The new 216i Gran Coupe features a 1.5-litre turbo engine and costs S$204k with COE

SINGAPORE

BMW Asia has just announced that a new 2 Series variant is going on sale here. The new 216i Gran Coupe, retailing for S$203,888 with COE, will be the cheapest of the 2 Series Gran Coupes available to buy in Singapore, which also include the 218i and M235i. 

Powered by a turbocharged three-cylinder, 1.5-litre petrol engine with drive sent to the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, it’s the least powerful but also the most efficient of the 2 Series Gran Coupes. 

If the engine’s power output of 109 horsepower sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the very same engine that can be found in the BMW 116i hatchback. Due to its increased length and weight however the 216i Gran Coupe is a tiny bit slower to accelerate, hitting 100km/h from a standstill in 10.8 seconds against the 116i’s 10.6 seconds.  

Top speed of the 216i Gran Coupe is 200km/h, and the good news is that the car’s overall efficiency nets it a VES rating of A2, which gives it a S$15,000 rebate already factored into the retail price. 

The BMW 216i Gran Coupe is offered in only one trim variant: Sport Line. The seats are covered with the brand’s own synthetic leather known as Sensatec, and it gets the very trendy interior ambient lighting that can be switched between six colours with adjustable brightness. Sporty 17-inch light-alloy wheels with a double-spoke design round off the visual style. 

It may have the smallest of the BMW engines, but the brand knows what most drivers in Singapore want and has given the 216i Gran Coupe the BMW Live Cockpit Professional system as standard. This means access to the infotainment offerings provided by the current BMW Operating System 7 via a display grouping with two large 10.25-inch screens. 

Some powerful features on the BMW Live Cockpit Professional system include adaptive navigation system, and a hard-drive-based multimedia system.  

Active safety features in the car consist of a lane change warning system, rear collision warning and crossing traffic warning. The Reversing Assistant, which first appeared in the 7 Series, has now trickled down to the 216i. It helps you reverse out of tight driveways by storing the steering movements for any section the car has just driven forward along at no more than 36 km/h. The system is then able to steer the vehicle in reverse for up to 50 metres along exactly the same line it took when moving forward. All the driver needs to do is to operate the pedals. 

The 216i Gran Coupe is now the second ‘16i’ car currently on sale from BMW, after the 116i hatchback. It’s larger but if you’ve ever stepped into any of the 2 Series Gran Coupes you’ll know that back seat headroom isn’t a strong point on it. It may look sleeker than the 116i which costs around S$10k less, but if a practical car is your kind of thing the 1 Series hatchback might still trump the 2 Series Gran Coupe for you.

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