visibility
looking out the front, the sides,
looking out the back, looking out your blind spot, great visibility in this car all the way around which is quite nice
good seats here. You've got side bolstering which is actually adjustable
which I quite like even someone as skinny as myself I can get it nice and snug
so it feels good going around the corners one of the things that's interesting
about the interior seems like they've done this you know the strategy of just kind of removing buttons and
for example the mirrors the left and right mirrors there's no center
so you're always on the left side you know you adjust the left mirror
or you switch it to the right side you would adjust right mirror. There's nowhere in the middle
so it's always adjusting one of them for example the cruise control
there's no cancel button you just use the button that turns it on and off to switch a song
it's all in one button whether it's up or down and you go in and you select 'hey
I want the next song,' the door locks
there's only one button in the entire car to unlock the doors right there in the center that you push
so there's just kind of the strategy of removing buttons
for better or worse. I don't know. It's kind of cool, I guess that it's simplified
less intuitive in some ways more intuitive and others, so you know you'll get used to it
i'm sure eventually. I do like that they have these sport displays here, so you can look at your horsepower
you can look at your torque while you're driving pretty cool to see that so just overall impressions
I really do like this car. I mean I like the way it looks, I like the way it drives,
it's plenty capable, it's got plenty of torque. You know if I did have to pick some downsides
i'd say one of the things for sure is that it's just really quiet
i mean, I'm at 4500 RPM right now, and you can barely hear the engine, you floor it
7000 RPM and you just don't hear all that much and you feel it and it feels awesome
and I just wish there was a sound to a company that
G-force that you're feeling also the rev hang the rev hang is pretty bad in this
and that's just unfortunate. Perhaps there's some aftermarket maps out there that you can tune and get rid of that
i'm sure it's an emissions control thing but it's a bummer, you know that if you shift quickly you get that lurch like that
it's just I don't think that's really acceptable especially you know you're going to spend 40-$50 000 on this performance
BMW coupe a and then you know you have the shifting that's
lurchy like that, so you have to really wait for your shifts be patient with them
aside from that this thing is just truly a joy to drive. I've been impressed. I mean this is the base 230i
I can't imagine how much fun the 240i or you know the M2 are, they just have to be unbelievably fun considering
how fun this car is,
and this is the base 230. So thank you guys for watching if you have any questions, or comments feel free to leave them below!