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BMW Won’t Bring 2 Series MPVs to the US

There’s been a heated discussion among BMW enthusiasts for quite some time now regarding the company’s plans for its first front-wheel drive models. Most people hoped that they won’t make it stateside and it seems like they are going to be pretty pleased with how things are developing.
BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer 1 photo
Photo: BMW
On the floor of the Geneva Motor Show, the company officials admitted that they won’t be sending the 2 Series Active Tourer or the 2 Series Gran Tourer to the US for a couple of reasons, the most important one being their size.

According to Automotive News, BMW views its cars as being too small for the preferences of US customers in this segment and decided to keep them away for now.

The 2 Series Active Tourer is the smaller one of the two and offers space for 5 people inside. At 171 inches (4,341 mm) in length the 2er is smaller than the competition by quite some margin. Even its bigger brother, the 2 Series Gran Tourer has to suffer in this department.

At 179 inches (4,557 mm) in length it may offer seating for 7 but it still falls short by a long margin from its rivals, like the Honda Odyssey or the Town & Country that are both considerably bigger at around 200 inches (5 meters) in length.

That leaves BMW focusing on other markets and it’s going to be tricky to get the 2 Series MPVs off the ground. We tested the 2 Series Active Tourer and found it practical and even enjoyable to some extent but only if you can close your eyes and forget about the fact that this thing is wearing the blue and white roundel. That’s because if you don’t you can’t even imagine the Germans that are renowned for their rear-wheel drive and 6-cylinder inline smoothness could come up with something like this.

Basically, the only car these Bimmers are fighting with come from Mercedes-Benz and that’s the B-Class to be completely frank. Both of them have ground to make up for in comparison to MPVs that have been on the market for longer and both are too pricy for what they are offering but hey, you have to pay to get the luxury you want...

In the meantime, US BMW fans can breathe easy: no FWD car is coming for now. However, in the future, the upcoming X1 will definitely make it stateside but it will most likely be offered only in all-wheel drive guise.
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